Hungarian athletes included among 100 best Olympians

A French publication has compiled a list of the 100 best Olympians in the history of the Games to mark the 2024 Paris Olympics, and there are five Hungarian athletes on the prestigious list.

A new book, entitled Les 100 stars des Jeux Olympiques (The 100 Stars of the Olympic Games), portrays 100 athletes who have left their mark on the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The photographs highlight their incredible achievements in their respective fields and provide a retrospective of the most iconic figures of the Games from 1896 to 2020.

From James Connoly, the first Olympic medallist of the modern era in Athens in 1896, to Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Essa Barshim, the double gold medallists in the high jump at the 2020 Games, the collection offers “a richly illustrated retrospective of the highlights of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.

Telex spotted that the book includes several Hungarian athletes among the 100 best Olympians. Although the list is obviously subjective, it is nonetheless interesting to see which Hungarian athletes made a deep impression on the French.

Dezső Gyarmati (1927-2013)

Dezső Gyarmati was a three-time Olympic champion (1952, 1956, and 1964) and a two-time European champion water polo player. He was awarded both the Prima Primissima Prize and the Hungarian Order of Merit. Born in Miskolc, the legendary player and national team captain played in a total of five Olympic Games and worked as a sports administrator and politician.

László Papp (1926-2003)

László Papp was a three-time Olympic champion Hungarian boxer, trainer, and sports manager, regarded as one of the most famous and best boxers in Hungary and the world. He won gold medals at the Olympic Games in London (1948), Helsinki (1952), and Melbourne (1956), becoming the first boxer to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals. Since then, only two other athletes have achieved this feat, Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon (who, interestingly, are both Cuban).

István Pelle (1907-1986)

István Pelle was a two-time Olympic champion gymnast, who in 1932 won the first and second Hungarian gold medals in gymnastics in the history of the Olympics. However, his career as a sportsman was quite tumultuous, as Nemzeti Sport recalls. Despite his initial success, Pelle at one point asked to be removed from the federation’s register of competitors because the Hungarian federation did not take kindly to his appearing at shows for pay and took disciplinary action against him. Pelle soon retired from competitive sport, graduated in law in 1936, and settled in Argentina after the Second World War.