Olympic Champion Fencer Lídia Dömölky Becomes Athlete of the Nation

Olympic champion fencer Lídia Dömölky has been officially accepted by the government as the Athlete of the Nation, the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) announced in a press release published in the Hungarian Gazette.

The committee recalled on its website that after the death of Ágnes Keleti, the Olympic and world champion in fencing, Lídia Sákovicsné Dömölky, was nominated as one of the Athletes of the Nation at their meeting on January 22.

Lídia Dömölky won the gold medal with the foil team at the 1964 Tokyo Games. At the 1960 and 1968 Olympic games, the foil team, together with Lídia Dömölky, won silver medals.

Her greatest individual success came in 1955, when she became world champion in Rome at the age of 19.

After her active career as an athlete, she worked as a coach and journalist, was a member of the MOB’s Heritage Committee in the previous term and previously edited the newsletter of the Hungarian Olympic Academy.

Under the Sports Act, the Athletes of the Nation propose a new member, who is nominated by the State Secretary for Sport and then the government decides on the candidate.

Members of the Board must be over 60 years of age, have achieved outstanding results as a sportsperson and have played an important role in the sporting life of their country after their competitive career.

The current Athletes of the Nation are András Balczó, Tamás Faragó, István Jónyer, Mária Ivánkay, Jenő Kamuti, Zoltán Magyar, Lajos Portisch, Ildikó Rejtő, Lídia Dömölky, Pál Schmitt, István Vaskuti and Sándor Wladár.

Two Fencing Championships, Two Medals over the Weekend