János Toldi

János Toldi began his sports career in 1943 in the colors of BSzKRT and achieved national team-level results in two sports. He skied in the winter and kayaked in the summer. In 1947 he won the youth championship in cross-country skiing. In kayak he won a total of three championships between 1947 and 1948.

In 1947 he finished first in the K2 10,000m distance at the unofficial European Workers’ Championship held in Hungary. Based on his results, he had a chance to participate in both the Winter and Summer Olympics in 1948; however, due to a broken leg, he could only compete in the Summer Games. In London, he started in the K1 1000m event, but he only finished in seventh place in his preliminaries and ended up unplaced. In 1949, he was included in the Hungarian national team preparing for the college world championship, but after that his name did not appear in the sports sections of the newspapers.

After his competitive days were over he resumed his training and work as a gardener and landscaper. During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution he joined the masses of mostly young people, making his way over the border to Austria in early November of 1956. After a few years in England he finally made it to California. He worked in nurseries, was a caretaker for a wealthy landowner’s ranch, and then went to work on one of his other major talents, fine French cooking. He worked in a highly regarded French restaurant in Carmel, L’Escargot, eventually serving as chef. Later he was employed as a professional ski patroller at Heavenly Valley in Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada, and was a lifelong adventure skier and sailor (but no formal competitions).