Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to present a new batch of Olympic mysteries that have been solved thanks to the research efforts of Connor Mah. The first is an update to an Olympic mystery that we already provided an update for: 1948 Portuguese sport shooter Abílio Brandão. We noted previously that he was born on October 15, 1910, but it now seems that he was born one year earlier, on October 15, 1909, and that he died August 24, 1971. Another mystery Portuguese sport shooter from that year, José da Silva, was discovered to have been born November 19, 1914 and died January 19, 2001.

(António Serôdio, pictured at Amigos da Reprise da Escola de Mafra)

Continuing with Portugal, we have two more updates from among that country’s Olympic mysteries. First, Mah learned that 1948 equestrian António Serôdio was born December 25, 1903, and thus is certainly deceased. He also discovered that 1948 fencer Manuel Pinheiro Chagas was born on October 20, 1918 and died May 27, 2015 at the age of 96.

Mah was also able to solve one of our oldest Olympic mysteries, that of Walter Heinzl, who represented Czechoslovakia as a member of one of its four-man bobsleigh teams at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics and came in 12th. An anonymous user on Wikipedia suggested that he was shot down over Japan during World War II, but Mah discovered that this was not the case. Heinzl was actually Walter Heinzel, born June 5, 1907, and although he did fight during World War II, he survived the conflict and later moved to Canada, where he died January 11, 2002 at the age of 94.

Finally, we had seen hints that javelin thrower Dick Miller, born February 14, 1929, who represented Great Britain in that event at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, had died at some time in the early 2020s. We were able to confirm that this was true, as he died January 7, 2021 at the age of 91.

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.