Today Oldest Olympians has two milestone birthdays to celebrate, so we are combining them into a single blog post instead of choosing between them. Sadly, we also have two deaths from among the oldest Olympian titleholders to report as well.

First, we are wishing Italian sport shooter Ennio Mattarelli a happy 97^th birthday! Mattarelli represented Italy in the trap event at the 1964 Tokyo Games, where he won the gold medal. He also competed in 1968, where he was 27th, and won seven medals – three of them gold – at the World Championships between 1961 and 1974. He later worked as a coach and opened a business that manufactured clay pigeon launchers, and is now the oldest living Italian Olympic medalist and Olympic medalist in sport shooting!

(Jean Laudet, pictured in the center at Histoire du Canoë)

Next, we are wishing French canoeist Jean Laudet a happy 95^th birthday! Laudet represented his country in the C-2 10,000 metres event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, alongside Georges Turlier (another of the oldest Olympians), and took home the gold medal. He later worked as an antiquarian and is now the oldest living Olympic canoeing medalist!

(Ivo Cipci)

Then, Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn of the deaths of two titleholders among the oldest Olympic water polo players. First, Italian Salvatore Gionta, born December 22, 1930, died July 28 at the age of 94. Gionta represented his country in the tournaments at the 1952 and 1960 Summer Olympics, winning bronze and gold respectively. He was also a Mediterranean Games champion in 1955 and a European Championship bronze medalist in 1954. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Olympic water polo medallist. That distinction now goes to the only other water polo medallist over the age of 90: Ivo Cipci, born April 25, 1933, who took silver with Yugoslavia in 1956.

(Edson Perri)

Second, Brazilian Edson Perri, born June 5, 1928, died August 2 at the age of 97. Perri represented his country in the tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he was eliminated in the preliminary round. At the Pan American Games, he took silver in 1951 and bronze in 1955. He then took up coaching and led the Brazilian team at the 1968 and 1984 Olympics. At the time of his death, Perri was the oldest living Olympic water polo player overall; the new titleholder is Gerry Worsell, born May 1, 1930, who represented Great Britain in 1952 and 1956.

Today we have the same two milestone birthdays among the Oldest Olympians as last year so, as usual, we are combining them into a single blog post rather than choosing between them!

First, we are wishing a happy 95^th birthday to Tan Liong Houw, the oldest living Indonesian Olympian! Tan represented his country in the football tournament at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals. He also represented Indonesia at three editions of the Asian Games, winning bronze in 1958.

Next, we want to wish a happy 94^rd birthday to Japanese gymnast Takashi Ono! Ono represented his country in four consecutive editions of the Games, from 1952 through 1964, winning a total of 13 medals, five of which were gold. He won an additional seven medals at the World Championships between 1958 and 1962, two of which were gold. His wife Kiyoko also won an Olympic gymnastics bronze medal, in the team all-around in 1964. Ono is now the oldest living Japanese Olympic champion.

Finally, Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Irish track athlete Maeve Kyle, born October 6, 1928, died July 23 at the age of 96. Kyle represented her country at three consecutive editions of the Games, 1956, 1960, and 1964, becoming Ireland’s first female representative in track and field. Her best results came in 1964, when reached the semifinals of both the 400 and 800 metres events. She ended her career in 1966 by winning a bronze medal at that year’s European Indoor Athletics Championships in the 400 metres, and she later became a distinguished coach.

At the time of her death, Kyle was the oldest living Irish Olympian. That distinction now goes to sailor Harry Byrne, born July 2, 1929. Byrne represented his country in the Dragon class at the 1972 Munich Games, where his crew placed 16th. He also competed in that year’s World Championships, as well as a host of other tournaments during the 1970s. By career, he worked in the brewing industry.

Today Oldest Olympians has three milestone birthdays to celebrate, so we are going to cover them all in a single blog post!

