Russian researchers claim 'World's oldest woman' lied about her age when she died

Washington, Jan 7: The French woman who died as the world's oldest may have lied about her age by stealing her mother's identity to tack on an extra 23 years, a mathematician claims in a blockbuster new report.

Jeanne Calment, the oldest documented person to have lived, died in 1997, at 122. However, a Russian mathematician, Nikolay Zak, is claiming her record to be false.

Zak from the Moscow Center For Continuous Mathematical Education said in a report that Calment passed away in 1997. The lady who died was actually Yvonne Calment, Jeanne's daughter, he said.

Zak, along with gerontologist Valery Novoselov, spent months scrutinizing Jeanne Calment's biographies, interviews, photos, witness testimony and public records in the city of Arles in southern France, where she lived.

"Analyzing all these materials led me to conclude that Jeanne Calment's daughter Yvonne assumed her mother's identity," Zak told Agence France-Presse.

Zak, a member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists at Moscow State University, also says there are discrepancies between physical characteristics listed on Jeanne's identity card from the 1930s and her appearance as an older woman.