Chilling details: Hungarian World Champion canoeist spotted with bleeding head before his death in Budapest

Neighbours spotted former Olympic canoeist and world champion Miki Dudás stumbling home with a bloodied head just before his death – yet the laid-back athlete brushed it off as a mere fall and barricaded himself in his flat for days. It was his partner and mother who made the grim discovery after he’d gone completely off the radar.

World Champion dies aged 34

Miki Dudás was found dead in his own flat by his influencer-model partner, Ivett Szigligeti, and his mother, Klári.

At 23, he’d clinched world champion gold in Moscow as part of the 4x200m relay team, building on a prior youth world title. But his 2015 European Games triumph was stripped after a doping violation, plunging him into emotional turmoil. That same year, he met Ivett – mother of his children – in a relationship that rollercoastered wildly.

The second devastating blow came in 2025 with his father’s death. István had been brutally assaulted the previous autumn by a six-man gang of boxers at a petrol station. Whispers at the Pesterzsébet market, where the Dudás family once sold flowers, suggest it was no random attack: he’d clashed with a bakery worker who’d spread rumours of him cheating on his wife.

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Grandfather’s claim: “They simply beat him to death”

István slipped into a coma from the savage beating and succumbed to his injuries in February last year. Market gossip now links that tragedy to Miki’s own demise.

Miki’s grandfather, “Uncle Pista,” insists his grandson was beaten to death – though he’s unsure if it happened inside the flat or out. “They found him frozen in blood on his bed,” he says. “Miki wasn’t a bad lad; he was a true sportsman. I can’t wrap my head around it. I’m utterly heartbroken.” He adds that Miki’s life was turning around: a full-time personal trainer gig at Victory Fitness in Kispest started in January, plus TV appearances lined up.