Péter Kovács

Péter Kovács started his sports career as a gymnast of the affiliation of his hometown. In 1973 Kovács transferred to Dunaújváros Kohász and was a competitor of the association until his retirement in 1984. During his career he won nine Hungarian championship titles.

Kovács was a member of the Hungarian adult national team from 1976. His big breakthrough was his exercise on the horizontal bar, presented at the 1979 European Championships, for which he won the silver medal. It was at this competition that he first performed the Kovács salto, later named after him, which means a double salto over the bar and the subsequent catch. At the Universiade in Mexico, he won silver on the parallel bars. He was also a member of the Hungarian team that won the bronze medal at the 1980 Moskva Olympics.

Kovács obtained a coaching certificate at the Physical Education College in 1982, graduating as a physical education teacher at the Eger Teacher Training College three years later. During his sports career he started coaching in Dunaújváros, from where he moved to Sopron in 2003. Due to his injuries he lived as a disabled pensioner, but he was still active as a trainer for a while. In 2014 Kovács was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Hungarian Gymnastics.