Hungarian Olympic Moments

Hungary has had its share of truly memorable Olympic moments throughout the history of the Games.

1896 Olympic Games, Athens, Greece 
Alfréd Hajós, the first modern Olympic swimming champion and the first Olympic champion from Hungary.

1928 Olympic Games, Antwerp, Belgium
: Attila Petschauer, the Olympic champion in men’s fencing (then called the “sabre”). He died in a Ukrainian concentration camp during World War II, and his story became the basis for the movie “Sunshine” starring Ralph Fiennes.

1952 Summer Games, Helsinki, Finland
 Hungary’s most successful summer games, finishing 3rd in medal rankings behind the USA and the USSR, with 16 Gold, 10 Silver and 16 Bronze Medals.

1956 Summer Games, Melbourne, Australia 
Water polo semi-final, Hungary vs. USSR, when a mass of Hungarian supporters besieged the Soviet players after Valentin Prokopov headbutted Ervin Zádor, cutting his eye open.

1988 Summer Games, Seoul, Korea
 Krisztina Egerszegi, who until her record was broken in 1992, was the youngest woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming. She competed in 3 Olympics, and won 5 Gold Medals. She is one of only 3 people to have ever won the same event at three consecutive Summer Olympics.