Today we have two milestone birthdays to celebrate so, as always, we are going to cover them both in a single blog post!

First, we are wishing a happy 94^th birthday to Maria Golimowska, the oldest living Olympic volleyball medalist and Polish Olympic 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 94^th 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.

Finally, as an update to a previous post, Connor Mah discovered that German swimmer Erna Herbers, born May 2, 1925, died February 7, 2025 at the age of 99. She did not, therefore, become a centenarian.

Late last year and early this year, Oldest Olympians spent three blog entries covering those Olympians for whom we last had evidence of being alive from 2014 and would remove from our tables if we could not find any additional evidence of their being alive. Although we received updates on many of those names, several others have just been removed: Paul Laporte, Wilson Gomes, Gerry Ronan, Mitsuyuki Funamizu, Diana Willson, Robert Rey, and Pongummart Ummarttayakul. Moving on in the hopes of catching up, our list of individuals from whom we last heard in 2015 is 10 names long, and thus we will be covering them over two blog entries.

First we have Australian sport shooter Norman Rule, born January 28, 1928. Rule represented his country in five rifle events across three editions of the Games, 1956-1964, with a best finish of 22^nd in the small-bore rifle, prone competitions in 1956 and 1964. We know that he had a lengthy career and later took up table tennis, which he was still playing through 2015. Since then, however, we have not had an update, although the Ryerson Index does not list any obituaries for him, and thus we suspect that he is still alive.

Then, for a second time on this blog, we have Aram Boghossian, born November 19, 1929. Boghossian represented Brazil in four swimming events across two editions of the Games, 1948 and 1952, but did not reach the podium in any of them. He did, however, win a silver medal as a member of the 4×200 metres freestyle relay at the 1951 Pan American Games. He continued to swim at the masters’ level and, by career, was an engineer. In our previous entry, we had last heard from him in 2012, but we were later provided a 2015 update. We have not, however, heard anything further.

Next we have Indian weightlifter Valli Asari Mookan, born in 1931. Mookan represented his country as a bantamweight at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he placed 12^th. This is all we know about him, but there was a government register that indicated that he was still alive in 2015.

Next there is Mexican archer Rafael Aveleyra, born July 29, 1932. Aveleyra represented his country in the individual event at the 1972 Munich Games, where he placed 51^st. Born and educated in the United States, he later worked in the medical field in Mexico, with his Facebook page being last updated in 2015.

Finally we have Romanian track athlete Florica Grecescu, born August 31, 1932. Grecesu represented her country in the 800 metres event at the 1960 Rome Games, where she was eliminated in round one. One year later she won a silver medal in that event at the Summer Universiade, while she was ninth at the 1962 European Championships. We know that she was still alive in 2015, but have no details beyond that.

With half of the list taken care of, we will stop here, but we look forward to completing this entry in the near future! We hope that you will join us!

Today on Oldest Olympians we have the same two milestone birthdays to celebrate as last year, so we will once again cover them both in a blog entry!

First we are wishing a happy 98^th birthday to Sheila Lerwill, the oldest living British Olympic medalist and Olympic medalist in track and field athletics! Lerwill represented her country in the high jump at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she won a silver medal. She was European champion in that event in 1950 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.

Second, we are wishing a happy 97^th birthday to Fritz Nachmann, the oldest living Olympic luger, survivor of the 1968 Grenoble Games, and German medalist! Nachmann represented West Germany in 1968 and won a bronze medal in the doubles while placing 17^th in the singles. Four years earlier he had represented a unified Germany at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, but did not finish in the singles. He won silver in the singles at the 1967 Europeans and five medals, including three golds, at the Worlds.

