István Sárkány

István Sárkány started his sports career as a gymnast in 1927 in the colors of MTE (Munkás Testedző Egyesület). In 1930 he moved to VAC (Vívó és Atlétikai Club), but after World War II returned to MTE and finally ended his active gymnastics career at Bp. Vörös Meteor in 1951. At the national championships he won once in the team event (1949) and twice on individual apparatuses, the parallel bars in 1934 and horizontal bar in 1935. Between 1931 and 1947 Sárkány competed for the national team eight times. As a member of the Hungarian team, he finished fifth at the 1934 World Championships and seventh at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Sárkány graduated as a physical education teacher and coach in 1959 and became a master trainer in 1961. After his retirement from competition, he served as an international judge and worked as the secretary-general of the Hungarian Gymnastics Association, helping to develop a competitive structure for sports acrobatics and rhythmic gymnastics and to organize them into independent disciplines. Between 1968 and 1975 Sárkány was the coach of the Hungarian men’s national team. Prior to his retirement, he worked as a senior teacher at the State School of Art. His first wife was the five-time Olympic champion athlete Ágnes Keleti.