Following the discovery of the death of Brian Pickworth, we now have only one case of an Olympian for whom we have not had an update from since 2009 – that of British biathlete and cross-country skier Norman Shutt. Although we have removed him from our list of living Olympians for the time being, we will continue to look into his case. In the meantime we wanted to move on to those for whom we have not had an update since 2010. There are six individuals in this category, so we will try to cover them all briefly.

Mahmoud Beiglou – Member of Iran’s alpine skiing delegation to the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics

It may surprise some people to learn that Iran was sending athletes to the Winter Olympics as early as 1956. Mahmoud Beiglou, born c. 1929, was one of three such individuals, and he competed in all three alpine skiing disciplines, with a best finish of 39^th in the downhill. As one might expect, these athletes are not well-known, even their own country, although we did find a (now-removed) report that Beiglou was still alive in 2010. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find any updates since.

Silvio Brivio – Member of Italy’s gymnastics delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Silvio Brivio, born November 6, 1929, represented Italy in the gymnastics tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he placed 10^th in the team all-around and had a best finish of joint-57^th in the pommelled horse. Aside from his Olympic results, we do not know much else about his career. Once again, we received confirmation in a now-deleted 2010 report that he was still alive, but since then we have been unable to locate any additional information.

(Díaz, pictured at BoxRec)

Aurelio Díaz – Member of Spain’s boxing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Aurelio Díaz, born May 22, 1923, represented Spain in the welterweight boxing tournament at the 1948 London Games, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals by upcoming gold medalist Július Torma of Czechoslovakia. We have written about his relatively successful amateur and professional careers in the past, as we believe him to be both the oldest living Olympian to have represented Spain and the oldest living Olympic boxer. The last update we have on him, however, is from 2010, when he was living in Argentina, so we are hoping to find more recent confirmation for him over the course of this year.

Mariya Dimova – Member of Bulgaria’s cross-country skiing delegation to the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics

Mariya Dimova, born August 12, 1929, represented Bulgaria in cross-country skiing’s 10 kilometers event at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games, where she placed 34^th. This made her Bulgaria’s first female Winter Olympian, and her sister Roza went on to compete at the next three editions. Mariya continued to be involved in the administration of cross-country skiing following her retirement from active competition but, as in most of these cases, our last confirmation of her being alive is from a now-vanished 2010 report.

(Silvia Glatthard pictured at Age Esteem)

Silvia Glatthard – Member of Switzerland’s alpine skiing delegation to the 1952 Oslo Olympics

Silvia Glatthard, born March 11, 1930, represented Switzerland in the downhill and giant slalom at the 1952 Oslo Games, placing joint-15^th and 29^th respectively. She was also a reserve for the 1948 St. Moritz Games and was selected for the 1950 World Championships, but broke her leg before she could compete. A 2010 interview, linked above, confirmed that she was still alive and active at the age of 80, skiing and being part of the local ski business community. Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate an update since then.

Shmuel Laviv-Lubin – Member of Israel’s sport shooting delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Finally, we have Shmuel Laviv-Lubin, born July 13, 1923, who represented Israel in the free rifle, three positions, 300 metres event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he placed 26^th. Like Díaz, we have covered Laviv-Lubin in the past because we believe him to be the oldest living person to have represented Israel at the Games. As with Díaz, we have not had an update since 2010, and thus we will be actively seeking one in the year to come.

Should no updated confirmation be forthcoming, we would have to remove these individuals from our main table, just as we have with Shutt, and thus we would be greatly appreciative of any additional information that could be provided to us. With so many unfortunate deaths among the Oldest Olympians, we have fallen a bit behind in our blogging, but we hope to catch up soon and that you will join us for those posts!