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.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to provide an update to eisstockschießen, the demonstration sport from the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics that had many competitors with missing biographical details. Thanks to new research Connor Mah, however, we can now fill in some of those gaps.

(Georg Edenhauser (left) and Friedrich Mosshammer (right))

To start off with the winner of the distance shooting event, and on a sad note, we have learned that Austrian Georg Edenhauser was born January 12, 1911 and completed suicide less than a year after his victory, on January 26, 1937. We also now know that the runner-up in that event, his compatriot Friedrich Mosshammer, was born July 15, 1895. The winner of the target shooting event that was open to all nations, Ignaz Reiterer, also of Austria, was born July 27, 1887 and died July 31, 1944.

(Wilhelm Silbermayr)

For the winning Austrians for the team event, we now know additional dates of birth: Wilhelm Silbermayr was born September 13, 1880, Anton Ritzl and his brother Otto were born October 18, 1894 and March 22, 1898 respectively, and Wilhelm Pichler was born May 19, 1897. For their compatriots from the third-placed team, we now have full biographical details for Friedrich Schieg, born February 14, 1877 and died November 20, 1970, as well as a date of birth for Hubert Lödler, October 31, 1906. For other full biographical information for Austrians, we now have August Ischepp born September 1, 1900 and died February 8, 1968; Josef Kleewein born May 24, 1890 and died June 8, 1941; and Anton Schaffernak born January 12, 1899 and died February 3, 1981. Additionally, we now have a date of birth for Isidor Waitschacher: May 9, 1895.

We also have updates from Connor Mah on some of the Czechoslovakian players. Fritz Brade was born November 10, 1890 and died June 12, 1940, while Friedrich Feistner was born August 29, 1893 and died March 10, 1941. We also have three additional competitors whose dates of birth were uncovered: Friedrich Arnhold, born December 20, 1894; Rudolf Kopal, born July 3, 1893; and Karl Wolfinger, born November 27, 1887.

Finally, as we continue to follow up from the death of Iris Cummings as the last known survivor of any pre-World War II Olympics, we note that the majority of the 1936 competitors for whom we could not confirm as alive deceased and have no date of birth are eisstockschießen players. Since we have covered them all in previous posts, we thought we would end this entry with a quick chart of those names.

(August Brunner)

Name	Country
Franz Xaver Bachl	Germany
Anton Bader	Germany
Hans Bauer	Germany
Xaver Bauer	Germany
Bernhard Becker	Germany
Ruth Becker	Germany
Paul Begusch	Austria
Hans Bernhardt	Czechoslovakia
Hans Bielmeier	Germany
August Brunner	Germany
Friedrich Czernich	Czechoslovakia
Lisl Dotzert	Germany
Franz Dürr	Germany
Johann Eibach	Germany
Matthias Enzersberger	Germany
Otto Enzersberger	Germany
Ferdinand Erb	Germany
Wilhelm Feistner	Czechoslovakia
Johann Fichtl	Germany
Hermann Fuchs	Germany
Martin Geisenhofer	Germany
Sebastian Groeß	Germany
Hans Großmann	Czechoslovakia
Hans Hackl	Germany
Josef Hafner	Austria
Alois Haider	Germany
Otto Hanff	Czechoslovakia
Egon Härtl	Germany
Alfred Hein	Czechoslovakia
Lilli Herboldt	Germany
Josef Hödl-Schlehofer	Austria
Ida Holzer	Germany
Herrmann Jeddicke	Germany
Anton Jocher	Germany
Lorenz Junker	Germany
Wilhelm Kadel	Germany
Hilde Kaiser	Germany
Josef Kalkschmid	Austria
Albert Karl	Germany
Fritz Keck	Germany
Hilde Keck	Germany
Ida Kellermann	Germany
Englbert Kigele	Germany
Franz Klarl	Germany
Martha Knak	Germany
Agnes Knudsen	Germany
Josef Körner	Germany
Anton Kranner	Germany
Josef Kreitmeier	Germany
Georg Kronfeldner	Germany
Mathilde Kronfeldner	Germany
Paula Külper	Germany
Dora Landes	Germany
Elise Landes	Germany
Franz Lawugger	Austria
Josef Lechner	Germany
Josef Lenz	Germany
Elisabeth Luchterhand	Germany
Georg Lüftiger	Germany
Josef Maierbrugger	Austria
Josef Marx	Austria
Karl Möbus	Germany
Willi Mohr	Germany
Hans Moser	Germany
Karl Möser	Germany
Johann Mrakitsch	Austria
Georg Müller	Germany
Josef Neuner	Germany
Werner Niemeyer	Germany
Roman Ostermeier	Germany
Johann Ostler	Germany
Karl Pfeffer	Germany
Kurt Pfeffer	Germany
Max Pfeffer	Germany
Theresia Pfeffer	Germany
Rudolf Rainer	Austria
Josef Raufer	Germany
Otto Reisinger	Germany
Ludwig Retzer	Germany
Wolfgang Röck	Germany
Hans Schwimmbeck	Germany
Josef Seilmaier	Germany
Lina Strobl	Germany
Ernst Vogler	Germany
Rudolf Wagner	Austria
Karl Weber	Germany
Martha Weickelsdorfer	Germany
Maria Weinmüller	Germany
Eva Wiede	Germany
Josef Wirt	Germany
Franz Wörndle	Germany
Heinrich Wurst	Germany
Franz Zauner	Germany
Hans Zellner	Germany

Today on Oldest Olympians we have the same two milestone birthdays as last year, so we are again continuing our trend of covering both in a single blog post rather than choosing between them!

