István Szívós, Jr.

After playing water polo for Vasas, István Szívós joined FTC, his first major club, and stayed with them until the age of 20. During his time with them he won two national championships (1965 and 1968) and three national cup competitions (1964-65, 1967). After being admitted to the Budapest University of Dentistry in 1968, Szívós moved to OSC. With his new team, he won seven more championships (1969-1974, 1978), two national cups (1970 and 1974) and two victories in the European Cup (1973 and 1978).

Szívós was 18 when he first played for the Hungarian national team and played for them 308 times up to 1980. He won all titles possible: the European Championship twice, and also the World Championship and World Cup. In 1976, he was a member of the team that won the Montreal Olympics gold medal. He took part in four Olympic Games, and returned home with a medal on each occasion. Szívós was three times the Hungarian water polo player of the year (1969-1971).

After his playing career, Szívós was appointed technical director of OSC in 1980, and in 1981 he graduated from the College of Physical Education as a coach. Between 1983-90 he coached the FTC water polo team, and with them won two national championships and the Hungarian Cup twice, and led them to the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1989. In addition, in 1986, he was appointed as national junior water polo team trainer, a post he held for four years. He applied for the position as head coach to the national team in 1990, but unfortunately did not receive enough support. From 1991-98, Szívós served as executive chairman of the FTC. In 2002 he became head of the Water Polo Department of the Central Sports School, the country’s premier recruiting club, many of whose players later becoming Olympic or World Champions.

Alongside his position as a sports manager, Szívós also worked as a dentist. From 1974 he was an assistant professor at the SOTE Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics Department, and from 1986-2010 was an assistant professor. In 1994 he was awarded the Central Cross of the Order of the Hungarian Republic, and two years later was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 2000 he was nominated a member of the Hungarian water polo team of the century. His father, also István, was a member of the 1952 and 1956 Olympic gold-medal-winning teams, and his son, Márton, is a water polo world champion and two-time Olympian (2012 and 2016) finishing fifth on each occasion.