Hungarian Olympic champion turns 100

The oldest living Olympic Champion, Sándor Tarics, who won gold in the 1936 Olympics with the Hungarian water polo teamturned 100 this past Monday. He was honored by the International and the Hungarian Olympic Committee.

Sándor Tarics was a member of the Hungarian national water polo team that won the Olympic championship title in Berlin in 1936. There, he shook hands with Hitler and witnessed the long jump of the legendary Jesse Owens whom he sought out to shake his hands and chat with him.

Sándor Tarics later moved the United States and worked as a construction engineer there. He now lives in Belvedere, California. 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.