Today Oldest Olympians is blogging about a new Olympic centenarian! In recent days, Connor Mah has discovered that Belgian track athlete Jeanne Van Kesteren, born December 25, 1907, died October 23, 2011 at the age of 103 years, 302 days. Van Kesteren represented her country in the javelin throw at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where she placed 11^th.

Van Kesteren had more luck domestically, as she won 10 national titles in the javelin throw between 1930 and 1946, as well as two 800 metres track titles in 1929 and 1935. She was also a basketball player and pentathlete, winning a national title in the former sport in 1935. This discovery makes Van Kesteren the longest-lived Belgian Olympian by over three years.

Additionally, we wanted to make an update on a previous post. In September, we featured British gymnast Glyn Hopkins, born October 1, 1928, in the hopes of celebrating his birthday the following month. A reader, however, recently wrote in to inform us that Hopkins actually died back on November 23, 2023, at the age of 95.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to update a few Olympic mysteries that have been solved since we first posted them. The first is that of Uruguayan boxer Arquímedes Arrieta, for whom we found a record of an individual with that name who died in 1937. Connor Mah was able to uncover that Olympian was the person who died and that he was murdered on New Year’s Day, although further details were not available.

(Hong Jong-Oh, pictured in his obituary)

Second, Korean track athlete Hong Jong-Oh, born July 7, 1925, was on our list of Olympians for whom we last had evidence of being alive in 2012, and we ultimately removed him from our tables earlier this year because we could not find any subsequent updates. We have now learned that he died September 13, 2011 and thus was never among the Oldest Olympians, or even alive when we believed him to be.

(Beverly Faulds)

In happier news, we want to thank the son of field hockey player Beverly Faulds, born May 16, 1933, for contacting us to confirm that his father is still alive as what we believe to be the oldest living Olympian to have represented Zimbabwe. We also want to thank Ralf Regnitter for responding to our last post to let us know that Swiss rower Ernst Hürlimann is also still alive.

Finally, as an update to someone that was never an Olympic mystery, earlier this year we highlighted Chilean track athlete Eduardo Fontecilla, born November 9, 1929, as among the oldest Olympians. We have since learned, however, that he died June 7, 2019, and thus did not reach the age of 90.

Today we believe that the oldest living Romanian Olympian, Francisc Horvath, is celebrating his 96^th birthday. We featured Horvath in our Olympic medal mysteries series a while ago, as he won bronze in bantamweight, Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1956 Melbourne Games. In response, one reader provided a report that showed him alive in 2021, but others have pointed out sources claiming that he died in 1969 or 1980, and it remains unclear which is correct. Nonetheless, since there is a reasonable chance that he is still alive, we are wishing him a happy birthday!

Today is also the 90^th birthday of another Olympic medal mystery, Swiss rower Ernst Hürlimann. Hürlimann represented his country in the double sculls at the 1960 Rome Games, where he won a bronze medal alongside Rolf Larcher. This is all that we know about him, and we have not been able to ascertain if he is alive or deceased.

We also wanted to raise a final Olympic medal mystery today: Danish rower John Rungsted Sørensen, born October 5, 1934, represented Denmark in the C-2 1000 event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and won a bronze medal with Peer Norrbohm. The following year, the duo won another bronze medal in that event, this time at the 1965 European Championships. This is the extent of what we know about him, and we have been unable to confirm whether or not he reached his 90^th birthday.

For the first time in a little while, Oldest Olympians has two milestone birthdays to celebrate so, rather than choose between them, we are going to feature both in a single blog entry!

(Muhammad Ashraf, pictured at SBS Urdu)

First, we are wishing a happy 96th birthday to Muhammad Ashraf, the oldest living Olympic wrestler! Ashraf represented Pakistan at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he was eliminated in round four of the lightweight, freestyle event. He did win gold medals in this category at the 1958 and 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, in addition to bronze at the 1954 Asian Games. He coached the national team from 1960 through 1972 and then moved to Australia to run their wrestling squad. He now resides in Adelaide.