Finally, we have an update on an Olympian that we featured previously as an Olympic mystery: Chilean track athlete Rodolfo Wagner. Wagner represented his country in the 100 metres event at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, where he was eliminated in round one. We knew little more about him than that but, thanks to Connor Mah, we have learned that he was born July 3, 1904 in Coquimbo and died in March 1984 in Santiago.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we are finalizing our look into new Olympic missing links. These are individuals for whom we have suggestions for a date or year of death, but for whom we cannot confirm the information through reliable sources. Today, we are looking into Olympians who were born in 1936, and we have six names in this category.

The first is Bulgarian gymnast Todor Bachvarov, born January 8, 1936. Bachvarov represented his country in the tournaments at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics, placing 11^th and 10^th with the team respectively. Individually, his best finish was joint-42^nd in the parallel bars in 1960. This is all that we know about him, except that someone added a year of death of 2021 to his Wikipedia page, but without a source.

Next we have Mexican cyclist Luis Muciño, born April 24, 1936. Muciño represented his country in the sprint and tandem sprint events at the 1960 Rome Games, and was eliminated in the round one repêchage final and the round one repêchage respectively. His son César competed on the track at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and died in an accident in 2003, but as for Luis, someone added a date of death of October 2, 2015 to his Wikipedia page, but again without a source.

Next we have Malaysian sport shooter Edmund Yong, born July 3, 1936. Yong represented his country in the skeet shooting event at the 1976 Montreal Games, where he placed 64^th. He was better known for his achievements in golf, and he served as the Secretary-General of the Asia Pacific Golf Federation from 1977 to 1996. Someone added a date of death of July 9, 1997 to his Wikipedia page, yet again without a source.

Then we have Wong Chi-Keung Taiwanese footballer, born July 8, 1936. Wong represented his country, competing as “Formosa”, at the 1960 Rome Games, where it was eliminated in the preliminary round. He had much better luck at the 1958 Asian Games, as he took home a gold medal, and he was third and fourth at the 1960 and 1968 Asian Cups respectively. Domestically, he won four national titles with the Asian All Stars (1965-68). We found a memorial for an individual by this name and year of birth who died October 27, 2010 and was buried in Hong Kong, but we could not verify that it was the footballer.

Up next is Australia track and field athlete Valerie Lawrence, born August 5, 1936. Lawrence represented her country in the shot put and discus throw at the 1956 Melbourne Games, placing 13^th and 21^st respectively. She was the Australian national champion in the shot put from 1952 through 1954. She later took the married name “Melville”, and while we found an obituary notice in the Ryerson Index for a Valerie Melville who died December 31, 2008 at the correct age, we could not obtain a copy to check if it was the Olympian.

Finally, we have Japanese rower Yasukuni Watanabe, born October 22, 1936. Watanabe represented his country in the eights at the 1956 Melbourne Games and was eliminated in the semi-finals. We do know that he was alive recently, but we also uncovered an obituary of someone by this name who died January 7, 2024 at the correct age. Unfortunately, it did not contain information about an Olympic career. That is the conclusion of our recent Olympic mysteries series for now, but we hope that you will join us next time for a new topic!

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Egyptian rower Wagih El-Attar, born February 22, 1928, died July 29 at the age of 98. 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.

(Abdel Aziz El-Shafei)

At the time of his death, El-Attar was the oldest living Egyptian Olympian. That distinction now goes to Abdel Aziz El-Shafei, born December 8, 1931. El-Shafei represented his country in the water polo tournament at the 1952 and 1960 Summer Games, as well as the 100 metres freestyle swimming competition at the former edition. He won silver in that event at the 1955 Mediterranean Games, as well as silver in the water polo tournament and bronze in the 4×200 metres freestyle relay at the 1951 edition. After his retirement from active competition he remained active as a referee and administrator, and was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver in 1984.

Finally, we have an update to an older Olympic mystery from Egypt, that of boxer Ezz El-Din Nasir. Nasir represented his country in the lightweight event at the 1948 London Games, where he was eliminated in round one. Previously, we knew little else about him, but we were able to discover that he had a career in the Egyptian Air Force and was shot down and killed on April 5, 1963 while serving during the North Yemen Civil War.