Klaus Koste won gold in the vault at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. He told The Standard, an English circulation daily, that a common complaint among the older generation is that "I cannot move as I am old" whereas the truth is "I will get old if I do not move."
Koste's arrival coincided with the release of a recent survey in which 77 percent of the polled elderly said they had not exercised for more than 10 years.
The hearty German silenced the fearful and entered like a former Olympic gymnast, somersaulting for a grand entry at the venue, followed by handsprings, cartwheels, handstands and parallel bars movements.
Koste and his wife are table tennis and cycling aficionados. She accompanyies him on this trip.
The former Olympian was delighted to see people exercising in parks early in the morning. "Even mild exercise can help blood circulation," he told The Standard.
Recalling his own recovery from potentially lethal threatening heart surgery condition in 2005, Koste said surgical procedures should not stop people from exercising.