Like mixed swimmer Tamás Darnyi, gymnast Zoltán Magyar ended his career in such a way that between 1973 and 1980 he was unbeatable in any world competition – the World Cup, the World Cup, the Olympic Games. At the Five-Ring Games in Moscow, he almost fell victim to politics: despite his strongest practices, they tried to score. The Hungarian team warned, and even teased, that if Zoltan Magyar, who is not the best, was taken out as the winner, or a tie was declared, our entire delegation would withdraw and travel home in protest of the fraud.
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| Zoltán Magyar over the abaya (Photo: Getty Images, archive) |
Karoly Magyar Gotcha, who has been president of the Hungarian Gymnastics Association since 2011, recalls in his book: The Hungarian World Jogger, that due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, many Western sporting powers, including the United States, Canada and Japan, moved away from the Moscow Olympics in 1980, and thus led the Soviet East German fencing.
“Both giants used all the tricks and influence of sports diplomacy in order to get as many medals as possible for their competitors,” says Magiar, who notes that after scoring Hungarian boxers and especially wrestlers – silver medalist Stefan Toth told us more. The Soviets also tried to hook Alexander Getyatin and Magyar with a pendulum in a pendulum swing, which they said would be good for everyone, as the Hungarian gymnast would have known that Moscow would be his last race, and the Soviet public was happy to have Gyy first in the boat. He was enriched with a medal Another golden.
When the Hungarian captain Dezs Bordán learned about this, he began to protest vigorously, because he was aware that his opponent was much better than the Hungarians. It was believed that if they were restrained, they would not rise to take the medal in protest. Istvan Buda pointed this out with another shovel when he told the Soviet comrades that if the final was cheated, the entire Hungarian Olympic delegation would uniformly withdraw and fly home.
According to Zoltán Magyar, who has since been elected Athlete of the Nation, Buda felt he simply wouldn’t be allowed to be ridiculed at the sight of the country’s world if he practiced.
Although Magyar gave impeccable training in the playoffs, the scorers only ranked him fifth. The Hungarian team warned that the result was legitimate and added 75 percentage points to its score so that it could reach the final from first place. There he then trained almost flawlessly, earned the max 10 points he earned and became an Olympic champion again.
Then he cut his handguard to shreds, opened a whiskey bottle in the locker room, lit a cigarette, and never raced again.
