Rezső Kende

Rezső Kende became acquainted with gymnastics as a secondary school student. He started competing in 1925, and a year later he won first place in the KISOK (National Cup of Secondary Schools) championship in the individual all-around and horizontal bars events In 1927 he was invited to join the national team, where he fought for the right to participate in the Olympic Games. At the 1928 Summer Olympics, he finished tenth as part of the national team and achieved his best result in the individual on parallel bars - finishing 33rd. In 1929 he joined the Hungarian Post and became a member of the Postás SE club. At the 1930 World Championships in Luxembourg, he finished 4th with the Hungarian team and 27th in the individual all-around. After the World Cup, he ended his career as a top athlete due to his employment, military service and university studies, but he continued to take part in smaller competitions and later served as president of the gymnastics department of Postas SE. From 1940 till 2000, he also served as a judge. Until his death on June 19, 2011, at the age of 102, he lived in a nursing home, where he was visited daily by his four children, twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. They also greeted him on his 100th birthday, and thus he became the oldest living Olympian in Hungary at that time.