Hungarian, Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest Olympic champion, recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Fleeing the Nazis, surviving the Holocaust with a false ID, and later escaping Hungary at the start of the Soviet clampdown on the country, she finally competed in her first Olympic Games aged 31 before going on to win more gymnastics medals than anyone else in Melbourne four years later in 1956.
A new book about Keleti hails her as the Queen of Gymnastics – something she modestly describes as “an exaggeration”. Despite missing three Olympics in her prime, she won a total of 10 medals, five of them gold, and is still the oldest gymnastics gold medallist ever. As the International Olympic president, Thomas Bach, acknowledged when offering congratulations, her haul could have been far higher.
“These 100 years felt to me like 60,” Keleti said, as she celebrated with a cake with fireworks fizzing from it and a smile so wide it could have lit up Budapest. It served as an instant pick-me-up.
Mouncey threatens legal action
Transgender footballer Hannah Mouncey has threatened legal action against the AFL over its gender polices as she bids to play local football in Canberra. Mouncey became a trailblazer for transgender rights in sport in 2017 when she attempted to play in the top-tiered AFL Women’s (AFLW) but was only permitted to play in the VFL Women’s (VFLW).
Now only wanting to compete in Canberra’s top local division, Mouncey says she is only allowed to play second-tier football in the nation’s capital and she will seek legal advice over the AFL’s gender diversity policy, which was updated in October last year. Mouncey explained that she will play in the second-tier competition in Canberra if she has to, however she believes that this will be unfair to the footballers at that level, suggesting that it would be the same as placing an elite player in a lower division.
“If you were to take anyone from the AFLW or VFL and place them in a second-grade competition, they would prove to be well above the standard of competition,” she said. “In this case, it’s [Canberra’s second-tier] a competition with many first-time players who are still learning the game. This is not solely a trans issue, it’s simply about players being able to play in the most appropriate competition to their ability and experience.”