First, we want to wish a happy 95^th birthday to Miguel Seijas, the oldest living Uruguayan Olympian! Seijas represented his country in the double sculls at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Games, winning bronze in the former and being eliminated in the round one repêchage in the latter.

Second, Chiharu Igaya is turning 94 as Japan’s oldest Olympic medalist! Igaya represented his country in nine alpine skiing events across three editions of the Games – 1952, 1956, and 1960 – and won a silver medal in the slalom in 1956. He also took bronze at the World Championships in that event in 1958. By career he worked in insurance, but also served in sport administration, most notably as a member of the IOC since 1982.

(Willy Senn)

Finally, we were able to confirm that the Rico Bianchi who died March 26, and who we mentioned in our last blog entry, was the Swiss silver medal-winning Olympian. We can also add Willy Senn to the list of Swiss updates, as Connor Mah was able to confirm him as being born May 25, 1920 and dying on October 27, 1989, as we suspected in an earlier blog post.

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that British field hockey player Tony Nunn, born May 24, 1927, died May 7 at the age of 97. Nunn represented his country in the tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he won a bronze medal. Domestically, he played for the Hawks Hockey Club.

(Sheila Lerwill, pictured at The Streatham Society)

At the time of his death, Nunn was the oldest living British Olympic medalist and Olympic medalist in field hockey. The former distinction now goes to Sheila Lerwill, born August 16, 1928, who won a silver medal for Great Britain in the high jump at the 1952 Helsinki Games. She captured that title at the 1950 European Championships 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. She was already the oldest living medalist in track and field athletics.

The latter titleholder is now Eric Pearce, born October 29, 1931. Pearce represented Australia at four consecutive editions of the Games – 1956 through 1968 – and won bronze in 1964 and silver in 1968. Three of his brothers also represented Australia in Olympic field hockey, as did his daughter Colleen in 1984.

Additionally, while we are posting, we were prepared to mention the 95^th birthday of Swiss rower Rico Bianchi on May 13, as he was believed to be the oldest living Swiss Olympic medalist. He took silver in the coxed fours at the 1952 Helsinki Games and also competed in the eights in 1960. There are unconfirmed reports, however, that he may have died March 26, which we have yet to verify. If he were deceased, another rower, André Moccand, born January 25, 1931, who took silver in the coxed fours in 1948, would be the oldest living Swiss Olympic medalist.

(Jacques Simon)

Finally, to complete the list of Connor Mah’s discoveries about 1928 Olympians, we have four Olympians for whom we have additional birth information. French field hockey player Jacques Simon was born August 23, 1903 and was still alive in 1970. Swiss water polo player Robert Hürlimann was born March 26, 1905, while Swiss weightlifter Hermann Eichholzer was born June 15, 1903. As for Eichholzer’s weightlifting compatriot Ernst Trinkler, Mah was able to uncover that he was born in 1906.

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Giuseppe Moioli, born August 8, 1927, died today, May 5, at the age of 97. Moioli won gold for Italy in rowing’s coxless fours event at the 1948 London Games, just missed the podium in fourth in 1956 Melbourne, and also competed in 1952 Helsinki. He was a five-time European champion in this event between 1947 and 1956, and also won with the eights in 1958, in addition to a coxless fours gold medal at the 1955 Mediterranean Games. He later worked as a coach.

At the time of his death, Moioli was the oldest living Italian Olympic medalist and the oldest living Olympic medalist in rowing. The former distinction now goes to Ennio Mattarelli, born August 5, 1928, who was already the oldest living Olympic sport shooting medalist. 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.

The oldest living Olympic medalist in rowing is now Neville Howell, born December 17, 1929. Howell represented Australia in the eights at the 1956 Melbourne Games and won bronze. He was a gold medalist in that event at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and also competed in the coxed pairs at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he was eliminated in the round one repêchage. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2020 for his lifetime of community service, and he was already the oldest living Australian Olympic medalist.

(Charles Six)

While we are blogging, we wanted to update a handful of deaths discovered by Connor Mah from the list that we provided a few entries ago about 1928 Olympians for whom we had no biographical data. French field hockey player Charles Six was actually Albert Charles Six, born December 18, 1901 and died March 11, 1987. Swiss field hockey player Charles Piot was born in 1901 and died in October 1990. Swiss water polo player Ernest Hüttenmoser was actually Ernst Hüttenmoser, born August 8, 1908 and died May 27, 1980. Swiss weightlifter Franz Riederer was born August 31, 1897 and died December 31, 1963. Finally, we have updated data on two Swiss wrestlers: Isidor Bieri was born June 5, 1905 and died July 29, 1983, while Max Studer was born September 17, 1899 and died April 30, 1957.