Oldest Surviving Major Sportsperson

[Satchmo Distel]

I'll start the bidding with Neil Harvey, 92, the last surviving member of the 1948 Australian cricket Invincibles, born 8.10.28.

"Major" can be defined in this thread as having won an international medal or trophy, as individual or team member, in Harvey's case The Ashes. But posters are welcome to nominate non-winners if they can justify their significance.

[ursus arctos]

Charlie Trippi is the oldest living member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame at 98

Trippi could and would do anything on a football field. He played as a left halfback for four seasons before switching to quarterback for two years. Charley then moved back to offensive halfback for one campaign before changing almost exclusively to the defensive unit in 1954 and 1955. He also was the Cardinals' punter and he excelled on the punt and kickoff return teams.

Willie Mays, still considered by many to be the greatest living baseball player, turns 90 next May.

[Satchmo Distel]

Is there a greater dead one?

There's a spinoff there as to greatest living sportsperson, I guess. Hopelessly subjective but I'll go for Sugar Ray Leonard, Beckenbauer or Gary Sobers.

[ursus arctos]

Pele, Jordan, Gretzky, Bolt, Phelps, Biles

[longeared]

Bernardo Ruiz, who won the 1948 Vuelta a Espana, is still alive and is due to turn 96 early in the new year.

In the summer a guy called Emile Idee turned 100, he won a stage of the 1949 Tour de France - though that was more of a case of a rider having a glory day rather than being a big name in the sport.

Federico Bahamontes is 92 - he is one of cycling's greatest ever climbers and won the 1959 Tour.

[Satchmo Distel]

Sonny Ramadhin is still alive aged 91, having been only 21 when West Indies won their first series in England.

Alan Davidson, greatest Aussie fast bowler between Lindwall and Lillee, is also 91.

[Third rate Leszno]

Tony Brooks is 88. Only Fangio, Ascari and Moss won more GPs in the 1950s than him.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

As a starter for getting some names on the Dead Pool 2021 game I applaud this. Premature though it is.

[Southport Zeb]

Felix Sienra of Uruguay is the oldest living Olympian at 104. He finished sixth of 21 in the Firefly sailing event in 1948.

The oldest living Olympic medalist is Agnes Keleti, who will be 100 on the 9th January. She won 10 gymnastics medals, including 5 gold, for Hungary at the 1952 and 1956 games.

[elguapo4]

James 'Jas ' Murphy is the oldest living All Ireland football winner aged 97. He played his first inter county game in 1948 for Cork, before declaring for Kerry, where he won two winners medals in the 50s.

[Hot Pepsi]

This made me think about the end of Chariots of Fire when the old guys are coming out of the church talking about their glory days.

That made me think about what it would be like to be an ex-athlete. You work so hard to do something and get lots of validation from other people for it, and then it's over when you're still very young. In many cases, lots of people still want you to talk about it all the time or worse, that's the only reason they want to talk to you at all. That's got to be hard to deal with. A lot of them, of course, don't deal with it. They never really grow up. And a lot of those people become coaches, unfortunately.

[San Bernardhinault]

Arne Ahman - 95 years old - who won the Triple Jump gold seems be the last living track-and-field gold medalist from the '48 London games. Wikipedia helpfully tells us that he is a "retired Swedish athlete".

A quick glance suggests that there are three other individual gold medalists from the '48 games still with us:

Arthur Cook (92) shooting (50m rifle, prone), US
Jimmy McLane (90) swimming (1500m freestyle), US
Greta Anderson (93) swimming (100m freestyle), Denmark

[Jah Womble]

Whether her achievements qualify her for this thread I'm not sure, but cricketer Eileen Ash played seven Test matches for England during the immediate pre- and post-war periods - which obviously would've been more under other circumstances.

She, astonishingly, is 109 years old, lives in north London and - unsurprisingly - is the world's oldest-living international cricketer.

[Nefertiti2]

In the summer a guy called Emile Idee turned 100, he won a stage of the 1949 Tour de France - though that was more of a case of a rider having a glory day rather than being a big name in the sport.
.

Did he win fairly or was it an Idee fix?

[Kevin S]

Whether her achievements qualify her for this thread I'm not sure, but cricketer Eileen Ash played seven Test matches for England during the immediate pre- and post-war periods - which obviously would've been more under other circumstances.

She, astonishingly, is 109 years old, lives in north London and - unsurprisingly - is the world's oldest-living international cricketer.

Oh goodness Eileen Ash qualifies alright and is a great call. The ECB are extremely proud of Eileen and she quite regularly meets and talks to the current women's players.

[Satchmo Distel]

Mario Zagallo (turns 90 in August) is interviewed in the new Pele documentary on Netflix. Still very lucid. The man he replaced as coach ion 1970, Saldanha, died in 1990, eight days after being a summarizer for TV on the Italy v Argentina semi-final. Saldanha, as of 1970, had been a Communist since the 1940s, perhaps earlier.