Ilona Novák

Ilona Novák
Bust of Ilona Novák on the Olympic promenade of the Ferencvárosi Torna Club
Personal information
Surname:	Ilona Novák
Nation:	Hungary
Swimming style (s) :	Backstroke, freestyle
Society:	Budapesti Kinizsi
Birthday:	May 16, 1925
Place of birth:	Budapest
Date of death:	March 14, 2019
Place of death:	Budapest
Medal table

Ilona Novák (born May 16, 1925 in Budapest ; † March 14, 2019 there ) was a Hungarian swimmer .

Life

Ilona Novák began her 18-year swimming career in 1938. From 1941 to 1954 she was a member of the Hungarian national team. In total, she won 54 national and international gold medals. At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London , she was fourth in the 100 m back and fifth in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay . In 1952 she took part in the Olympic Summer Games in Helsinki , where she won the gold medal as captain of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay together with her younger sister Éva Novák , Judit Temes and Katalin Szőke . With a time of 4: 24.4 min her relay broke the previous long-course world record, which the Hungarian swimmers had only set in April of the same year in Moscow, there in the cast of Mária Littomericzky , Éva Novák, Éva Székely and Katalin Szöke .

Ilona Novák worked as a sports teacher in Budapest and as a gymnastics and swimming coach. From 1971 she was Vice President of the Hungarian Swimming Federation.

In 1973 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame with her sister Éva Novák . They were the only pair of sisters to ever win Olympic gold in swimming.

Web links

Commons : Ilona Novák  - collection of images

• Ilona Novák in the International Swimming Hall of Fame (English)
• Ilona Novák in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ilona Novák in the International Swimming Hall of Fame (English)
2. ↑ Ilona Novák in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )