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.