István Kozma

István Kozma medal table
Wrestler
Hungary
Olympic games
gold	1964 Rome	Heavy
gold	1968 Mexico City	Heavy
World Championship
bronze	1961 Yokohama	Heavy
gold	1962 Toledo (Ohio )	Heavy
silver	1965 Tampere	Heavy
gold	1966 Toledo (Ohio)	Heavy
gold	1967 Bucharest	Heavy
European Championship
silver	1966 Essen	Heavy
gold	1967 Minsk	Heavy
silver	1968 Västerås	Heavy

István Kozma [ 'iʃtvaːn ˈkozmɒ ] (born November 27, 1939 in Budapest , † April 9, 1970 ibid) was a Hungarian wrestler .

Career

István Kozma's grave in the Budapest cemetery Új köztemető

Kozma started wrestling at an early age and joined Vasas Budapest at the age of 17 and coach Lajos Keresztes , a former Olympic wrestler. Kozma developed into a giant of over 2.00 m in size and about 145 kg body weight. Even so, he remained quick and agile for a heavyweight. One of his great advantages was his long arms, which made it easier for him to grip his opponents than wrestlers with shorter arms. He made his international debut at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome . From 1961 to 1968 success followed success. He also wrestled several times against the German wrestler king Wilfried Dietrich . At the beginning of his career he was still subject to this because Dietrich was ahead of him in experience. But after a relatively short time, Dietrich could no longer defeat Kozma. So it was not only Dietrich, also all other super heavyweights of world renown hardly had a chance against Kozma. The Soviet athlete Anatoly Roschtschin held out best against him, but couldn't prevent István Kozma from becoming Olympic champion in 1964 and 1968. The other Soviet wrestlers Nikolai Schmakow and Ivan Bogdan were defeated by Kozma. Kozma suffered a surprising defeat at the European Championships in 1968 against the Czech Petr Kment and was therefore runner-up behind him. After the Olympic Games in 1968, he began training as a coach, which is why he did not participate in international competitions from 1969 onwards. The entirety of his major tournaments and the fights he contested can be found in the section "International Successes".

He died on April 9, 1970 as a result of a traffic accident in Budapest. István Kozma was the best Greco-Roman style heavyweight wrestler in the world in the 1960s. In 12 difficult tournaments (Olympic Games, World Cup, European Championship), he lost only three fights and won their 43. Of the four opponents that the Soviet Union opposed him in these years (Bogdan, Roschtschin, Schmakow and Kochnev), only Schmakow, Kozma succeeded defeat once. In September 2007 he was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame for his services to wrestling .

International success

(all competitions in the Greco-Roman style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, S = Heavyweight, then over 87 kg or 97 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	Weight class
1959	2.	Intern. Tournament in Split	Heavy	behind Wilfried Dietrich, Germany, in front of Bastimur, Turkey and Bertil Antonsson , Sweden
1960	4th	OS in Rome	Heavy	with victories over Dale Lewis , USA , Adelmo Bulgarelli , Italy , Lucjan Sosnowski , Poland and one defeat against Radoslaw Kasabow, Bulgaria
1961	1.	Intern. Tournament in Riedenburg / Austria	Heavy	before Eugen Wiesberger, Austria and Bugarcic, Yugoslavia
1961	3.	World Cup in Yokohama	Heavy	with victory over Tsuneharu Sugiyama , Japan and a draw against Ragnar Svensson , Sweden , Hamit Kaplan , Turkey and Iwan Bogdan , USSR
1962	1.	"Wladyslaw-Pytlasinski" Memorial in Warsaw	Heavy	in front of Ragnar Svensson, Sweden
1962	2.	Intern. Tournament in Belgrade	Heavy	behind Wilfried Dietrich, in front of Parfenow, USSR
1962	1.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	Heavy	with victories over Svensson, Francisc Balla , Romania , Wilfried Dietrich , Germany and a draw against Anatoli Roschtschin , USSR and Kaplan
1963	5.	World Cup in Helsingborg	Heavy	with victories over Bohumil Kubát , Czechoslovakia , James Raschke , USA and a draw against Dietrich and Roschtschin
1964	gold	OS in Tokyo	Heavy	with victories over Petr Kment , Czechoslovakia, Kaplan, Tsuneharu Sugiyama , Dietrich and a draw against Roschtschin
1965	2.	"Dan Kolew" tournament in Haskovo	Heavy	behind Anatoli Kochnev , USSR a. before Bohumil Kubát, CSSR
1965	2.	World Cup in Tampere	Heavy	with victories over Miodrag Čitaković , Yugoslavia , Svensson, Bekir Aksu , Turkey and Kment and one defeat against Nikolai Schmakov , USSR
1966	2.	EM in Essen	Heavy	with victories over Roland Bock , Germany, Edward Wojda , Poland, Kment and a draw against Roschtschin
1966	1.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	Heavy	with victories over Kment, Aksu, Ryszard Długosz , Poland, Nikolai Schmakow and Svensson
1967	6th	"Ivan Poddubny" Memorial in Moscow	Heavy	Winner: Anatoli Koschnew ahead of Vladimir Susietsch, both from Russia and Radoslaw Kasabow, Bulgaria
1967	1.	EM in Minsk	Heavy	with victories over Kment, Gıyasettin Yılmaz , Turkey, Osmo Hekkala , Finland , Nikolai Schmakow and Wilfried Dietrich
1967	1.	World Cup in Bucharest	Heavy	with victories over Yılmaz, Karl Bachmann , Switzerland , Kmentt and a draw against Stefan Petrow , Bulgaria and Roschtschin
1967	2.	Pre-Olympic Games in Mexico City	Heavy	behind Anatoly Kochnev, in front of Petrov, Bulgaria
1968	2.	EM in Västerås	Heavy	with victories over Svensson, Anatoli Kotschnew, USSR, Bruno Jutzeler , Switzerland, Raymond Uytterhaeghe , Belgium and one defeat against Kment
1968	gold	OS in Mexico City	Heavy	with victories over Petrow, Uytterhaeghe, Yorihide Isogai , Japan, Constantin Bușoiu , Romania, Kment and Roschtschin

National successes

From 1959 to 1969, István Kozma won a total of 15 Hungarian championship titles, ten in the Greco-Roman style and five in the free style, which he did not rank internationally.

swell

• 1) Div. Issues of the professional journal Athletik from 1958 to 1970,
• 2) Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of the FILA, 1976

Web links

• István Kozma's profile at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• István Kozma in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Biography of István Kozma with picture (Hungarian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FILA Class of 2007 ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on July 21, 2010