Secondly, British speed skater Henry Howes is turning 96 as the oldest living Olympic speed skater! Howes represented his country in four events at the 1948 St. Moritz Games, with a best finish of 18th in the 1500 metres. He won four national titles between 1946 and 1950 and now resides in Staines, Sussex.

Today Oldest Olympians is ending our look into mystery competitors from the 1948 London Olympics for whom we lack both a date of birth and confirmation as to whether they are alive or deceased. Given the time that has passed, nearly all of these Olympians would be at least 90 years old, but there is a possibility that some are still alive. Today we will conclude by mentioning the remaining Egyptian participants who meet this definition.

(Mohamed Soliman)

Our first Olympian is Mohamed Soliman, who represented Egypt in the basketball tournament at the London Games, where the nation placed 19^th in a field of 23 teams. He was a member of the Young Men’s Muslim Association of Cairo and we have a picture of him, posted above, but otherwise we have been unable to uncover more information due to his name being fairly common. We have encountered a similar problem with diver Mohamed Ibrahim, who placed 22^nd in the springboard event. In his case, we suspect that we may have gone by a different name domestically, but we have no proof.

The final two Olympians took part in the water polo tournament, where Egypt was eliminated in the semi-finals and placed seventh overall in the classification round. While we have had mixed results in locating information about the team in general, we have been unable to find anything at all about Mohamed Haraga and Mohamed Khadry.

(Abílio Brandão)

We have one more update on this subject: thanks to research from Connor Mah, we have learned that one of the Olympians that we covered in this series, Portuguese sport shooter Abílio Brandão, was born October 15, 1910 in Porto, giving us some additional information. With that, we are concluding our look into this topic, which means that next time we will have something new and different to present. We hope that you will join us!

Today Oldest Olympians is continuing to finalize our look into mystery competitors from the 1948 London Olympics for whom we lack both a date of birth and confirmation as to whether they are alive or deceased. Given the time that has passed, nearly all of these Olympians would be at least 90 years old, but there is a possibility that some are still alive. Today we wanted to continue looking at the many Egyptian participants who meet this definition and, having covered all the physical power sports, we now want to move to the opposite end of the scale: artistic gymnastics.

(Results of the 1948 Egyptian national gymnastics championship)

Information on Egyptian gymnasts is difficult to uncover because, in many cases, the names presented in the Olympic report differ from the ones that they used in their home country. One whose name seems certain is Ali El-Hefnawi, who was the national horse vault champion in 1948. At the London Games, this was his best event, as he placed joint-36^th. Unfortunately, we have been unable to uncover any other definitive information about him.

Cairo-born Moustafa Abdel-Aal, of the Al-Ahly Club, was the 1948 national champion in the individual all-around, parallel bars, and floor exercise, and was competing as a junior in 1939, which gives us a rough estimate of his age. His best event in London was the rings, where he was 56^th. He may have been related to the better-known Egyptian gymnast Mahmoud Abdel-Aal, but we do not know for certain.

For the other two gymnasts, we have no biographical details at all. Ahmed Khalaf Ali had a best finish of joint-79^th in the parallel bars, while Mohamed Aly had best finishes of 81^st in both the parallel bars and the horse vault. Particularly with the latter competitor, it has been difficult to locate any details about their careers or their lives, given their common names.

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Jamaican track athlete George Rhoden, born December 13, 1926, died August 24 at the age of 97. Rhoden first represented his country at the 1948 London Olympics, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 400 metres event and also competed in the men’s 4×400 metres relay. He was much more successful in these events at the 1952 edition of the Games, taking gold in both. Prior to this tournament, he had set a world record in the 400 metres in 1950 and had won NCAA championships as a student at Morgan State University in Baltimore. He later became a podiatrist.

(Sheila Lerwill, pictured at The Streatham Society)

At the time of his death, Rhoden was the oldest living Jamaican Olympic medalist and the oldest medalist in Olympic track and field. Unfortunately, we know of no other Jamaican Olympic medalists over the age of 90, but the new oldest living Olympic track and field medalist is Sheila Lerwill, born August 16, 1928. Lerwill won a silver medal for Great Britain in the high jump at the 1952 Helsinki Games. She captured that title at the 1950 European Championships and came in fourth at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. After coming in fifth at that year’s Europeans, she retired from active competition.

