Pál Kovács

From 1932 to 1935 Pál Kovács was a member of Ludovika Akademia SE, and from 1936 was a member of Honvéd Tiszti Vívóklub. From 1947-53 he competed for Ganz Vasas and from 1954-60 was with Bp. Vasas. Between 1935-60, he won a total of 16 national championships in sabre, including seven individual titles. Between 1933-60 he competed for the Hungarian national team.

Kovács won one silver and one bronze medal at the 1933 World University Championships. He finished first with the team at the 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics, as well as at World Championships in 1937, 1951, 1953-55, and 1957-58, and at the 1933 European Championships in Budapest. Individually he won gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and won bronze in 1948. He was second at the 1951 and 1954 World Championships, sixth in 1937 and 1953, and sixth in 1957. He finished his sports career at the age of 48 in 1960.

Kovács studied at the University of Economics, and in 1935 graduated from the Ludovika Military Academy. From 1941 he served on the Russian front. At the end of the war, he fled with his family to Friedrichshafen, Germany and was taken prisoner for a year. After 1947 he worked as the chief engineer at the Ganz Wagon Factory. From 1956-89, he ran a café in downtown Budapest.

From 1963-68 Kovács was president of the Hungarian Fencing Association, and from 1968 was a member of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. From 1976-88 he was vice-president of the Fédération Internationale d’Éscrime (FIE). In 1985, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Fair Play Commission. His sons Attila and Tamás also competed at the Olympics.