Hungary (HUN)

Hungary was one of the countries which attended the first Olympic Games in 1896, in Athens, although it was then, in fact, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A National Olympic Committee was formed in Hungary in 1895, by Dr. Ferenc Kemény, who was one of the founding members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Hungary has missed only two Olympics, including the Olympic Winter Games, at which it has appeared at all celebrations. Hungary was not invited to the 1920 Olympics in Antwerpen, having been an aggressor nation in World War I. The nation chose not to attend the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in support of the Soviet-led boycott.

Hungary has been very successful in a variety of sports, but its greatest honors have come in fencing. In one fencing discipline, the sabre, it has been the dominant nation. In fact, between 1908 and 1960, Hungary won 9 of 11 team titles and 10 of 11 individual titles in this event. Through 2022, Hungary has won a total of 521 Olympic medals, including 183 gold. This is the most medals and gold medals won by a nation that has not yet hosted an Olympic Games.

One Hungarian Olympian, fencer Aladár Gerevich, has won 7 gold medals, from 1932-1960. He is followed in the Hungarian gold medal count by three athletes with six gold medals: Pál Kovács and Rudolf Kárpáti, both in fencing, and female canoeist Danuta Kozák. Two Hungarian Olympians have won a total of 10 medals: Gerevich and gymnast Ágnes Keleti, with five gold.

Hungary has competed at every Olympic Winter Games from 1924-2022, winning 10 Winter Olympic medals. Beijing 2022 marked the first time that the nation won more than one medal in a single edition of the Winter Games. Six of these medals have come in pairs figure skating and four in short-track speed skating. In 2018, Hungary won its first gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games, when the men’s short-track speed skating relay team finished first. One of the members of the relay team, Shaoang Liu, returned at Beijing 2022 to win one gold and two bronze medals, thus becoming the only Hungarian Winter Olympian with four medals and two golds.