Fun facts about the Hungarian Olympic Team

The 5^th of August marks the flare of the Olympic flame in Rio, which means the beginning of the XXXI Summer Olympic Games. Hungary is represented by 160 sportsmen, and the Hungarian Olympic Committee collected some fun facts about the team for the occasion.

The youngest member of the Olympic Team is Anna Késely, who will only turn 15 in September, after Rio. Swimmers were always the youngest at the latest Games: Liliána Szilágyi in London and Boglárka Kapás in Beijing; however they were both already 15 at the Games.

The oldest sportsmen is Géza Imre. The World Champion, Olympic silver and bronze medallist epee fencer turned 41 last December. Hungary’s all time youngest Olympic Champion is Krisztina Egerszegi (she was 14), while the oldest is Aladár Gerevich (he was 50).

The most routinish members of the team are fencer Aida Mohamed and surfer Áron Gádorfalvi, who will be participating at their 6^th Olympic Games in a row, thus catching up to the recorder seven times Olympic Champion Aladár Gerevich. Aida will also break the record of Ildikó Rejtő and become the Hungarian sportswoman who attended the most Olympic Games. Rio will be the 5^th participation for epee fencer Géza Imre, shooter Péter Sidi and three time Olympic Champion Natasa Douchev-Janics, who represented Yugoslavia at the time of her first participation.

The tallest members of the team are water polo player Márton Vámos and discus thrower Zoltán Kővágó with their 204 centimetres. Water polo players Ádám Decker and Balázs Hárai only lag behind them with one centimetre. The shortest member of the team is marathon runner Tünde Szabó with 154 centimetres, passing shooter Julianna Miskolczi (156 cm) and gymnast Zsófia Kovács (157 cm). And the team’s heaviest person is weight-lifter Péter Nagy with 150 kg-s.

The Hungarian Olympic Team is strengthened by six sibling pairs. Olympic Champion water polo players Dániel Varga and Dénes Varga are attending their 3^rd Games, while the similarly water polo players Attila Decker and Ádám Decker could celebrate again after the 2013 World Championships. The wrestler Lőrincz brothers, Olympic silver medallist Tamás and Olympic freshman Viktor, also try for medals together, just like the champion of 200 m breaststroke Dániel Gyurta and his smaller brother Gergely Gyurta. Imre Pulai, the father of swimmers Bence Pulai and Vince Pulai, won a C-2 gold medal in Sydney and the preparation of his sons is now led by their foster-father, György Turi. The life of the Verrasztó family also revolves around swimming: this will be Evelyn’s 4^th and Dávid’s 2^nd Olympic Games. Their father, Zoltán Verrasztó is an Olympic silver and bronze medallist, while their mother, Mónika Gyúró is a several times Hungarian Champion swimmer.

Tamara Csipes wants to repeat her father’s, Ferenc Csipes’ Olympic success from 1988. Up till now it only happened 3 times that the child of an Olympic Champion also won a gold medal: the hammer thrower Imre Németh’s (1948) javelin thrower son Miklós in 1976 , the water polo player Márton Homonnai’s (1936) swimmer daughter Kató Szőke in 1952 and the water polo player István Szívós’ (1952,1956) water polo player son István in 1976. Current water polo player Márton Szívós is the member of this family, meaning that he could write sport history if winning in Rio as the third generation.

There is only one other three-generation Hungarian Olympic family: swimmer Liliána Szilágyi’s father, Zoltán Szilágyi attended three Olympic Games and her grandfather is a three time Olympic Champion water polo player. Her family is quite rich in medals: Liliána’s aunt, Andrea Gyarmati, is an Olympic silver medallist swimmer, while her uncle, Mihály Hesz is an Olympic Champion canoer.

The Bogen-Gerevich fencer family has the most medals as a family. The grandfather, Albert Bogen won a silver medal in 1912, his daughter, Erna Bogen won a bronze medal in 1932, while her husband, Aladár Gerevich, won 10 medals at 6 Olympic Games. Their son, Pál Gerevich, won two gold medals as part of the fencing team in 1972 and 1980.

Photos: www.facebook.com/MagyarOlimpiaiBizottság

Copy editor: bm

Source: http://www.mob.hu/