Today's Article - Aladár Gerevich


This article is for quizzes on Monday August 15th...

Aladár Gerevich (16 March 1910 in Jászberény – 14 May 1991 in Budapest) was a fencer from Hungary, regarded as "the greatest Olympic swordsman ever". He won gold medals in sabre in six Olympics.
Gerevich is the only athlete to win the same event six times (despite two games passed because of the Second World War). The War could not interfere with perhaps his most impressive record, however; he won gold medals in 1932 and 1960, an unprecedented 28 years apart. This record for the most years between first and last Olympic medals was tied by equestrian Mark Todd of New Zealand in 2012.

Gerevich's wife, Erna Bogen (also known as Erna Bogathy), his son, Pal Gerevich, and his father-in-law, Albert Bogen, all won Olympic medals in fencing.

 In the Hungarian Olympic trials for the 1960 Rome Olympics, the fencing committee told Gerevich that he was too old to compete. He silenced them by challenging the entire sabre team to individual matches and winning every match. He missed the finals of the 1960 Olympic individual sabre event, and a possible individual gold medal, by a single touch. After retiring he coached fencing at the Vasas Sports Club in Budapest, where he died aged 81.

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