Sir Durward Knowles, known to many by his nickname "Sea Wolf", was laid to rest following his death on February 24, aged 100. A veteran of eight Olympic Games, he won a bronze medal in the star class sailing at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and, in partnership with the late Cecil Cooke, added a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

Following the death in May 2016, at the age of 102, of Hungarian water polo player Sandor Tarics, Knowles - who was born on November 2, 1917 - became the oldest surviving Olympic champion.

That distinction is now believed to have passed to Finland's Lydia Wideman, the Winter Olympic 10 kilometres cross-country gold medallist at Oslo 1952, who is 97.

Hungary's Ágnes Keleti is believed to be the oldest living Summer Olympic champion.

She won 10 medals in gymnastics at Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956, including five gold.

Keleti turned 97 in January.

The oldest living Olympic medallist is Folke Alnevik, part of Sweden's 4x400 metres relay team that won a bronze at London 1948. Born on December 31, 1919, he is now 98.

The oldest living Olympian is believed to be John Lysak, who represented the United States in canoeing at Berlin 1936, and is 103.

As the generations slide on, this is a never-ending Olympic story. But it is hardly coincidence that many of these veteran Olympians are remarkable not just as competitors, but as people.

Shortly before he died of kidney failure in hospital, surrounded by family members, Knowles wrote in his final book Never Give Up: "As I write this book, I am almost 100 and right now I am in a good place. My body is not bad for a centurion and my mind is sound.

"I can honestly say, I have lived a full life and if my eyes closed tomorrow, I would feel I left the world a better place than I found it. Never give up!"

During his tribute, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis extended condolences on behalf of a "grateful nation" to a man who "loved our Bahamas with joy and exuberance".

Dr Minnis added: "Sir Durward Knowles was a world-class athlete and Olympian. He was an accomplished businessman, a man of excellence who exhibited discipline in every field of endeavour.

"He loved his family and his country with tremendous passion and devotion.

"As I noted on several occasions, Sir Durward demonstrated the nobility and largeness of spirit to confront certain historic wrongs in our country, which some others chose to silently ignore at best.

"His involvement with the disability community demonstrated a core value of Sir Durward.

"This value is the dignity of all of God's people, regardless of any circumstance of birth or life.

"He passionately believed that we all deserve a chance to succeed in life, and spent his life helping others to succeed and fulfil their potential. He used his privilege to help the underprivileged and the vulnerable. This was a testament to his faith and to his commitment to good citizenship.

"Sir Durward Knowles represents the very best of the Bahamian spirit."

In 2014, the Commodore of the National Family Island Regatta, Danny Strachan, acknowledged the "millions of dollars" Knowles had put in to assist in the promotion of sporting activities and to help communities around The Bahamas.

"Sir Durward Knowles has been especially outstanding in his interest in and donations to the sport of sailing in The Bahamas, and his many contributions have gone not only to assist in the provision of prizes for sailing champions, but also in the encouragement of younger Bahamians to learn and to compete in this national sport," said Strachan.

In his home country, his contributions as a philanthropist were valued at least as highly as his sporting virtues. But for the wider world, it is these for which he will be best remembered.

Knowles was 46 at the time of the 1964 Olympics, which was his fifth Games. He and his sailing partner Cooke earned a narrow victory in their boat, named "Gem", over the US pair of Richard Stearns and Lynn Williams, who would have taken gold had they been six seconds faster in the last race. On such margins does history rest…

A Tribune report from October 21, 1964 describes Knowles' Olympic win.

"Durward Knowles, the famed Bahamian yachtsman, has won a gold medal in the star class of the sailing events at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo," it read. "This is the first one ever won by The Bahamas at the Olympics.

"Despite a seventh place finish in the final race of the seven race series today, the 47-year-old Bahamian skipper compiled a total of 5,664 points to outclass 15 other competitors. Finishing in second place was the United States with 5,585 points and Sweden third with 5,527 points.

"Knowles, sailing his Gem IX and using Cecil Cooke as crew, won the opening race in the star class division on October 12 with entries from Finland and Russia placing second and third respectively.

"Following the second race Knowles was in an overall second place with 1,964 points but he was plagued by 'bad luck' in the third and was forced to withdraw from that race after the shackle on his boat pulled.

"The veteran Bahamian yachtsman bounced back with victory in the fifth race and backed this up with a first place finish in the sixth to take a narrow lead with one race remaining.

"He went into today's race with 5,279 points and his seventh place finish secured the gold medal for The Bahamas."

Knowles' step-brother, Percy, told Brent Stubbs of tribunemedia.net that there was initial uncertainty over who had won gold in the star slass at the Tokyo Games.

"After crossing the finish line in the last race, The Bahamas was not sure they had won the gold," he said. "First of all, we were not sure how the USA and Finland finished as they were very close to the Gem in points. Secondly, the question of whether they calculated the points correctly.

"Then they passed the committee boat, and they yelled: 'Well done Bahamas'. 

"They were still not convinced until Bob Levin [The Bahamas' boatman] pulled up in his small runabout and yelled: 'Congratulations Randolph [Sir Durward's middle name], you all have just won the gold medal.'"

At the awards presentation, God Save The Queen was played as the Union Jack was rasied as The Bahamas was still under British rule. 

