Rest in peace, Ágnes Keleti!

Ágnes Klein was born in Budapest, and she died there on Thursday, five days short of her 104th birthday. To be born in 1921 meant living through the Second World War, to be born a Hungarian meant a life scarred first by Hitler's Germany and then by Stalin's Russia, and to be born a Jew meant ... the Holocaust. Hungary, comparatively speaking, was fairly protective of its Jews until near the end. Though a promising gymnast, Ágnes was forced off the country's Olympic team in 1941. She survived the next four years by acquiring the identity papers of a Christian and working as a maid in the countryside. Her mother and sister also lived through the war, but her father and other relatives were gassed at Auschwitz.

Postwar, she changed her family name to Keleti to sound more Hungarian and, though rather old for a gymnast, won gold medals at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 and again four years later at Melbourne, when she was 35. (She remains the oldest woman gymnast ever to win Olympic gold.) While their team was in Melbourne, Hungarians rebelled against the "People's republic" that Stalin had forced on them, until Russian tanks rolled into Budapest and crushed the uprising. Ágnes was granted political asylum and coached Australian gymnasts until emigrating to Israel, where again she coached and taught. Five years ago she returned to Hungary, to become the country's oldest Olympian medalist the following year, and in 2023 the oldest anywhere in the world. You had a rich, interesting, and lucky life, Ánes; may you rest in peace!