(Tattersall, pictured at Horizon Yacht Charters)

First, we want to wish a happy 95^th birthday today to sailor Robin Tattersall! Tattersall represented the British Virgin Islands in two editions of the Soling class tournament, placing 21st in 1984 and 17th in 1992. He was the oldest sailing competitor at the latter Games and is now the oldest living survivor of that edition, in addition to being the oldest living competitor for his nation overall. By career he was a surgeon, working for the government until 1973, after which he founded his own clinic. During the 1950s, he had a career as a model and in 2001 he was awarded an OBE for his services to medicine. He has continued to sail and run marathons into his 80s.

Next, we are wishing Monegasque sport shooter Gilbert Scorsolio a happy 93^rd birthday today! Scorsolio represented his country in the small-bore rifle three positions, 50 meters and prone, 50 meters events at the 1960 and 1968 Summer Olympics respectively, where he placed joint-61st and 85th respectively. By career, he was in the real estate business and he is now the oldest living Monegasque Olympian.

(Singh Dhillon, seated second from the left, at Sikhs in Hockey)

Finally, we have a happy 90^th birthday wish for Joginder Singh Dhillon! Singh Dillon was a reserve with the Kenyan field hockey team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but did not see any playing time. He had a lengthy domestic career, however, and is the oldest living member of a Kenyan delegation to the Olympics.

For the second time in a row, we have two milestone birthdays to celebrate so, as usual, we are covering them both in a blog entry!

First, we want to wish a happy 99th birthday to Hyacinth Walters, the oldest living Jamaican Olympian! Walters represented her country in the 100 and 200 metres track events at the 1952 Helsinki Games, but was eliminated in the first round of both. She had much more success at the Central American and Caribbean Games, winning seven medals, three of which were gold, between 1946 and 1954. She later became a teacher and now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Second, we want to wish a happy 97^th birthday to Hans Andersson-Tvilling, the oldest living Olympic ice hockey medalist! Andersson-Tvilling won bronze for his country at the 1952 Oslo Games and just missed a second medal in 1956 after Sweden lost the bronze medal match to Canada. He won the World Championships in 1953, also taking silver in in 1951, and captured European Championship titles in 1951 and 1953, in addition to bronze in 1955. Domestically, he was a four-time national Swedish champion with Djurgårdens IF. His twin brother Stig had a similar record in the sport, including the Olympic bronze.

Today on Oldest Olympians we have two milestone birthdays to celebrate so, as usual, we are covering them both in a blog entry!

(Cheng Chi-Sen at Chineseoverseas.org)

First we are wishing Taiwanese sport shooter Cheng Chi-Sen a happy 99^th birthday! Cheng represented his country in the free pistol, 50 metres events at the 1968 Mexico City Games, where he placed 56^th. A police officer by career, he also competed at the 1966 Asian Games and later moved to San Francisco, where he ran a catering business. He is now the oldest survivor of the 1968 Summer Olympics!

(Akın Altıok from a Youtube video)

Next, we are wishing Akın Altıok a happy 93^rd birthday as the oldest living Turkish Olympian! Altıok represented his country in the triple jump at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he was eliminated in the qualifying round. One year earlier, he had won that event at the 1951 Mediterranean Games.

(Lies Bonnier)

Additionally, as an update, we want to thank the reader who solved the Olympic mystery of Korean track athlete Sim Bok-seok. From knowing nothing about him, there is now a relatively detailed Wikipedia page on him here. Also, thanks to Connor Mah’s research, we learned that Lies Bonnier, born July 8, 1925, who we last heard from in 2012, died August 22, 2021 in Gooise Meren, at the age of 96. Finally, thanks to Ralf Regnitter, we now know that the gliding demonstration event competitor “Gerbrecht”, who we had listed as a theoretical survivor of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was Ernst Gerbrecht, born December 28, 1890, who is therefore certain to be deceased.

