Hungary 12th on Olympic medal table

Hungarian athletes won eight gold, three silver and four bronze medals at the 31st Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this August. This tally of medals puts Hungary on 12th place on the medal table of nations – but analysts also point out that the total of 15 medals is the poorest performance for Hungary in the past 80 years after the ten medals (3 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze) won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The most successful member of
the Hungarian team was swimmer Katinka Hosszú who won three gold and a silver
medal by winning the women’s 200- and 400-meter individual medley events (smashing
the world record in the latter) as well as the 100-meter backstroke and finishing
second in the 200-meter backstroke.

Flatwater kayaker Danuta Kozák had her fair
share in three other Olympic victories for Hungary: she won Hungary’s 500^th Olympic medal as she defended her individual 500-meter title she won in London
four years ago, she was member (along with Gabriella Szabó, Tamara Csipes and
Krisztina Fazekas-Zur) of the kayak-four team that also defended their London
Olympic title at 500 meters and she – paired with Gabriella Szabó – also won
the kayak-double 500-meter event in the Rodrigo de Freitas Laguna in Rio de
Janeiro.

The third sports that produced
gold medals for Hungary was fencing. First, Emese Szász crowned her career by beating
Italian Rossella Fiamingo in the women's individual epée final and then, Áron
Szilágyi defeated Daryl Homer of the United States to defend the saber title he
won four years ago in London.

Apart from Hosszú, swimmer László Cseh (men’s
100-meter butterfly) and fencer Géza Imre (men’s individual epée) also finished
second while the Hungarian bronze medalists in Rio included field athlete Anita
Márton (women’s shot put), swimmer Tamás Kenderesi (men’s 200-meter butterfly),
swimmer Boglárka Kapás (women’s 800-meter freestyle) and the men’s epée fencing
team.

All in all, Hungarians have
won 176 gold, 151 silver and 174 bronze medals in modern Olympic history,
including four medals the artistic events (between 1924 and 1948) and six
medals at the Winter Games.