László Karácson

László Karácson became acquainted with pentathlon as a student at the Zrinyi Miklós Hungarian Royal Secondary School in Pécs. As a competitor of the Honvéd Officers’ Fencing Club he won the national championship in 1941-1942. The Second World War interrupted his career but, in 1946, together with Ferenc Benedek, he set about relaunching the sport. They created the predecessor of the pentathlon association, which was named the Modern Pentathlon Management Committee and operated as such until 1948, when the official association was founded. In 1946 he founded a pentathlon section in Csepel.

The best results of the first years of the restarted pentathlon in Hungary are linked to his name: in 1946 and 1947, he won the national championship individually and, in addition, he won six more championship titles as a team. In 1946 he also won the championship title in fencing as a member of the Miklós Toldi SE épée team. In 1948 Karácson participated as a modern pentathlete at the London Olympics, where he fell during horseback riding and suffered a double fracture of his collarbone. In the next two events – fencing and shooting – he competed with his left hand, despite being right-handed, and still finished 11th and 32nd, respectively. He was unable to start in the swimming and was forced to give up the competition. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics he was the reserve and was not allowed to travel with the team.

He ended his active sports career in 1955 before working as a coach and then as a competition judge. He worked as a trainer and specialist at the Pedagógus SK, and then from 1960 he worked again at Csepel as a fencing trainer until his retirement. He was also an international fencing referee. In 1975 he also participated in the Budapest Fencing World Championships. In 1959 he was accused of attempting to overthrow the People’s Republic, for which he spent a year in prison.