Several months ago we noted the death of French track and field athlete Yvonne Chabot-Curtet, born May 28, 1920, who was, to the best of our knowledge, the oldest living Olympian when she died on February 21. There are just under 2700 Olympians, non-starters, and demonstration event competitors born between 1915 and 1935 for whom we have no confirmation on whether they are alive or deceased, but today we want to focus on the 74 Olympians who would be older than Yvonne Chabot-Curtet if they were still alive.

It should be noted that discussing these individuals in no way represents any belief on the part of Oldest Olympians that these athletes are still alive; we simply cannot confirm that they are deceased. In fact, we find it highly unlikely that any Olympian who is between the age of 105 and 109 would have escaped our attention completely. It remains, however, an important caveat and is always a possibility: language barriers, poor media coverage of older athletes, and desire for privacy from a generation when the Games were not as big as they are now all contribute to the chance that someone may have eluded our radar. In the past, several Olympic centenarians have reached that milestone with little public fanfare, sometimes not being revealed until their death. We feel, therefore, that it is important to share this list to make our research methods a little more public and subject to scrutiny, perhaps solving a case or two along the way.

As mentioned in a previous post, the sole art competitor that meets the criteria, South African painter Ann Graham, was born September 22, 1915. Additionally, two non-starters, Egyptian footballer Hussein Ezzat and Japanese field hockey player Yasuo Ueno, were born in 1915. All 1915-born Olympians competed in 1936 Berlin Games and are thus potential survivors of the prewar Olympics as discussed in a previous post

(Junko Nishida represented Japan in the high jump)

1915

Name	Country	Event	Birthday
Hiroshi Matsunobu	Japan	Gymnastics	October 15, 1915
Spyridon Mavrogiorgos	Greece	Swimming	1915
Mitsuo Mizutani	Japan	Wrestling	October 5, 1915
Uichi Munakata	Japan	Basketball	November 26, 1915
Junko Nishida	Japan	Athletics	November 3, 1915
Konstantinos Pantazis	Greece	Athletics	1915
Sadako Yamamoto	Japan	Athletics	July 14, 1915

Japanese 1964 kendo demonstration competitor Minoru Kino was born in 1915 or 1916, while 1948 Korean football reserve Cha Sun-Jong and 1936 Japanese field hockey reserve Satoshi Muraoka were born in 1916.

(Saleh Mohamed, silver medalist for Egypt in featherweight weightlifting in 1936)

1916

Name	Country	Year	Event	Birthday
Ricardo Bralo	Argentina	1948	Athletics	August 28, 1916
Yoichi Endo	Japan	1936	Rowing	March 9, 1916
Tatsuo Ichikawa	Japan	1936	Ice hockey	February 11, 1916
Masatatsu Kitazawa	Japan	1936	Ice hockey	April 29, 1916
Fusako Kono	Japan	1936	Diving	January 22, 1916
Aziz Malik	Pakistan	1948, 1952, 1956	Field hockey	April 16, 1916
Daniel Sande	Argentina	1948, 1952, 1960	Fencing	August 25, 1916
Saw Hardy	Myanmar	1948	Boxing	1916
Saleh Mohamed	Egypt	1936	Weightlifting	June 24, 1916
Borbála Sóthy	Hungary	1936	Swimming	December 21, 1916
Koichi Wada	Japan	1936	Water polo	July 25, 1916
Takehiko Yanagi	Japan	1936	Field hockey	March 28, 1916
Kenshichi Yokoyama	Japan	1936	Basketball	September 22, 1916

Japan had two kendo competitors from the 1964 Tokyo Games that were born in either 1916 or 1917: Kotaro Oshima and Sosaku Yamashita.

