Former Hungarian water polo player Sándor Tarics, the oldest living Olympic champion in the world, has received the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in his home in California.
98-year-old Sándor Tarics now lives in Belvedere, California in the United States. It is there that he was presented with the Hungarian state decoration by the Hungarian Consul General in Los Angeles, Balázs Bokor.
Sándor Tarics was a member of the Hungarian national water polo team that won the Olympic championship titile in Berlin in 1936. There, he shook hands with Hitler and witnessed the long jump of the legendary Jesse Owens.
Being an Olympic champion is a great achievement but Tarics managed to surpass even that in civil life. His 1995 patent 'composite seismic isolator' revolutionized the construction of earthquake-resistant high-rise buildings.
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