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SPORTS ZONE 2: World’s Oldest Olympic Medalist Dies

Olympic gold medalist Feroze Khan passed away Thursday April 21, 2005. He was the world’s oldest Olympic medal winner. "Khan died here peacefully and without any illness," his son Farooq Feroze Khan said to reporters in Karachi, Pakistan.

Khan played field hockey for India at the 1928 games in Amsterdam. Field hockey players use a shorter stick than ice hockey players. Khan learned to play using a tree branch while growing up in Jalandhar, which is located in north western India. He played center and right forward. Forwards play on offense and are the main scorers for the team.

In the early 1950s, he left India and moved to Pakistan, the bordering country to the west. He became a coach and a selector for Pakistan’s national team.

Khan learned he had become the world’s oldest living Olympic medal winner in 2004. He celebrated his 100th birthday in September of the same year and said to reporters, “I am proud to be 100 and am going great. This is ample proof of the fact that discipline and individuals with sporting habits can live longer.”

--Written by Sarah Kurachek

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