(Scylla Venâncio represented Brazil in two swimming events at the 1936 Berlin Olympics)

1917

Name	Country	Year	Event	Birthday
Jehangoo Amin	India	1948	Cycling	1917
Richardos Brousalis	Greece	1936, 1948	Swimming, water polo	1917
Horacio Campi	Argentina	1952	Sailing	November 26, 1917
Alfredo Carlomagno	Argentina	1936	Boxing	September 26, 1917
Helio Castro	El Salvador	1968	Sport shooting	October 20, 1917
Chang Ri-Jin	Japan, Korea	1936, 1948	Basketball	October 28, 1917
Gin Gang-Hwan	Korea	1948	Athletics	January 7, 1917
Kosta Hakim	Egypt	1936	Boxing	April 17, 1917
Vangelis Kouvelis	Greece	1948	Cycling	1917
Lie Eng Soei	Indonesia	1960	Sailing	May 15, 1917
Qadri Mahmud	Egypt	1936	Swimming	October 8, 1917
Sajiro Miyama	Japan	1936	Boxing	January 20, 1917
Gurnam Singh	India	1948	Athletics	1917
Catherine Stevens	Belgium	1936	Athletics	August 7, 1917
Noboru Ueno	Japan	1936	Athletics	January 8, 1917
Scylla Venâncio	Brazil	1936	Swimming	May 9, 1917
Jorge Vidal	Argentina	1948	Gymnastics	c.1917
Taichi Yamada	Japan	1936	Rowing	February 20, 1917
Misao Yokota	Japan	1932	Swimming	February 3, 1917
Bouchaib Zeroual	Morocco	1960	Sport shooting	1917

Non-starter Guilherme Rodrigues, a reserve with the 1948 Brazilian basketball squad, was born August 26, 1918.

(Ahmed Zahur Khan represented Pakistan in two track and field events at the 1948 London Games and carried the flag in the opening ceremony)

1918

Name	Country	Year	Event	Birthday
Leopoldo Briola	Argentina	1948	Weightlifting	December 23, 1918
Guillermo Canciani	Argentina	1936	Sport shooting	November 18, 1918
Souren Chowdhury	India	1952	Sport shooting	July 25, 1918
Kim Won-Gwon	Korea	1948	Athletics	December 13, 1918
Giuseppe Molinari	Italy	1956	Equestrian	1918
Chhota Singh	India	1948	Athletics	1918
Daniel Trujillo	Venezuela	1968	Sailing	May 24, 1918
Yap Pow Thong	Malaysia	1964	Sport shooting	November 11, 1918
Ahmed Zahur Khan	Pakistan	1948	Athletics	1918
Bram Zanella	Venezuela	1960	Sport shooting	September 27, 1918

(Gudrun Grömer represented Austria in the diving tournament at the 1948 London Games)

1919

Name	Country	Year	Event	Birthday
Angela Anderes	Switzerland	1936	Figure skating	July 10, 1919
Germán Briceño	Venezuela	1956	Sport shooting	August 13, 1919
Mahmoud Fawzy	Egypt	1952	Wrestling	October 10, 1919
Gudrun Grömer	Austria	1948	Diving	November 7, 1919
Günter Heine	Germany	1952	Water polo	September 8, 1919
Min Byeong-seon	Korea	1952	Equestrian	1919
Ítalo Sartori	Argentina	1948	Rowing	November 29, 1919
Rei Takemura	Japan	1936	Swimming	April 29, 1919
Alexandros Vouxinos	Greece	1952, 1956	Alpine skiing	November 23, 1919

Kurakichi Chatani, a reserve team foil fencer for Japan at the 1960 Rome Games, was born January 11, 1920. Hideo Ichikawa, who was a reserve for Japan in field hockey at the same edition, was born February 23, 1920.

(Yukio Inokuma represented Japan in four rifle shooting events across three editions of the Games: 1952, 1956, and 1960.)

1920

Name	Country	Year	Event	Birthday
Minna Blüml	Germany	1964	Luge	May 17, 1920
Yukio Inokuma	Japan	1952, 1956, 1960	Sport shooting	January 2, 1920
Manuel Solís	Mexico	1948	Cycling	May 10, 1920
John Stuart	Canada	1948	Weightlifting	January 24, 1920

In a future entry, we will be looking into those Olympians who may still be alive and were born between Yvonne Chabot-Curtet and the current oldest living Olympian, Rhoda Wurtele. We hope that you will join us!

Today on Oldest Olympians we again have the same two milestone birthdays, so we are continuing our tradition of providing blog post to cover both in lieu of choosing between them!

(John De Saram, pictured at the Daily News)

First, we are wishing Sri Lankan track athlete John De Saram a happy 96^th birthday! De Saram represented his country at the 1948 London Olympics, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals and round one of the 200 and 400 metres events respectively. He also competed at the 1950 British Empire Games, where his best finish was fourth in the 4×110 yards relay. He later had a lengthy career with the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs and the International Law Commission, and served as his country’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1998 to 2002. He is now the oldest living Sri Lankan Olympian!

(Don Sheff, pictured in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on December 19, 1952)

Secondly, we want to wish American swimmer Don Sheff a happy 94^rd birthday! Sheff represented the United States in the 4×200 metres freestyle relay at the 1952 Helsinki Games, which won gold. Because he only swam in the heats, however, he did not receive an actual medal due to the rules of the time. He also won several medals at the 1950 Maccabiah Games. Despite not winning a physical medal, he still competed, and thus we consider him the oldest living Olympic swimming champion!

To wrap up our series of blog posts following the death of Iris Cummings as the last known survivor of any pre-World War II Olympics, today Oldest Olympians completing its look into Olympians who competed at the 1936 Games. We have already covered the eisstockschießen players who have no date of birth, but there are 25 other non-starters and demonstration event competitors from 1936 for whom we lack biographical information but could, in theory, still be alive, as well as 14 art competitors. There are also 32 Olympians who competed in 1936 that could still be alive, but since all but two, Egyptian swimmer Fadl Ibrahim and Afghani field hockey player Abouwi Ahmad Shah, have known dates of birth, we will cover them when we review Olympians who could have been older than Yvonne Chabot-Curtet at the time of her death.

Before we list the remaining 1936 participants, however, we wanted to point to an additional Olympic mystery from that year: Afghani field hockey player Mian Faruq Shah. Shah, who had studied in Britain and earned a pilot’s license from that country, was Assistant Director of Agriculture and Sports Minister of Afghanistan in the mid-1930s, and also vice-captain of the hockey team. Anonymous editors have added a year of death of 2005 and a date of death of May 1, 2013 to his Wikipedia page at various times, but we have been unable to confirm either date.

Of the 14 art competitors from 1936 who could, in theory, still be alive, only one, South African painter Ann Graham, born September 22, 1915, has a known date of birth.

Name	Country	Category
Josef Bauer	Czechoslovakia	Architecture
Chiffre	Yugoslavia	Music
Piero Fervelli	Italy	Painting
Guglielmo Giuliani	Italy	Architecture
Suzuko Ito	Japan	Painting
Jerry	Czechoslovakia	Literature
Takahisa Kato	Japan	Painting
František Koubek	Czechoslovakia	Music
Hans Luckasch	Austria	Music
Karel Martínek	Czechoslovakia	Architecture
Jaroslav Nedvěd	Czechoslovakia	Architecture
Egon Plefka	Czechoslovakia	Architecture
Jean-Pierre Romuald	Belgium	Painting

(José Llovera, pictured at BoxRec)

Of the 25 non-starters and demonstration event competitors from 1936 who could still be alive, three have known years of birth. Egyptian footballer Hussein Ezzat and Japanese field hockey player Yasuo Ueno were born in 1915, while another Japanese hockey player, Satoshi Muraoka, was born in 1916.

