Today on Oldest Olympians we have two milestone birthdays, so rather than choose between them, we have decided to cover both in a single blog post!

The first is Birte Christoffersen-Hanson, who is turning 100 today! Christoffersen-Hanson represented Denmark in diving as Brite Christoffersen until 1953, including at the 1948 London Olympics, where she won a bronze medal in the platform event. She also took two bronze medals at the 1950 European Championships. From 1954 until her retirement in the 1960s, she represented Sweden as Birte Hanson, appearing twice more at the Olympics (1956 and 1960) and capturing one bronze (1958) and two silver medals (1954) at the European Championships. By career, she worked as a physical education instructor and now resides in Limhamn, Malmö as the oldest living Danish Olympian, diving Olympian, and survivor of the 1960 Rome Games!

(Stoyanka Angelova, pictured at Canal Catorce)

Next is gymnast Stoyanka Angelova, who is turning 96 and is the oldest living Bulgarian Olympian! Angelova represented her country in the tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she had a best individual finish of 34th in the balance beam. After coaching the Bulgarian national team, she emigrated to Mexico in 1971, where she spent a half century involved with Mexican Olympian Committee.

(Zoltán Sándor, pictured in his obituary)

We were also intending to celebrate a third birthday, that of Hungarian sport shooter Zoltán Sándor, who we believed was turning 98. Sándor represented his country in the free rifle, three positions, 300 metres event at the 1964 Tokyo Games, where he placed 16th. He also attended the 1966 World Championships and, domestically, won five individual and 24 team national titles. By career he was an instructor in engineering, but also coached his sport. Earlier this year, we noted that Sándor was the oldest survivor of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but it seems that was never the case. We now believe the holder of that title is Colombian fencer Ernesto Sastre, born December 17, 1926, who competed in three events in 1964.