Károly Kárpáti
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Born | (1906-07-02)July 2, 1906 Eger, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire | |||||||||||||||||
Died | September 23, 1996(1996-09-23) (aged 90) Budapest, Hungary | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Károly Kárpáti (also Károly Kellner, born July 2, 1906, in Eger – September 23, 1996, in Budapest) was a Hungarian Olympic wrestling champion of Jewish heritage.[1]
Career
Károly Kárpáti was born on July 2, 1906, in Eger in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His early chances of becoming an elite athlete seemed negligible as he was introduced to wrestling by a doctor who told his parents that physical activity might help strengthen their short and underweight son.[2] Defying the odds, in his crowning achievement, he won an Olympic gold medal in 1936 in the Lightweight Freestyle class. As a Jewish wrestler, his victory in the Berlin 1936 Nazi Olympics provided special significance, because it came at the expense of Germany's vaunted titleholder, Wolfgang Ehrl. Kárpáti was one of only around nine Jewish athletes who won medals at the Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936.[3]
He won a silver medal in the Lightweight Freestyle class at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In 1928 at the Amsterdam Games, he finished fourth in the same weight class.
He was Hungary's first "freestyle" wrestler, winning his first Hungarian National Junior title in 1925. He went on to win ten Hungarian National Championships, as well as European Lightweight wrestling crowns in 1927, 1929, 1930, and 1935. He also won one silver and two bronze medals in European Championships competitions during the years in between.
Kárpáti was a Hungarian wrestling master trainer-coach and Olympics coach for many years. He authored six books on the sport of wrestling.
The Hungarian champion listed among his hobbies Einstein's Theory of Relativity. In 1982, International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch presented the bronze medal of the Olympic Order to Kárpáti for his lifelong work with youth in sports education.
The Holocaust
During the Second World War and increasingly antisemitic policies in Hungary, as an Olympic Champion, Kárpáti was initially exempt from forced labor camp service or concentration camps where a vast number of the Jewish population were sent. Ultimately, however, he was arrested and sent to work on a labor crew in Nadvirna, Poland and in Western Ukraine.[2] While there, he witnessed the killing of a fellow inmate, Olympic champion fencer Attila Petschauer, and later recalled: “The guards shouted: ‘You, Olympic fencing medal winner . . . let’s see how you can climb trees.’ It was midwinter and bitter cold, but they ordered him to undress, then climb a tree. The amused guards ordered him to crow like a rooster, and sprayed him with water. Frozen from the water, he died shortly after.”[4][5][6][7]
For the rest of the war he succeeded in hiding in the Banki woods and in Pest with family and friends.[8] Kárpáti died in 1996 at age 90.[9]
See also
References
- ^ Paul Taylor (2004). Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics : with a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medallists. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 9781903900888.
- ^ a b "Sinai, Alon, An Olympic medalist and Holocaust survivor, Karoly Karpati epitomized Jewish strength". The Jewish Post. 15 April 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
- ^ "The Nazi Olympics (Berlin 1936)—Jewish Athletes; Olympic Medalists". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
- ^ Lipman, Steve (August 8, 2008). "In Attila's Memory". New York Jewish Week. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2009.
- ^ In the Darkroom – Susan Faludi
- ^ Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust – Agnes Grunwald-Spier
- ^ Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Károly Kárpáti". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ about Karpati in the Hungarian sport journal Nemzetisport Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Károly Kárpáti at the International Wrestling Database (alternate link)
- Károly Kárpáti at Olympedia
- Károly Kárpáti at Olympics.com
- Kárpáti Károly (Kellner Károly) at the Magyar Olimpiai Bizottság (in Hungarian) (English translation)
- on site of Hungarian wrestling with pictures of the sportsman
- on the site of the Jewish Sports hall of fame
- a site about Jewish sportsmen
- v
- t
- e
- 1904 Otto Roehm (USA)
- 1908 George de Relwyskow (GBR)
- 1920 Kalle Anttila (FIN)
- 1924 Russell Vis (USA)
- 1928 Osvald Käpp (EST)
- 1932 Charles Pacôme (FRA)
- 1936 Károly Kárpáti (HUN)
- 1948 Celal Atik (TUR)
- 1952 Olle Anderberg (SWE)
- 1956 Emam-Ali Habibi (IRN)
- 1960 Shelby Wilson (USA)
- 1964 Enyu Valchev (BUL)
- 1968 Abdollah Movahed (IRN)
- 1972 Dan Gable (USA)
- 1976 Pavel Pinigin (URS)
- 1980 Saypulla Absaidov (URS)
- 1984 You In-tak (KOR)
- 1988 Arsen Fadzaev (URS)
- 1992 Arsen Fadzaev (EUN)
- 1996 Vadim Bogiev (RUS)
- 2000 Daniel Igali (CAN)
- 2004 Elbrus Tedeyev (UKR)
- 2008 Ramazan Şahin (TUR)
- 2012 Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu (JPN)
- 2016 Soslan Ramonov (RUS)
- 2020 Takuto Otoguro (JPN)
- 1904: 65.77 kg
- 1908: 66.5 kg
- 1920–1936: 67.5 kg
- 1948–1960: 67 kg
- 1964–1968: 70 kg
- 1972–1996: 68 kg
- 2000: 69 kg
- 2004–2012: 66 kg
- 2016–present: 65 kg