Name	Country	Event
Emil Angelescu	Romania	Non-starter in the four-man bobsleigh
Dinu Cesiano	Romania	Non-starter in the fencing tournament
Zacarías Flores	Peru	Non-starter in the welterweight boxing tournament
Gerbrecht	Germany	Participant in the demonstration gliding event
Franz Hiermann	Austria	Participant in the demonstration military ski patrol event
Josef Jauch	Switzerland	Participant in the demonstration military ski patrol event
Branko Karadjole	Yugoslavia	Non-starter in coxed fours rowing
Peter von Lerch	Austria	Participant in the demonstration gliding event
José Llovera	Spain	Non-starter in the featherweight boxing tournament
Jean Morand	France	Participant in the demonstration military ski patrol event
Mario Peselli	Italy	Participant in the demonstration gliding event
Teodor Popescu	Romania	Non-starter in the four-man bobsleigh
José Portillo	Spain	Non-starter in the lightweight boxing tournament
Jean Pydych	Poland	Participant in the demonstration military ski patrol event
Pedro Rodríguez	Peru	Non-starter in the flyweight boxing tournament
Constantin Rosetti	Romania	Non-starter in the fencing tournament
Adam Rzepka	Poland	Participant in the demonstration military ski patrol event
Aleksandar Stanojević	Yugoslavia	Participant in the demonstration gliding event
Alexandru Tăutu	Romania	Non-starter in the four-man bobsleigh
Máximo Valdez	Peru	Non-starter in the featherweight boxing tournament
Eduard Waser	Switzerland	Participant in the demonstration military ski patrol event
Antonio Zúñiga	Spain	Non-starter in the welterweight boxing tournament

Today on Oldest Olympians we have the same two milestone birthdays as last year, so it is time for another blog post to cover them both in lieu of choosing between them!

First, we are wishing Günther Haase a happy 100^th birthday! Haase represented his country at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where he won a bronze medal in platform diving. Two years earlier, he had won that event at the 1950 European Championships, and in total he collected eight national titles between 1943 and 1956. He later moved to the United States with his wife, also a German national champion in diving, and now resides in Florida as the oldest living German Olympic medalist.

Second, French fencer Daniel Dagallier is turning 99 today! In addition to his team bronze medal from the 1956 Summer Olympics, Dagallier won five team medals – one gold and two each of silver and bronze – in the event at the World Championships between 1951 and 1958, and also took gold at the 1955 Mediterranean Games. He is now the oldest living Olympic fencing medalist.

(Hans Schachinger)

Additionally, we wanted to provide an update on a competitor that we have covered twice before: Connor Mah was able locate records to confirm that Dutch gymnast Klara Post did die on January 12, 2022. Finally, we mentioned previously that Austrian sailor Hans Schachinger died in 1978. Further records located by Mah demonstrated that Schachinger was born June 1, 1921 and died August 11, 1970, with 1978 being the year of his burial.

Today on Oldest Olympians we have another two milestone birthdays so, as usual, we are celebrating both of them in a single post!

First, we are wishing a happy 97^th birthday to Joaquim Granger, the oldest living Portuguese Olympian! Granger represented his country in the tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he was 23rd with his team in the all-around and had a best individual finish of 107th on the rings. He later worked as a physical education professor.

Second, we want to wish a happy 95^th birthday to Frank Shakespeare, the oldest living Olympic champion from the United States! Shakespeare represented his country in rowing’s eights event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, which was won by the Americans. During this time, he was a student in officer training at the United States Naval Academy.

(Willy Hufschmid, pictured in Turnen und Handball: 100 Jahre RTV Basel 1879)

Finally, while we have a little space, we wanted to provide updates on three of our past Olympic medal mysteries. First, Willy Hufschmid, born October 9, 1918, who won a bronze medal with the Swiss handball team at the 1936 Berlin Games, died December 12, 1996. Second, we have learned that John Rungsted Sørensen, born October 5, 1934, who represented Denmark in the C-2 1000 event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and won a bronze medal, did reach his 90^th birthday, but died three weeks later on October 26, 2024. Finally, Enzo Polito, born October 29, 1926, who won a bronze medal with the Italian water polo squad at the 1952 Helsinki Games, died February 27, 2004 at the age of 77.