István Ondrus

István Ondrus also represented the MTK club in football and table tennis, though he was best known as a sprinter. While still a junior, he won individual sprint competitions and – as part of the MTK team - 4 x 100 m relays setting junior records. Beginning in 1909, he regularly had podiums in races over distances of up to 200 m. In 1912, he won silver in the 220 yd event at the Hungarian Championships which also served as trials for the upcoming Olympic Games. Ondrus was subsequently entered for two sprint events at the Stockholm Olympics but did not start.

In World War I, he served as volunteer lance corporal in the medical corps of the 32nd Infantry Regiment. Just a few months after the outbreak of the war, he was reported wounded and being treated at a military hospital in Novi Sad, Serbia. He died in August 1914 making him one of the first well-known athletes to lose their lives in World War I. In the 1930s, an “István Ondrus Memorial Race” over 200 m was held regularly.