Latest Olympic Medal Mysteries

Today on Oldest Olympians, we are blogging about a subject that we have not discussed in some time: Olympic medal mysteries. These are individuals who won medals at the Games and would be over the age of 90, but for whom we have been unable to locate evidence as to whether they are alive or deceased. The first is Pakistani field hockey player Bashir Ahmed, born December 23, 1934. Ahmed represented his country in the tournament at the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he won a gold medal. He earned another victory with the team at the 1962 Asian Games. Despite these achievements, we have been unable to ascertain further information on Ahmed, perhaps because of his relatively common name. Next we have Danish sailor Ole Gunnar Petersen, born December 30, 1934. Petersen represented his country in the Flying Dutchman class, alongside Hans Fogh, at two editions of the Games, 1960 and 1964, winning silver in the former and coming in fourth at the latter. Despite these achievements, as well his partnership with one of the most well-known Olympic sailors, we have been unable to find more about Petersen, again possibly due to his relatively common name. Finally, we are featuring French track athlete Jocelyn Delecour, born January 2, 1935. Delecour represented his country in eight events across four editions of the Games, 1956-1968, winning bronze in the 4×100 metres relay in 1964 and 1968. He was European champion in that event in 1966, and also took bronze in the 200 metres and silver in the 100 metres in 1958 and 1962. A silver medalist in the relay at the 1963 Mediterranean Games, he was also an eight-time French national champion across various disciplines and later served on the administrative role in the sport. Delecour does not appear in the French national death index, so we suspect that he is likely still alive, but we have not seen a source that confirms this.