Sporting Witness

Agnes Keleti: The world's oldest living Olympian


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Hungarian Agnes Keleti is the world's oldest living Olympian at 103. Her gymnastics career was interrupted by the war when she was forced to flee Nazi persecution in Budapest because of her Jewish faith.

She was the most successful athlete at the 1956 Summer Olympics, winning four golds and two silvers.

Ashley Byrne speaks to Agnes’ nephew John Bence who watched his aunt as a teenager. This is a Made in Manchester production for the BBC World Service.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.

Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.

(Photo: Agnes Keleti, photograhed aged 95, makes a split in front of Hungarian gymnasts. Credit: Peter Kohalmi/AFP via Getty Images)

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Sporting WitnessBy BBC World Service

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