János Parti

János Parti began his sports career as an ice hockey player, continued as a speed skater, and then at the age of seventeen became a canoeist for the Városi Tanács SK and the Budapesti Petőfi. During his career, he won a total of nineteen Hungarian championship titles.

Parti competed for the Hungarian national team from 1952 to 1963 achieving outstanding results in various canoe distances. In 1954 he won the world championship title in the 1000m at the world championships, which were very successful for the Hungarians. He won gold medals in the 10,000m at three consecutive European Championships (1957, 1959, 1961). He participated in three Olympics and achieved medals in all three. After two silver medals (1952 1000m and 1956 10000m), he won the Olympic gold in the 1000m in Roma in 1960. He retired from active sports in 1965.

In 1963 Parti became a master kayak-canoe coach at the Physical Education College, and in 1968, he earned a law degree from Eötvös Loránd University. From 1955 to 1970, he was the coach of the Városi Tanács SK, Budapesti Petőfi, and Budapest SE, and then from 1971 to 1977, Budapesti Honvéd. From 1977 he was appointed the national captain of the Hungarian kayak-canoe team. Under his leadership, Hungary became one of the most successful nations in the world in the flatwater branch of the sport. Parti retired after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. As a retiree, he was a technical advisor to the Iranian and Canadian kayak-canoe teams and an instructor for Hungarian marathon kayak-canoeing. In 1992 he ran for the presidency of the Hungarian Kayak-Canoe Association before becoming their Vice-President from 1992 to 1997.