Ágnes Keleti facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ágnes Keleti
Keleti in 2021
Personal information
Alternative name(s)	Ágnes Klein
Nickname(s)	Aggi
Country represented	Hungary
Born	(1921-01-09)9 January 1921 Budapest, Hungary
Died	2 January 2025(2025-01-02) (aged 103) Budapest, Hungary
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international
Years on national team	1937–1940, 1946–1958 (HUN)
Club	Nemzeti TE Bp. Postás TF Haladás Újpesti TE
Retired	1958
Medal record Women's gymnastics Olympic Games Gold 1952 Helsinki Floor exercise Gold 1956 Melbourne Uneven bars Gold 1956 Melbourne Balance beam Gold 1956 Melbourne Floor exercise Gold 1956 Melbourne Team, portable Silver 1952 Helsinki Team Silver 1956 Melbourne All-around Silver 1956 Melbourne Team Bronze 1952 Helsinki Uneven bars Bronze 1952 Helsinki Team, portable World Championships Gold 1954 Rome Uneven bars Silver 1954 Rome Team Bronze 1954 Rome Balance beam
Spouse(s)	István Sárkány ​ ​ (m. 1944; div. 1950)​ Róbert Bíró ​ (m. 1959)​
Children	2

Ágnes Keleti (born Ágnes Klein; January 9, 1921 – January 2, 2025) was an amazing Hungarian and Israeli gymnast and coach. She won many medals at the Olympic Games. Ágnes was the oldest living Olympic champion and medal winner, celebrating her 100th birthday in 2021. She won 10 Olympic medals for Hungary, including five gold medals! This makes her one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes ever.

Ágnes holds more Olympic medals than any other person with Israeli citizenship. She also has more Olympic medals than any other Jewish athlete, except for Mark Spitz. She was the most successful athlete at the 1956 Summer Olympics. After her gymnastics career, she moved to Israel in 1957 and became a coach. She later returned to Hungary in 2015. In 2017, she received the Israel Prize for her achievements in sports.

Early Life and Training

Ágnes Klein was born in Budapest, Hungary. She started training in gymnastics when she was only 4 years old. By the time she was 16, she was already the Hungarian National Champion in gymnastics. She won this championship title ten times between 1937 and 1956. She later changed her last name to Keleti to sound more Hungarian.

Challenges During World War II

Ágnes was expected to be a top gymnast for Hungary at the 1940 Olympics. However, World War II caused both the 1940 and 1944 Games to be cancelled. She faced challenges because of her Jewish background, including being stopped from training in 1941.

To survive the war, she used a different identity and worked as a maid in a small village. Her mother and sister also went into hiding and were saved by special protection papers. Sadly, her father and other family members died during the war.

Gymnastics Career

After the war, Ágnes started training again. She also played the cello professionally. In 1946, she won her first Hungarian championship. The next year, she won the Central European gymnastics title.

She qualified for the 1948 Summer Olympics, but she couldn't compete because she hurt her ankle. In 1949, she won four gold medals at the World University Games.

Olympic Success

Ágnes competed in the Olympics for the first time at age 31, at the 1952 Games in Helsinki. She won four medals there:

• Gold in the floor exercise
• Silver in the team competition
• Bronze in the team portable apparatus event
• Bronze in the uneven bars

In 1954, she became a world champion at the 1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships by winning on the uneven bars.

At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Ágnes was 35 years old. She won six more medals, including three individual gold medals:

• Gold in floor exercise
• Gold in uneven bars
• Gold in balance beam

She also won silver in the all-around competition. The Hungarian team won gold in the portable apparatus event and silver in the team competition. At 35, Ágnes became the oldest female gymnast ever to win an Olympic gold medal. She was the most successful athlete at these Games.

Life After Competition

During the 1956 Olympics, there were big changes happening in Hungary. Ágnes and many other athletes decided to stay in Australia and start a new life there. She began coaching Australian gymnasts.

In 1957, Ágnes moved to Israel. She was able to bring her mother and sister to join her there. In 1959, she married Robert Biro and they had two sons. After retiring from competing, Ágnes taught physical education at Tel Aviv University. She also worked for 34 years at the Wingate Institute for Sports in Netanya.

Ágnes Keleti training a student at the Wingate Institute in Israel on 12 May 1960

Ágnes continued to coach Israel's national gymnastics team into the 1990s. In 2015, she moved back to her home city of Budapest.

She became the oldest Hungarian Olympic champion in 2016. In 2019, she became the oldest living Olympic champion in the world. Ágnes celebrated her 100th birthday in January 2021. She passed away in Budapest on January 2, 2025, at the age of 103.

Awards and Honours

Ágnes Keleti received many awards for her amazing career:

• She was added to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.
• She joined the Hungarian Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
• She was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
• In 2002, she was added to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
• In 2004, she was named one of Hungary's 12 "Athletes of the Nation."
• An asteroid, 265594 Keletiágnes, was named in her honor in 2014.
• In 2017, she received the Israel Prize in sports, which is one of Israel's highest honors.

See also

In Spanish: Ágnes Keleti para niños

• List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors
• List of Jews in sports
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
• List of Olympic female artistic gymnasts for Hungary
• List of Olympic medal leaders in women's gymnastics
• List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists