Today on Oldest Olympians we are concluding our look at Irish Olympians who were born before 1931 for whom we lack either a date of death or confirmation that they are still alive. We have just three more competitors to cover, all of whom took part in the Games after World War II. Although this means that they could, in theory, still be alive, we believe that it is most likely that are all deceased.

Peter Foran – Member of the Irish boxing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Peter Foran, born in 1927, was a member of an Irish boxing family and won his first junior title as a welterweight in 1946. In 1948 he captured the senior title and was therefore selected to represent his country in the Olympic tournament, ultimately losing to upcoming bronze medalist Hank Herring of the United States in the second round. He later worked in the radio and television industry and while we know of an Irish obituary for a Peter Foran who died on July 28, 2007, we have yet to connect it conclusively to the Olympian.

Tom Smith – Member of the Irish fencing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Tom Smith was active in fencing from 1943 through 1956, but the highlight of his career came when he was selected to represented Ireland in the foil competitions at the 1948 London Games. There, he was eliminated in the first rounds of both the individual and team tournaments. As one might imagine, his fairly common name has been an obstacle to finding anything more about him and while it seems likely that he is deceased given his active years, it is possible that he is still alive.

Harry Byrne – Member of Ireland’s sailing delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympics

Harry Bryne, born July 2, 1929, represented Ireland in Dragon class sailing at the 1972 Munich Games, where the nation placed 16^th among 23 teams overall. We do not know much else about him, although we are led to believe that he is the individual listed in this obituary, who died July 4, 2019. Unfortunately, we have been unable to confirm this fact.

That concludes our posts on Irish Olympic mysteries! We did want to update one of the Canadian cases: Connor Mah was able to confirm that Canadian sport shooter Donald Sanderlin was indeed born in 1933, but sadly died in 2013. We also have a correction from Diego Rossetti, who informed us that Italian gymnast Silvio Brivio died in 2010, not 2011. As always, we greatly appreciate such contributions. Looking forwards, we will be bringing you a new topic in the coming days and we hope that you will join us!

In the past on Oldest Olympians we have looked at Australian and Canadian Olympians who were born before 1931 for whom we lack either a date of death or confirmation that they are still alive. Today we wanted to begin a two-part series looking at similar cases who represented an independent Republic of Ireland. Thanks to some excellent research by Connor Mah and Rob Gilmore, we have only a handful to cover, so today we are going to look into those Olympians who competed in the 1920s, all of whom are definitely deceased.

Mick Farrell – Member of Ireland’s football squad at the 1924 Paris Olympics

Mick Farrell, born in 1902, was a member of the St. James’ Gate Football Club when he represented Ireland in the tournament at the 1924 Paris Games, where the nation was eliminated by the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. He was with St. James’ Gate from at least 1923 through 1928, but outside of that we have been unable to trace him with any certainty. He is possibly the Michael John Farrell born February 7, 1900 who died July 14, 1968: this individual worked the Guinness Brewery in Dublin and had two brothers who were affiliated with the club, but as of yet we have no definitive tie to him being the Olympian.

(John Connor, pictured in the Northern Whig, June 18, 1951)

John Connor – Member of Ireland’s athletics delegation to the 1924 Paris Olympics

John Connor, born in 1893, won Irish national championships in the high (1924) and long jump (1925), but was best known for the triple jump, winning titles in 1921, 1924, and 1925. At the 1924 Paris Games, he placed 10^th in the latter event. By career he served with the Royal Ulster Constabulary and was still alive in 1951, when he resigned from that job and was still sprinting. After that, however, we have been unable to locate further details.

(Mossy Doyle, picture in The Boston Globe, November 26, 1927, page 7)

Maurice “Mossy” Doyle – Member of Ireland’s boxing delegation to the 1924 Paris Olympics

Mossy Doyle, born May 16, 1903, was eliminated in round one of the featherweight boxing tournament at the 1924 Paris Games by upcoming gold medalist Jackie Fields of the United States. In Ireland, he won the national title in 1923, 1925, and 1926. He then had a respectable professional career in the United States from 1927 through 1931, but in the 1950s he moved back across the pond to London. His activities near the end of his life are currently a mystery, even to some of those closest to him, and in 1992 it was said that his family believed that he died in a fire a few years earlier. We have not, however, been able to uncover any confirmation of this story.

(George Kelly, pictured in the Sunday Independent, November 8, 1936)

George Kelly – Member of Ireland’s boxing delegation to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics

George Kelly won an Irish national championship in featherweight boxing in 1927, which led to his selection to represent the country at the 1928 Amsterdam Games, where he was eliminated in round one. He then had a lengthy career as a professional, which lasted until 1938 and included national lightweight titles in 1934 and 1935. Following his retirement, he appears to no longer be mentioned in newspapers, which suggests that he may have emigrated somewhere. A lack of clues about his personal details, such as his age, occupation, address, and relatives, combined with his common name, have made it difficult to learn his ultimate fate.

That is enough for today, but we have three more Olympians to cover, all of whom competed after World War II. We hope you will join us when we post about them!

In today’s blog, we wanted to provide a handful of updates about Olympians that we have covered in the past. Most importantly, however, we wanted to wish a happy belated birthday to Belgian figure skating champion Micheline Lannoy, who turned 96 yesterday! Derrick Bouchard, a volunteer researcher with the Kingston Branch of the Genealogical Society, assisted us in locating the son of Micheline Lannoy Macaulay, who was able to confirm that she was indeed still alive. This means that there are no remaining gold medal mysteries, so we greatly appreciate Derrick for the work he did in contacting the family!

(Micheline Lannoy)

On to the proper birthday post: Lannoy and her partner Pierre Baugniet were Belgian national champions in the pairs event from 1944 through 1947. In 1947 they took both the European and World Championships, and then followed that up with victories at the Worlds and the Olympics in 1948. Despite these impressive successes, the duo ended their careers after the Games and managed to maintain a low-profile thereafter. Lannoy later moved to Ontario, Canada and took the married name MacAulay. Now that we have confirmed that she is still alive, we can note that she is the sixth-oldest living Olympic champion and the third-oldest living Winter Olympic champion.

Additionally, we also wanted to share a bevy of updates from Connor Mah, who has done some excellent research in solving our Olympic mysteries: for starers, he was able to confirm that the obituary of the John F. K. Hinde who died May 31, 2017 was indeed the Olympian John Hinde, born October 3, 1928, who represented Great Britain in rowing at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Games. Similarly, he proved that the Frank William Daniels born August 21, 1928 who died April 9, 1990 was the American boxer who was an alternate in the middleweight division at the 1948 London Olympics. From our Australian Olympic mysteries, he also demonstrated that welterweight boxer Rusty Cook, born April 20, 1913, who fought as a welterweight at the 1936 Berlin Games, did in fact die on October 10, 1991.

Mah’s research, however, was not confined to confirming previously uncertain information. From the Australian Olympic mysteries, he located the death dates of two freestyle wrestlers: 1948 flyweight Bert Harris, born in 1916, died March 6, 1982, while 1952 welterweight Bev Scott, born September 30, 1914, died October 27, 1998. He also discovered that one of Scott’s opponents, Canadian Niaz “Nick” Mohammed, who was born January 29, 1926, died March 16, 2011. Finally, Mah located dates of death for two other Canadian Olympic mysteries: 1948 athletics bronze medalist Dianne Foster, born March 3, 1928, died January 4, 1999 and 1948 track cyclist Bill Hamilton, born in 1930, died November 23, 2017.

This is to say nothing of the individuals that Mah was able to confirm living, who we will feature in future Oldest Olympians posts. We want to express our extreme gratitude for his aid in solving so many of these Olympic mysteries!

In order to keep up the momentum of blog posts, today we are going to take a look at Olympic missing links that were born in 1931. These are individuals for whom we believe that we have a date of death, but cannot confirm that the information is accurate. After scanning every Olympian born in 1931, we have come up with four such cases.

(Pietro Marascalchi pictured at Euro Bis)

Pietro Marascalchi – Member of Italy’s wrestling delegation to the 1960 Rome Olympics

Pietro Marascalchi, born August 1, 1931, represented Italy in the heavyweight, freestyle wrestling tournament at the 1960 Rome Games, where he just missed the podium in fourth. He had placed fifth at the 1959 World Championships and later appeared in several films as an actor. The Italian Wikipedia lists him as having died April 17, 2019 in Cittadella, but we have been unable to confirm this.

(Death notice for a Marcel Moget)

Marcel Moget – Member of the Swiss basketball team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Marcel Moget, born April 23, 1931, was a member of the Swiss basketball team that was eliminated in the qualification round at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Domestically, Moget played for Genève BC, but otherwise we know little else about him. Given how rare his name seems to be, we suspect that the death notice for a Marcel Moget who died c. December 2018 is that of the Olympian, but we have been unable to make the connection for certain.

Jacques Panciroli – Member of the French bobsleigh delegation to the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics

Jacques Panciroli, born December 4, 1931, represented France in the four-man bobsleigh event at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games and finished 18^th overall. Bobsleigh is among the most difficult sports to find information about the competitors, at least in the early days, but we did come across an entry in the French Death Index for a Jacques Panciroli, born December 4, 1930, who died February 10, 1997. All we have to connect this record to the Olympian, however, is the similar birthday and the uncommonness of his name.

(Grave of a Heinz Seidel at FindAGrave)

Heinz Seidel – Member of Germany’s cross-country skiing delegation to the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics

Heinz Seidel, born July 5, 1931, represented Germany in two cross-country skiing events at the 1964 Innsbruck Games, placing 29^th in the 30 kilometers and 7^th with the German team in the 4×10 kilometers relay. Domestically, he won five consecutive relay titles from 1960 through 1964 and the 30 kilometers individually in 1962. We located the grave of a Heinz Seidel born July 4, 1931, who died September 7, 2017, but it is only mentioned that this individual was a glider pilot, and not a skier, so this may just be a coincidence.

That is what we have today, but we have more updates and more mysteries coming on the horizon. We hope that you will join us!

Today on Oldest Olympians, we want to expand our earlier entry on Canadian and Australian Olympic mysteries by focusing on those who were born in 1931, but for whom we have no evidence of being deceased or alive recently. Thanks to some excellent research by Connor Mah and Rob Gilmore, we have only two Canadians and two Australians to cover in this post, so let’s get right to it.

Donald Sanderlin – Member of Canada’s shooting delegation to the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics

We actually have plenty of information on Donald Sanderlin, who represented Canada in the skeet tournament at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, placing 15^th and 50^th respectively. He also competed at the 1967, 1971, and 1975 Pan American Games and held numerous domestic and American honors. By career he worked as an electrician and continued in this profession, and his shooting career, through the 1980s. The only two pieces of information that we do not know are his year of birth and whether or not he is still alive. We believe that he was born on February 26, 1931, but other sources have 1933 as a year of birth, and we have not been able to find anything recent to confirm his living status.

William West – Member of Canada’s sailing delegation to the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we do know William West’s birthday, December 1, 1931, but not much else about him. At the Games, he represented Canada in Star class sailing in 1960 and 1964, placing 23^rd and 7^th respectively. Despite having appeared at two editions, we have been unable to uncover much more about him, including if and when he died, perhaps due to his relatively popular name.

(Bill Jones, pictured on the left at the website of the Fairfield Canoe Club)

Bill Jones – Member of Australia’s canoeing delegation to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

We believe that we may have a similar problem with Bill Jones, born February 14, 1931, who represented Australia in canoeing at the 1956 Melbourne Games, placing fifth in the C-2 1000 and seventh in the C-2 10000. We believe that his full name may be William Thomas Jones, but this has done little to help us track him, or people who might have more information on him, down.

