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).

Papp László boxer 100 best Olympians champion

Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Bálint Urbán/Fortepan

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.

Ferenc Puskás (1927-2006)

Hungarian footballer Ferenc Puskás, winner of the 1952 Olympic gold medal and the 1954 World Cup silver medal, is probably one of the most famous Hungarians in the world. A striker and attacking midfielder, he scored 84 goals in 85 international appearances for Hungary and went on to play four times for Spain. In 1995, he was named the top scorer of the 20th century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.

Ferenc Puskás in Helsinki (1952) Photo: Fortepan / Bojár Sándor

DNH collected 5+1 facts about Ferenc Puskás that you may not have known HERE.

Károly Takács (1910-1976)

Last but not least, Károly Takács, a marksman who won gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics and the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, was also included among the 100 best Olympians. His story is also special because he lost the use of his right hand in a grenade accident in 1938, which meant he had to learn to write and shoot with his left hand. The Hungarian Olympic Committee website describes him as a “cool-headed, iron-willed” athlete who was so sure of victory in London that he wrote his winning statement before the event.

Those left out of the list of the 100 best Olympians

As Telex points out, fans of Hungarian sports who have a look at the list will probably be able to come up with a number of names that are absent from the list of notable athletes. The portal mentions Krisztina Egerszegi, five-time Olympic swimming champion, as well as Aladár Gerevich, seven-time Olympic fencing champion, and András Balczó, three-time Olympic pentathlete champion.

Among those who could also have made it onto the list of the 100 best Olympians are Tamás Darnyi, four-time Olympic swimming champion, and Ágnes Keleti, five-time Olympic gymnastics champion and Hungary’s oldest living Olympic champion.