Klára Bánfalvi-Fried

Klára Bánfalvi started kayaking in Elektromos in 1943, winning her first national championship title two years later. During her sports career she won the Hungarian championship twenty-five times.

Her first international competition was the 1948 Olympics where she finished fourth in the K1 500 meters. In 1952 she competed in the colors of the Budapesti Honvéd, and from 1953 the Vörös Lobogó and the MTK. In 1954 she became world champion in K2 500 meters (along with Hilda Pintér). She took part at the 1957 European Championship and the 1958 World Cup, but did not win a medal. From 1958 she became an athlete of the Újpesti Dózsa. In 1959 and 1961 she won the European Championship, and in 1960 she won an Olympic bronze medal (along with Vilma Egresi). In 1963 she ended her competitive career. Klára Bánfalvi was the first female world champion in Hungary and the first Hungarian kayaker to win an Olympic medal.

After her retirement, she and her husband ran the Olimpia Espresso at the bridgehead of Erzsébet Bridge in Buda. In 1968 the married couple moved to Vienna and opened a restaurant in the city center.