(Cliff Sander, seated second from the right, at The Grassroots Football Project)

Cliff Sander – Member of Australia’s football squad at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

Cliff Sander, born November 4, 1931, was a member of the Australian football team that was eliminated by India in the quarterfinals of the tournament at the 1956 Melbourne Games, after defeating Japan 2-0 in round one. Domestically, Sander played for St. Helens of Queensland from 1950 through 1957 but, despite being inducted into the Football Federation Australia Hall of Fame in 1999, we know little about his later life.

While we do not have a lot of information on most of today’s Olympians, we do have some updates on previously-featured ones. Most recently, we learned that field hockey player Ian Johnston, born March 4, 1929, who was featured as a Canadian Olympic mystery a few months ago, was actually still alive at the time, but sadly died on December 11 at the age of 91. Connor Mah also solved several other mysteries: four-time Canadian Olympic speed skater Ralf Olin, born April 12, 1925, died May 25, 2007 and three-time British Olympic sport shooter Joe Wheater, born October 6, 1918, died November 24, 2011. From other sources, we learned that three-time Dutch Olympic sailor Ben Verhagen, born September 29, 1926, died January 4, 2020 and Pawel K. gave us updates on two of our Olympians who had not been heard from since 2010: Swiss alpine skier Silvia Glatthard, born March 11, 1930, was still alive at least in 2012, but unfortunately Italian gymnast Silvio Brivio, born November 6, 1929, died in 2011. We truly appreciate all of the tips that have been sent our way!

That is a lot of information for one day, so we will stop here, but we have got much more to come and hope that you will join us again!

Following the discovery of the death of Brian Pickworth, we now have only one case of an Olympian for whom we have not had an update from since 2009 – that of British biathlete and cross-country skier Norman Shutt. Although we have removed him from our list of living Olympians for the time being, we will continue to look into his case. In the meantime we wanted to move on to those for whom we have not had an update since 2010. There are six individuals in this category, so we will try to cover them all briefly.

Mahmoud Beiglou – Member of Iran’s alpine skiing delegation to the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics

It may surprise some people to learn that Iran was sending athletes to the Winter Olympics as early as 1956. Mahmoud Beiglou, born c. 1929, was one of three such individuals, and he competed in all three alpine skiing disciplines, with a best finish of 39^th in the downhill. As one might expect, these athletes are not well-known, even their own country, although we did find a (now-removed) report that Beiglou was still alive in 2010. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find any updates since.

Silvio Brivio – Member of Italy’s gymnastics delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Silvio Brivio, born November 6, 1929, represented Italy in the gymnastics tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he placed 10^th in the team all-around and had a best finish of joint-57^th in the pommelled horse. Aside from his Olympic results, we do not know much else about his career. Once again, we received confirmation in a now-deleted 2010 report that he was still alive, but since then we have been unable to locate any additional information.

(Díaz, pictured at BoxRec)

Aurelio Díaz – Member of Spain’s boxing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Aurelio Díaz, born May 22, 1923, represented Spain in the welterweight boxing tournament at the 1948 London Games, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals by upcoming gold medalist Július Torma of Czechoslovakia. We have written about his relatively successful amateur and professional careers in the past, as we believe him to be both the oldest living Olympian to have represented Spain and the oldest living Olympic boxer. The last update we have on him, however, is from 2010, when he was living in Argentina, so we are hoping to find more recent confirmation for him over the course of this year.

Mariya Dimova – Member of Bulgaria’s cross-country skiing delegation to the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics

Mariya Dimova, born August 12, 1929, represented Bulgaria in cross-country skiing’s 10 kilometers event at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games, where she placed 34^th. This made her Bulgaria’s first female Winter Olympian, and her sister Roza went on to compete at the next three editions. Mariya continued to be involved in the administration of cross-country skiing following her retirement from active competition but, as in most of these cases, our last confirmation of her being alive is from a now-vanished 2010 report.

