Hungary exceeds expectations at London Olympics

Surpassing expectations by most officials and fans alike, Hungarian competitors won eight gold, four silver and five bronze medals at the 30th Summer Olympic Games that ended this past Sunday, earning the 9th place on the medal table of nations.

This performance means that Hungary regained a place in the Top Ten on the Summer Olympic medal table. The last time it was there was 20 years ago in Barcelona and it had always been there before, as well – except for the two Paris Games (1900 and 1924).

In chronological order, the Hungarian gold medal winners were Áron Szilágyi (men’s individual saber fencing), Dániel Gyurta (men's 200-meter breaststroke swim), Krisztián Berki (pommel horse in men’s gymnastics), Krisztián Pars (men’s hammer throw), Rudolf Dombi and Roland Kökény (men's kayak double at 1,000 meters), Gabriella Szabó, Danuta Kozák, Katalin Kovács and Krisztina Fazekas-Zur (women's kayak four at 500 meters), Danuta Kozák (women's single kayak at 500 meters) and Éva Risztov (women’s 10-kilometer marathon swim).

The silver medal winners: Miklós Ungvári (judo, men’s 66-kilogram category), Tamás Lõrincz (Graeco-Roman wrestling, men’s 66-kilogram category), Zoltán Kammerer, Dávid Tóth, Tamás Kulifai and Dániel Pauman (men’s kayak-four at 1,000 meters) and Katalin Kovács and Natasa Douchev-Janics (women’s kayak double at 500 meters)

Bronze medals were won for Hungary by Éva Csernoviczki (judo, women’s 48-kilogram category), László Cseh (men’s 200-meter individual medley swimming), Péter Módos (Graeco-Roman wrestling, men’s 55-kilogram category), Natasa Douchev-Janics (women’s single kayak at 200 meters) and Ádám Marosi (men’s modern pentathlon).

There were also four 4th places, six 5th places and six 6th places. It means that 77 of the 157 Hungarian Olympic participants finished in the top six in the different events in 12 sports. Hungary’s performance is very similar to the country’s achievements in 2000 in Sydney and in 2004 in Athens where Hungarians also won 17 medals, including 8 golds.