"I was so thrilled I sang the whole anthem with tears flowing down my cheeks," Percy Knowles said. "It was the most joyful night this side of heaven."

Never Give Up was Knowles' third book. His first, Driven, published in 1992, revealed how he bought his first boat as a dilapidated wreck. In order to raise money to repair it, the witty Sir Durward named the boat "Church". Thus, he was able to go around requesting donations for the repair of the church.

One of the many tributes at his funeral, as reported by the Tribune, was presented by Steven Kelly, a fellow crew member who was able to reflect on Knowles' sailing in the Olympics and at 23 World Championships in which he won a title in 1947 and was in the top 10 in 11 others.

Kelly was 20 when he first crewed for Knowles at the 1975 World Championships. Over the next decade Kelly became a rival rather than a crew-mate, and he recalled a key race between the old master and himself as they contended for the right to represent The Bahamas at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

"Monty Higgs and I were able to win that race and earn our place at the Olympic Games," Kelly said. "Monty had been Sir Durward's crew for most of the 1970s, crewing for him at the 1972 Olympic Games. It took every bit of knowledge and experience that we had gained from Sir Durward over our time sailing with him to accomplish that win.

"Sir Durward was gracious in defeat and helped us train for the event, the consummate teacher and mentor.

"He crossed generations with his star crew. He taught us all how to love sailing and what it was like to compete at the highest levels the sport had to offer. We were fortunate to have enjoyed that time with him."

Four years after that Olympic trial defeat, Knowles returned to the Olympic regatta for the eighth time at the Seoul Olympics, aged 70.

It is not surprising that there should be strong suggestions of a statue of Knowles being permanently established on Prince George Dock in the heart of Nassau.

Knowles' predecessor as the oldest living Olympic gold medallist, Tarics, was similarly active until the end of his life.

In 2016, shortly before his death, he made his contribution to the - ultimately short-lived - bid to bring the 2024 Olympic Games to the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Tarics was a member of Hungary's gold medal winning water polo team at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, with the hosts having to settle for silver.

"I am glad Budapest and Hungary is bidding to host the Olympics in 2024 and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the bid will be successful," said Tarics, who was living in San Francisco.

"I believe that sport is a field of life that creates harmony and friendship through competition.

"I think it is great when nations around the world compete with each other for a sports-related cause.

"The competition is always very tough. Look at my city, for example. I have been living in San Fransisco for a long time now.

"Everything is perfect here, the city has had lots of ambitions to host the Olympics in the past, but unfortunately it never had the chance to make it happen.

"I would like to give advice to my fellow Hungarians, but as you can see from this example as well, it can hardly ever be foretold who the final winner of this close and many-faceted race will be."

Tarics had taken over as the world's oldest living Olympic champion when Italian cyclist Attilio Pavesi, who won gold in Los Angeles in 1932, died at the age of 100 in 2011.

The woman now acknowledged as the oldest living Olympic champion, Wideman, was the first female Olympic gold medallist in the cross-country event, which was introduced at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo.

A month before Knowles' death, on January 24, Carla Marangoni, who was the world's oldest surviving Olympic medallist, passed away at the age of 102.

The Italian gymnast won team silver with her country at the Amsterdam 1928 Games, when she was just 12-years-old.

She was among the first Olympic women's medallists in Italian history, and the only surviving participant from the Games in the Dutch capital.

"She will remain an unforgettable protagonist in the history of Italian sport and the Olympic Movement," said a statement from the Italian National Olympic Committee.

The oldest surviving Olympian is believed to be 103-year-old Lysak, an American canoeist who competed in the 1936 Olympic Games. Born on August 16, 1914, he competed in the men's 10km folding kayak doubles with Jimmy O'Rourke, placing seventh.

Previous oldest Olympians include Simone Schaller, an American athlete who competed at the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games, who was born August 22, 1912. She finished fourth in the 80 metres hurdles event in 1932, and was eliminated in the semi-finals in the same event in 1936. She died just after the Rio Olympics on October 20, 2016, aged 104.

Ingeborg Ingers, a Swedish diver born April 19, 1912 held the title before Schaller. She competed in the platform at the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics and finished in fourth and ninth place, respectively. She died on November 22, 2015, aged 103 years.

Guo Jie a Chinese Olympic athlete who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, also held the title. He was born January 16, 1912, and died on November 15, 2015, aged 103.

In 2008, Mark Purdy of The Mercury News tracked down Lysak at his home in California's Bay Area.

Lysak, then 93, recalled travelling back from the Games on the same ship as the fellow countryman who had won four Olympic golds there, Jesse Owens. They had discussed the way the German Fuhrer had refused to shake hands with black American athletes.

"He told me the snub didn't hurt his feelings because as a black man that kind of thing had been going on all his life," Lysak recalled. "He had gotten used to it."

Lysak, who had been 21 at the time of the Games, added: "After I got back, people asked me what it was like. I remember going into Berlin and everybody was wearing a uniform - whether it was a military uniform or a scout uniform or school uniform or whatever. And there were a lot of flowers, and the flags. The swastikas."

Lysak, Wideman, Keleti, Alnevik – all are now Torchbearers of the Olympics' living history…