(Silvia Glatthard pictured at Age Esteem)

Silvia Glatthard – Member of Switzerland’s alpine skiing delegation to the 1952 Oslo Olympics

Silvia Glatthard, born March 11, 1930, represented Switzerland in the downhill and giant slalom at the 1952 Oslo Games, placing joint-15^th and 29^th respectively. She was also a reserve for the 1948 St. Moritz Games and was selected for the 1950 World Championships, but broke her leg before she could compete. A 2010 interview, linked above, confirmed that she was still alive and active at the age of 80, skiing and being part of the local ski business community. Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate an update since then.

Shmuel Laviv-Lubin – Member of Israel’s sport shooting delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Finally, we have Shmuel Laviv-Lubin, born July 13, 1923, who represented Israel in the free rifle, three positions, 300 metres event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he placed 26^th. Like Díaz, we have covered Laviv-Lubin in the past because we believe him to be the oldest living person to have represented Israel at the Games. As with Díaz, we have not had an update since 2010, and thus we will be actively seeking one in the year to come.

Should no updated confirmation be forthcoming, we would have to remove these individuals from our main table, just as we have with Shutt, and thus we would be greatly appreciative of any additional information that could be provided to us. With so many unfortunate deaths among the Oldest Olympians, we have fallen a bit behind in our blogging, but we hope to catch up soon and that you will join us for those posts!

With 2021 having arrived, we wanted to share some fast facts about the oldest Olympians in the world, partially to continue our commitment to transparency in our research but mostly just for fun and to share some statistics – after all, this is the Olympstats blog!

(The oldest living Olympian, Félix Sienra, born January 21, 1916, pictured with the cane in 2019 at the website of Yacht Club Uruguayo)

As of today, our full list contains the names of 2453 participants, non-starters, demonstration athletes, and art competitors born between 1911 and 1930 that could be living, 641 of whom we believe to be living for certain. The former number is down from 2647, while the former is up from and 595, around roughly the same time last year.

We also have 422 Olympians (down from 460 last year) who competed in the 1928, 1932, or 1936 Games, Winter and Summer, who have no date of birth but could be still living. It is worth reminding everyone that the vast majority of athletes that could be living are likely deceased.

We had nine living Olympic centenarians at the end of 2020, despite seven who died over the course of the year. We also know of three survivors from the oldest editions of the Olympics with living participants, the 1936 Berlin Games, with two survivors of this edition having died in 2020.

We will try to post a small update like this at the beginning of every year and, if you have any suggestions of statistics or information that you would like to see added, please send us a message and we will be happy to include it in the next round! Happy New Year to all!

We could not end 2020 without featuring at least one more Olympian from our nation of specialization, Egypt. We wanted, therefore, to quickly cover a competitor whom we discovered earlier this year was among the longest-lived Egyptian Olympians: Adli Roushdi.

(Roushdi, pictured at Getty Images)

When we started researching Roushdi, we had very little to go on. We believed that his name was Mohamed Roushdi, and all we knew for certain was that he had represented Egypt in the gymnastics tournament at the 1948 London Olympics. There, he finished 13^th out of 16 nations with the team and had a best individual finish of 50^th in the rings. Eventually we discovered a middle initial of “A”, but otherwise even Egypt’s top newspaper, Al-Ahram, had very little to say.

(Roushdi, pictured in his obituary)

As it turned out, we were looking in the wrong places. As we later learned from his obituary, Roushdi was born in Cairo on July 21, 1921, but moved to the United States in 1937, while still a teenager, and went by the name Adli Roushdi. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he was not only a gymnastics star, but also played basketball and swam. His later career saw him running swimming schools in California, working as a realtor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and eventually retiring to Columbia, South Carolina, where he died on April 28, 2016, at the age of almost 95.

His age places him among the longest-lived Egyptian Olympians, but more importantly we are happy to reconnect his Olympic identity with the rest of his life and legacy. This will likely be our last blog post for 2020, but we hope that you will join us in the new year as we explore more about the world’s Oldest Olympians!

