Tamás Sudár

Tamás Sudár started skiing at the age of 7 and joined the ski jumping team of Bp. Honvéd at the age of 11. He became a Hungarian champion twice as a youth (1958, 1960) and was a three-time national champion silver medalist as a senior (1959, 1961, 1963) and a member of the championship team twice (1963, 1965). Yet he was most proud that he was the first Hungarian jumper to jump 80 metres and was chosen for the 1960 Winter Olympics for this performance.

No one could accompany the 18-year-old to the Squaw Valley Olympics, so he had to prepare for the competition alone for three weeks, which piqued the interest of Tony Curtis and Life Magazine. The American filmstar, who was of Hungarian descent, spent a day in Squaw Valley and wanted to meet Hungarian athletes. Life Magazine was also curious about the special situation of a Hungarian boy and his meeting with Tony Curtis, and thus, Tamás Sudár, who finished only 41st in the ski jumping competition, ended up on the cover of Life Magazine on 29 February 1960.

After his sports career in 1967, Sudár worked as a coach for a few years. In 1968, as a coach at the Grenoble Winter Olympics, he helped the best Hungarian ski jumper of all-time, László Gellér, to a 19th place finish with the best Hungarian result to date.

Sudár was an iron turner as a profession, but later became a grinder and tool maker. Eventually, he was a team leader at a German telecommunications company.