Balázs Kiss (athlete)

Baláz's Kiss
nation	Hungary
birthday	21st March 1972 (age 48)
place of birth	Veszprém , Hungary
size	188 cm
Weight	115 kg
Career
discipline	Hammer throw
Best performance	83.00 m (June 4, 1998 in Saint-Denis )
society	Veszprémi Egyetemi és Diák AC
Trainer	Ernő Szabó , Dan Lange
status	resigned
End of career	May 10, 2003
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 0 × European championships 0 × 1 × 0 × Goodwill Games 0 × 0 × 1 × Summer Universiade 2 × 1 × 0 × U20 European Championships 0 × 0 × 1 ×
Olympic games gold Atlanta 1996 81.24 m  European championships silver Budapest 1998 81.26 m  Goodwill Games bronze Brisbane 2001 79.51 m  Universiade silver Buffalo 1993 76.88 m gold Fukuoka 1995 79.74 m gold Catania 1997 79.42 m  Junior European Championships bronze Thessaloniki 1991 68.40 m
last change: April 1, 2020

Balázs Kiss [ ˈbɒlaːʒ ˈkiʃ ] (born March 21, 1972 in Veszprém ) is a former Hungarian hammer thrower . He became Olympic champion in 1996 and vice European champion in 1998 and also won the Summer Universiade twice.

Athletic career

Balázs Kiss gained his first international experience in 1991 at the Junior European Championships in Thessaloniki , where he won the bronze medal with a width of 68.40 m. Two years later he took part in the Summer Universiade in Buffalo for the first time , where he won the silver medal behind Ukrainian Wadim Kolesnik with a throw at 76.88 m . In 1994 he first took part in the European Championships in Helsinki , where he reached the final, in which he finished twelfth with 73.08 m. The following year he was fourth at the World Championships in Gothenburg with 79.02 m and then won the Student World Games in Fukuoka with a width of 79.74 m. In 1996 he qualified for his only participation in the Olympic Games in Atlanta , where he threw the hammer in the final to 81.4 m and thus won the gold medal, making him the fourth Hungarian Olympic champion after Imre Németh , József Csermák and Gyula Zsivótzky in this discipline was. He then reached fourth place at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Milan with 78.34 m.

At the World Athletics Championships in Athens in 1997 , he again reached fourth place with a width of 79.96 m and then successfully defended his title at the Summer Universiade in Catania with a throw of 79.42 m. The following year he won the silver medal at the European Home Championships in Budapest with 81.26 m behind his compatriot and long-time rival Tibor Gécsek , before he finished second behind Gécsek with 79.71 m at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Moscow . In 1999 he retired at the World Championships in Seville with 74.61 m in qualification and two years later he finished sixth at the World Athletics Championships in Edmonton in 2001 with 79.75 m, before he at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane with a distance of 79.51 m won the bronze medal behind the Japanese Kōji Murofushi and Szymon Ziółkowski from Poland. In 2002 he finished fourth at the European Championships in Munich with 80.17 m, before he finished third at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Paris with a throw of 79.74 m, behind the Japanese Murofushi and his compatriot Adrián Annus . On May 10, 2003 he played his last competition in Osaka , where he finished fourth with 77.46 m and then ended his active sporting career after 14 years.

In 1998 and 2000, Kiss was the Hungarian hammer throw champion. He graduated from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and became an NCAA college champion in 1995 and 1996, making him the first track and field athlete to defend his title in two consecutive years. In addition, Kiss is a member of the Magyar Olimpiai Bizottság , the national Olympic committee, and has been a board member of the Hungarian University Sports Association since 2011.

Awards

• Athlete of the Year: 1995, 1996, 1997
• Hungarian Order of Merit : 1996 Officer's Cross

Web links

• Balázs Kiss in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Balázs Kiss in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )