Oldest Olympians will once again be travelling with limited internet connectivity for the next week so, rather than miss an update, we have decided to post a blog entry today that will cover one Olympian for every day that we suspect we will be absent (February 19–27).

During this time, we will have four milestone birthdays, albeit spread over only two days. First, Egyptian rower Wagih El-Attar will turn 98 on February 22! El-Attar represented his country in the coxed fours rowing event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where Egypt was eliminated in the round one repêchage. He had better luck at the 1955 Mediterranean Games, where he captured bronze in the coxed pairs. He is now the oldest living Egyptian Olympian.

(Micheline Desmazières, pictured at La Voix du Nord)

We then have three milestone birthdays on February 23. First, French alpine skier Micheline Desmazières will be turning 100! Desmazières represented her country in the downhill at the 1948 St. Moritz Games, where she placed 29^th. She also competed in three events at the 1950 World Championships, while domestically she was a two-time national champion in the slalom (1947 and 1949).

Additionally, (West) German equestrian Harry Boldt will turn 96! Boldt competed in two editions of the Olympic dressage competition, representing unified Germany in 1964 in Tokyo and West Germany in 1976 in Montreal. Both times, he earned gold in the team competition and silver individually. At the World Championships, he earned silver individually in 1966 and gold with the team in 1966 and 1978, as well as team silver in 1970. He collected an additional 11 medals, five of them gold, at the European Championships between 1963 and 1979, and retired in 1980. He then served as a coach until 1996 and is now the oldest living German Olympic champion.

Our third birthday for the 23^rd comes courtesy of (East) German cyclist Gustav-Adolf Schur, who will be turning 95! Schur represented his country in four events across two editions of the Games, 1956 and 1960, winning bronze in the team road race at the former edition and silver in the 100 kilometers team time trial at the latter. He also captured numerous national titles and served as a politician from 1958 through 2002, taking a break only between 1990 and 1998 during the reunification of Germany.

Next, thanks to Wojciech Nowakowski, we received an update that Polish sport shooter Czesław Zając, born January 20, 1927, is still alive at the age of 99 as the oldest living Polish Olympian! Zając represented his country in the rapid-fire pistol, 25 metres event at the 1960 Rome Games, where he placed seventh. He won a bronze medal in that event at the 1963 European Championships and captured 13 national titles across two disciplines between 1955 and 1966.

For the remaining entries, we want to highlight three of the oldest Olympians that we have not yet featured. First is French canoer Fredy Grosheny, born July 27, 1935. Grosheny represented France in the first round of the Kayak Relay, 4×500 metres event at the 1960 Rome Games, before being replaced by Jean Friquet. The team went on to be eliminated in the repêchage. We do not know much else about him, but he was still living as of his 86^th birthday in 2021.

Next we have Danish sport shooter Niels Petersen, born September 8, 1932. Petersen represented his country in the small-bore rifle, three positions and prone, 50 metres events at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics, with a best finish of 13^th in the three positions in Tokyo. As with Grosheny, we could not find much additional information about him, but we do know that he was still alive in 2025 at the age of 93.

Finally, we are going to end with another Danish competitor, swimmer Gerda Olsen, born June 12, 1932. Olsen represented her country in the 100 metres backstroke at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she placed 14^th. She was also a reserve with the 4×100 metres freestyle relay, but did not take part in that event. She had better luck at the 1950 European Championships, where she took silver in the relay.

The tables will not be updated during our absence, but we look forward to returning on February 28 to continue cover the Oldest Olympians! We hope that you will join us!