BUDAPEST, Hungry (AFP) — The oldest living Olympic champion Sandor Tarics, who was a member of Hungary’s gold-medal winning waterpolo team at the 1936 Games, has died aged 102.
Tarics, who was born in 1913 in Budapest, passed away at his home in San Francisco, according to a statement by the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) Saturday.
A keen mathematician from an early age and an engineer by profession, he left Hungary after the Communist Party takeover in 1948 and settled in San Francisco where he worked as a university professor.
He later achieved fame for his work in earthquake research, and in particular his design of earthquake-proof building technologies.
A recipient of official honours in both the US and Hungary, he also served for a period as the UN’s earthquake advisor.
After the death in 2011 of Italian cyclist Attilio Pavesi, who won two golds at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, Tarics became the oldest living Olympic champion.
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