Márton Homonnai

Márton Homonnai was capped 115 times for the Hungarian water polo team, took part in four Olympics, and was a four-time European Champion (1926, 1927, 1931 and 1934), but only won two Hungarian titles (1923-24). He was the brother of Lájos Homonnai, who also played water polo for Hungary at the Olympics. Márton Homonnai retired from the national team in 1936 but continued to play at the club level until 1939. After his competitive career ended, he was a coach, referee and sports administrator. From 1936-40 he also edited sports magazines, before serving on the Eastern front.

Homonnai was a radical right-wing policeman in World War II, and a member of the Arrow Cross Party, which was a supporter of Hitler and the Nazis. Therefore he was pursued after the war and later sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes, but he escaped prosecution by flying via Germany to Brazil and later Argentina, where he died in 1969. In 1971 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. As she would not have been accepted on the Hungarian swim team, his daughter Katalin Szöke reverted to her mother’s maiden name so that she could take part in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics.