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Tokyo 1964

The beginnings of the Olympic movement in Hungary go back further than the Games in Athens. Ferenc Kemeny, a great pacifist and member of the International Peace Bureau, was one of Pierre de Coubertin's first kindred spirits, with whom he struck up a friendship in the 1880's. He took an active part in the Congress for the re-establishment of the Games held in Paris in 1894 and was one of the founder members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Coubertin supported Kemeny's suggestion to hold the first Olympics in Budapest in 1896 in honor of Hungary's 1000 years of statehood.Hungarian Olympic Triumph!
by Bryan Dawson

Did you know...as of 2016, Hungary ranks 8th in the world in medals at the Summer Olympic Games despite its being torn apart after WWI and losing half her population and 2/3 of her territory. This does not include an additional 6 medals won in the Winter Olympics nor the Hungarians that won medals as nationals of other countries after borders were redrawn or after large-scale emigration.

Ferenc Kemeny,
founding
member of the International Olympic Committee.

The beginnings of the Olympic movement in Hungary go back further than the Games in Athens. Ferenc Kemeny, a great pacifist and member of the International Peace Bureau, was one of Pierre de Coubertin's first kindred spirits, with whom he struck up a friendship in the 1880's.

Kemeny took an active part in the Congress for the re-establishment of the Games held in Paris in 1894 and was one of the founding members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Coubertin supported Kemeny's suggestion to hold the first Olympics in Budapest in 1896 in honor of Hungary's 1000 years of statehood. While the dream of hosting an Olympics is not yet realized, Hungary has won more Olympic medals than any other nation that has never hosted the Games.

Hungary in the Olympics - Select a Year:

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COPYRIGHT:
Please ask for permission and CITE this source, attributing Bryan Dawson, before using this information.


1964 Tokyo Highlights1964 Tokyo Highlights

  • Hungary wins 42 Gold, 7 Silver, and 7 bronze!
  • Iolanda Balas (Balázs Jolán), perhaps the greatest high jumper of all time, wins gold again competing for Rumania
  • Men's Fencing Team Hungary continue domination in their sport, taking 10th Gold!
  • Women's Fencing Team Hungary also take Gold
  • Men's Waterpolo team Hungary also continue to dominate, winning 5th Gold!
  • Fencer Kulcsar Gyozo wins his 1st of 4 Golds!
  • Deaf Fencer Rejto Ildiko wins 2 Golds!
  • Men's Soccer Team Hungary wins 2nd Gold!
  • Wrestler Imre Polyak, finally wins gold after Record three consecutive Silvers!
  • Water polo player Dezso Gyarmati wins fifth medal in a row

Hungarian Medals!

Medal
Name Event
Gold
Iolanda Balas High Jump Competing for Rumania
Gold
Török Ferenc dr Modern Pentathlon / öttusa egyéni
Gold
Hammerl László dr. Shooting / sportlövészet kisöbű sportpuska fekvő
Gold
Kozma István Wrestling / birkózás kötöttfogás 97 kg felett
Gold
Polyák Imre Wrestling / birkózás kötöttfogás 63 kg
Gold
Rejtő Ildikó Individual Fencing / vívás tőr egyéni
Gold
Pézsa Tibor Individual Fencing / vívás kard egyéni
Gold
Bárány Árpád Men's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Gábor Tamás Men's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Kausz István dr Men's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Kulcsár Gyöző Men's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Nemere Zoltán Men's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Dömölky Lídia Women's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Ágoston Judit Women's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Juhász Katalin Women's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Marosi Paula Women's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Rejtő Ildikó Women's Team Fencing / vívás tőr csapat
Gold
Ambrus Miklós Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Bodnár András dr. Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Boros Ottó Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Dömötör Zoltán Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Felkai László Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Gyarmati Dezső Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Kanizsa Tivadar Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Kárpáti György dr Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Konrád II. János Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Mayer Mihály Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Pócsik Dénes Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Rusorán Péter Team Waterpolo / vizilabda csapat
Gold
Bene Ferenc Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Csernai Tibor Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Farkas János Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Gelei József Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Ihász Kálmán Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Katona Sándor Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Komora Imre Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Nógrádi Ferenc Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Novák Dezső Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Orbán Árpád Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Palotai Károly Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Szentmihályi Antal Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Szepesi Gusztáv Soccer / Labdarugás
Gold
Varga Zoltán Soccer / Labdarugás
Silver
Antal Márta Javelin / gerelyhajítás
Silver
Kulcsár Gergely Javelin / gerelyhajítás
Silver
Földi Imre Weightlifting / súlyemelés légsúly 56 kg
Silver
Tóth Géza Weightlifting / súlyemelés légsúly 82.5 kg
Silver
Horváth Zoltán Fencing / vívás kard egyéni
Silver
Hesz (Hess) Mihály Kayak Canoe / kajak-kenu K-1 1,000 m
Silver
Makray Katalin Gymnastics Uneven Bars / felemás korlát
Silver
Zsivótzky Gyula Hammerthrow / kalapácsvetés
Bronze
Ducza Anikó Gymnastics Floor / műszabadgyakorlat
Bronze
Hammerl László dr. Shooting overall / sportlövészet kisöbű sportpuska összetett
Bronze
Nagy Imre Modern Pentathlon (team) / öttusa csapat
Bronze
Török Ferenc dr Modern Pentathlon (team) / öttusa csapat
Bronze
Török Ottó dr Modern Pentathlon (team) / öttusa csapat
Bronze
Nagy Imre Modern Pentathlon (team) / öttusa csapat
Bronze
Varjú Vilmos Shot Put / súlylökés
Bronze
Veres Győző Weightlifting / súlyemelés légsúly 82.5 kg

Search all 1964 medalists (in Hungarian)



Featured Olympians

Rejto Ildiko:
(b. 5/11/1937 Budapest)

A Triumphant "Handicapped" Icon,  winner of 7 Olympic Medals, and still a Champion in 1999!
Among followers in the small world of fencing she is an icon and Hungary's third "handicapped" Olympic Gold Medalist, Ildiko Rejtofollowing in the footsteps of the 1936 Waterpolo Gold Medalist Oliver Halassy who was missing a leg and 1948 shooting Gold Medalist Karoly Takacs who was missing his former shooting right hand. 

Born deaf, Ujlaky-Rejto Ildiko became the best female fencer in the world, peaking  in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She began fencing at the age of 15 and coaches communicated with her by instructions written on a piece of paper between her fencing sessions. Ildiko won the junior world foil championship in 1956-57, was the Hungarian foil champion in 1958, and was the World foil champion in 1963. 

Rejto participated in FIVE Olympics - 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976 - and won 7 medals:

  • 1960 - team silver
  • 1964 - individual and team gold
  • 1968 - team silver; individual bronze
  • 1972 - team silver
  • 1976 - team bronze

She has continued to compete and in 1999, Ildiko won the women's foil (over 60 years old) at the World Veterans Championships!  Rejto's name is sometimes mistakenly spelled as Rojto.

Ildiko Rejto is not the only "handicapped" Hungarian Olympic Medalist. Shooter Karoly Takacs, the "Right-Handed Shooter Who Won With His Left Hand,"... became the first repeat winner of the rapid-fire pistol event, taking Gold Medals in 1948 and 1952. A Sergeant in the Hungarian Army, Takács lost his right hand when a grenade malfunctioned. He was unable to compete in 1940 and 1944 as the war interrupted the Olympic Games and first competed at the age of 38. Amputee Oliver Halassy won two Gold Medals in Waterpolo in 1932 and 1936 and a Silver in 1928.


Iolanda Balas (Balazs)Iolanda Balas (Balazs):
(b. 12/12/1936 Transylvania)

She dominated like no other...
Iolanda Balas (Balázs Jolán) completely dominated women's high jumping between 1957 and 1967. Balas, a Rumanian citizen of Hungarian origin born in Transylvania in 1936 (the former Hungarian region transferred to Rumania after World War I at the Treaty of Trianon), was married to her coach and fellow high jumper Janos Sőtér (Ion Soeter) who died in 1987. Iolanda Balas occupies a special niche in athletics history, a class apart. For a whole decade she went unbeaten winning an incredible 140 consecutive competitions and breaking the world record 14 times, mostly her own.

Her 1961 record of 1.91 metres remained unbeaten for ten years.  She captured Olympic titles in 1960 and 1964 by huge margins, and such was her supremacy that at the time she cleared 1.91m, no other woman had gone higher than 1.78m. Some of her luckless contemporaries complained that they had no chance against her because she was so very tall (1.85m, or nearly 6ft 1in) with particularly long legs even for that height. But that physical advantage was largely cancelled out by her inability to master the more efficient straddle and western roll techniques of the pre-Fosbury Flop era. She explained: "My style is quite obsolete but it suits my body structure." She is now a leading international official.

Read more at the International Association of Athletics Federations or at the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Heroes


How Hungary Shrank: Ostensibly in the name of national self-determination, the Treaty dismembered the thousand-year-old Kingdom of Hungary, a self-contained, geographically and economically coherent and durable formation in the Carpathian Basin and boasting the longest lasting historical borders in Europe. It was imposed on Hungary without any negotiation, drawing artificial borders in gross violation of the ethnic principle, it also transferred over three million indigenous ethnic Hungarians and over 70% of the country's territory to foreign rule.The punitive and ill-conceived Treaty of Trianon cost Hungary 2/3 of her territory and half her population, 1/3 of which were ethnic Hungarian. Not only was a huge pool of athletic talent cut off from the mother country, the now small, weak Hungary would not be able to resist future Soviet expansion. In a twist of Olympic fate, a now Soviet-dominated Hungary would bow to pressure and boycott the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

One thousand years of nation building successfully delineated groups in Central and Eastern Europe on culture, religion, geography, and other attributes, creating many historic nation-states. While some Western European nations would continue power struggles and princely battles and civil wars, Hungary, founded in 896, was a peaceful multi-ethnic state for a 1000 years and her borders were unchanged.... Until 1920 where new states were drawn by Western powers aiming to expand their own hegemony rather than respect the right to self-determination.

These "Hungarian Olympic Triumph" pages contain many examples of Hungarian Olympic Champions that were born within the boundaries of historic Hungary. But many of these cities, towns, and villages are no longer within Hungary. Historic communities declined. Forced removals such as the Benes Decrees and other pograms, the effects of WWI, and Trianon in 1920 ethnic cleansing, and continued pressure and discriminative policies such as the 2009 Slovak Language Law, continue to take their toll. Ironically, Ferenc Kemeny, one of the founders of the Olympic Movement and the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) first Secretary, was born in Nagybecskerek, Hungary in what is now known as Zrenjanin in the Vojvodina part of Serbia after the Treaty of Trianon.


Laszlo Hammerl Istvan Kozma Tibor Pezsa

Imre Polyak Ferenc Torok Gyozo Kulcsar

1964 Men's Soccer Team Hungary

1964 Men's Fencing Team Hungary 1964 Women's Fencing Team Hungary

1964 Men's Waterpolo Team Hungary

Click for larger images

 

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