Zoltán Zsitva

Between 1924 and 1930 Zoltán Zsitva was an athlete and pentathlete at the Ludovika Academy, and from 1930-36 he was an athlete with Budapesti Budai Torna Egylet (BBTE). As an athlete, he won a total of six Hungarian Championships in the 400 and 800 metres and in relays between 1931 and 1936. As a professional military officer, he competed in the first modern pentathlon event in Hungary in 1927, in which he finished third. He took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 400 metres and finished sixth with the 4x400 relay.

Zsitva graduated from the Ludovika Military Academy in 1927. He was deputy commander of the Hussar Regiment, and later worked as a head of the subdivision of the Ministry of Defense. At the end of World War II, he was captured as a prisoner-of-war and later deported as a former military officer. After that, he could only work as a masseur for Bp. Kinizsi, the Ferencvárosi Torna Club (FTC), and the Dunaújvárosi Kohász. His wife, Márta Sass, was a well-known tennis champion in the 1930s, and their two sons, Viktor and Béla, were national-level ice hockey players, with Viktor competing at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympics.

Personal Best: 400 – 48.6 (1935).