In order to take an opportunity to catch up on blogging, today Oldest Olympians is looking into a case from a country that it has not covered previously. While today its official English language name is Myanmar, when boxer Saw Hardy, our Olympian of the day, represented it at the Games, it was known in English as Burma.

We have only been able to confirm two facts about Hardy in our research (“Saw” is an honorific equivalent roughly to “Mr.”). First, prior to his appearance at the Olympics, he was a police constable and saw success competing in police boxing tournaments. Second, he took part in the bantamweight competition at the 1948 London Games, where he received a bye in round one and was then defeated by Albert Perera of Sri Lanka in round two.

Aside from this information, we know nothing for certain. The Olympic entry lists have him as being born c. 1916, but this may be only a guess and he may be a few years younger. While the language barrier is considerable in terms of investigating his later life, researcher Connor Mah did come across notes of a Havildar (a military rank) Saw Hardy who was a former police officer that served during World War II:

https://soeinburma.wordpress.com/the-men-of-soe-burma/

This Saw Hardy was born in 1921 according to the discussion above. A 2016 report, however, lists this Saw Hardy as being 99 – which aligns with a c. 1916 birth year – and includes a picture, but unfortunately does not discuss his past sufficiently to prove that he was the boxer. If it were him, however, he would certainly be among the oldest Olympians, probably the longest-lived Burmese Olympian, and may even have became a centenarian. As it stands, however, this case will remain an Olympic mystery for now.

(Charles Green’s death information from The Government of Western Australia’s Metropolitan Cemeteries Board)

This is our quick post for the day, but we also want to acknowledge one more solved Olympic mystery. “The Pope” posted a link in our blog comment section that demonstrated that Charles Green, who we covered recently as being among our Australian Olympic mysteries, died May 6, 2009, at the age of 87. We wish to extend our gratitude to them for sharing this information.

Today Oldest Olympians is continuing its previous blog post, which looked at some of the missing links that we encountered during 2020. These are individuals for whom we believe that we have a date of death, but cannot confirm that the information is accurate. Today, we are going to cover three cases that were noted as deceased on Wikipedia, but nowhere else.

Amedeo Banci – Member of Italy’s field hockey delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Amadeo Banci, born August 18, 1925, was a member of Italy’s field hockey squad at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where the nation lost its matches in both round one and the consolation quarterfinals. Banci had a successful career on the national scene during the early 1950s, but otherwise we have been able to uncover little else about him. An anonymous user added a date of death of December 24, 2013 to his English language Wikipedia page, but without a source. Unfortunately, we have been unable to confirm this information elsewhere.

Adolfo Yedro – Member of Argentina’s rowing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Adolfo Yedro, born December 14, 1922, represented Argentina in the coxed fours rowing event at the 1948 London Games, where his country lost in round one against the upcoming silver medalists from Switzerland, and then again in the repêchage against Great Britain. He had much more success at the 1951 Pan American Games, where he took home the gold medal in the double sculls with Mario Güerci (another Olympian for whom we are missing a date of death). He had a successful domestic career in the 1940s and 1950s, but the only evidence of his death that we have been able to find was a note that he died February 21, 1989, left on Wikipedia, that remains unconfirmed.

Chang Lo-Pu – Member of Taiwan’s boxing delegation to the 1960 Rome Olympics

Chang Lo-Pu, born February 2, 1929, represented Taiwan in the middleweight boxing tournament at the 1960 Rome Games, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals by upcoming champion Eddie Crook. A military boxer, he had his greatest success at the 1958 Asian Games, where he took home the gold medal. He later owned a boxing training center and operated a shipping cleanup business, and while the Chinese-language Wikipedia claims that he died in 2005, we have not been able to prove this in other sources.

We want to conclude this blog by thanking Paweł Kwiatkowski, who helped demonstrate that the architect Orhan Adaş who was listed as having died in September 1984 was indeed the Olympian, as he uncovered another article that noted him as an architect and fencer! We are a bit behind in our blogging, but we will have new topics for you all in the near future and hope that you will join us for them!