András Balczó

András Balczó (born August 16, 1938 in Kondoros in southern Hungary ) is a former modern pentathlete who was one of the most successful athletes in his sport with three Olympic gold medals and ten world championship titles.

Balczó began modern pentathlon in 1954. At the 1958 World Cup, he was sixth in the individual standings and second with the team. In 1959 he took second place in the individual ranking behind Igor Novikov from the Soviet Union . At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome , Novikov and he gave up all chances of winning in riding and shooting. In the end, he finished in the Olympics, in the team competition he received gold together with Ferenc Németh and Imre Nagy , who had won gold and silver in the individual competition.

In 1961 he was third in the individual standings at the World Cup and second with the team; In 1962 the Hungarians won silver with the team. In 1963 in Magglingen the Hungarians won the team classification and Balczó and Ferenc Török secured gold and silver in the individual classification. On the way home, the Hungarian customs found banned goods from Balczó and his teammate István Móna . The Hungarian Association banned both of them for the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo . Ferenc Török won individual gold, the weakened team won the bronze medal.

At the World Championships in Leipzig in 1965 Balczó was there again and won individual and team gold, he repeated this double victory in 1966 in Melbourne and in 1967 in Jönköping . As a high favorite, Balczó traveled to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City . The Swede Björn Ferm , third in his hometown Jönköping in 1967, was in the lead right from the start and even in Balczó's best individual discipline, the cross-country run , could not be caught. Ferm won eleven points ahead of Balczó, in the team Balczó won together with István Móna and Ferenc Török just ahead of the Soviet team around the up-and-coming Pawel Lednjow and Boris Onishchenko .

In 1969 the world championship took place in Budapest . In the individual standings, Balczó won his fifth title in a row ahead of Onishchenko and Ferm. The Hungarian team narrowly lost to the Soviet team in front of their home crowd. In 1970 in Warendorf the Hungarian Péter Kelemen won the individual ranking ahead of Balczó and Onishchenko. The team with Kelemen and Balczó became world champions, for Balczó it was the fifth team title. In 1971 Balczó was third in the individual standings and second with the team for the fifth time.

Balczó celebrated the end of his career at the Olympic Games in Munich . In his third participation in the Olympics, he succeeded in winning the individual standings ahead of Onishchenko and Lednjow, with the team he was second behind the team from the Soviet Union.

After the Olympic Games in 1972 Balczó ended his career. He married the gymnast Monika Császár , who won bronze with the team in 1972; The marriage resulted in eleven children. Balczó, who was a critic of the Communist Party in Hungary all his life , was not included in the coaching staff after his career as a pentathlon and was not dismissed. This period of his life was captured in a portrait film entitled The Order ( Küldetés ). Balczó moved to the country with his wife and devoted himself to his family and horse breeding.

literature

• Erich Kamper , Bill Mallon : Who's Who of the Olympic Games 1896–1992. Who's Who at the Olympics. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-928562-47-9 .
• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .

Web links

• World Championships in Modern Pentathlon

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hungary: pentathlete as a movie hero . DER SPIEGEL 34/1977, accessed on March 5, 2015