As an additional note, the oldest living Olympic champion in track and field athletics is now Greg Bell, born November 7, 1930. Bell represented the United States at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he won a gold medal in the long jump. He was a three-time national champion, a two time collegiate champion, and a 1959 Pan American Games silver medalist. He later became a dentist and served as a director of dentistry at an Indiana hospital.

Finally, a few months ago we featured Chilean Gerda Martín, born September 5, 1927, as our Olympian of the day. Unfortunately, we have now learned that she had died on April 5, before we posted, at the age of 96.

Today we have two milestone birthdays among the Oldest Olympians so, as is our new tradition, we are combining them into a single blog post rather than choosing between them!

(The 1964 Hong Kong Olympic field hockey team, pictured at The Olympians)

First, we are wishing a happy 93^rd birthday to Lionel Guterres, the oldest living Olympian to have represented Hong Kong! Guterres was a member of Hong Kong’s field hockey delegation to the 1964 Tokyo Games, where it finished last in its preliminary round pool and was eliminated. He later emigrated to the United States and now lives in Vallejo, California.

We next want to wish a happy 92^nd birthday to Otto Ammermann, the oldest living Olympian to have represented a West German team, rather than a unified one! He did so in the eventing tournament at the 1976 Montreal Games and, while he was disqualified individually, he won a silver medal with the team. He had also taken team silver at the World Championships the year before and was West German champion in 1969, 1978, and 1980.

Today we have two milestone birthdays among the Oldest Olympians so, as usual, we are combining them into a single blog post rather than choosing between them!

First, we are wishing a happy 92^nd birthday to Maria Golimowska, the oldest living Olympic volleyball medalist! Golimowska represented Poland in the tournament at the 1964 Tokyo Games, where she won a bronze medal. She also took bronze at the 1956 and 1962 World Championships and the 1958 European Championships, in addition to silver at the 1963 Europeans. Her international career lasted from 1955 through 1966, and she did not retire domestically until 1971.

We are also wishing a happy 92^nd birthday to Leo Franciosi, the oldest living Sammarinese Olympian! Franciosi represented San Marino in four editions of the Olympic trap shooting tournament – 1960, 1968, 1976, 1980 – with a best finish of joint-21st in 1976. He was also the flagbearer for San Marino in the 1968 Opening Ceremony.

Today Oldest Olympians is continuing to finalize our look into mystery competitors from the 1948 London Olympics for whom we lack both a date of birth and confirmation as to whether they are alive or deceased. Given the time that has passed, nearly all of these Olympians would be at least 90 years old, but there is a possibility that some are still alive. Today we wanted to continue looking at the many Egyptian participants who meet this definition and, having covered wrestlers last time, we are going to look at the other physical strength sports: weightlifting and boxing.

(Ibrahim El-Dessouki, pictured at Getty Images)

Since weightlifting was a popular sport in Egypt, in which they found much success at the time, we have only one mystery in this category: Ibrahim El-Dessouki. El-Dessouki represented his country as a featherweight in London and placed 12^th, in a category won by his compatriot Mahmoud Fayad. We have unable to uncover additional information about him outside of the Olympics, and thus we suspect that this might not have been his commonly used name in Arabic. He may have been Ibrahim Moussa of Alexandria or Ibrahim Abduh of Port Said, both of whom were active at this time, but we have not located any conclusive evidence.

(Ezz El-Din Nasir)

We know a little more about our two mystery boxing competitors. The first, Ezz El-Din Nasir, was eliminated in round one of the lightweight tournament. He had been national champion in that division earlier in the year, and was from Cairo. The second, sometimes referred to as Mohamed Hamouda, was actually Muhsin Hamouda, also of Cairo and also national champion in his category in 1948. He was defeated in round one of the featherweight competition, and we have not been able to learn more about either of these fighters after their Olympic appearances.