Elemér Terták

Elemér Terták started his sports career as a skater with BKE in 1926 and achieved significant results in individual figure skating. Between 1937 and 1939 he won the Hungarian championship three times. Starting from 1934 he was a member of the Hungarian national team, and in the same year, he won a bronze medal at the European Championships. He finished eighth at the 1936 Winter Olympics under the name Tardonfalvy. In 1937 he helped win the World University Games and won bronze medals both at the World and the European Championships. He retired in 1939 after earning his second Universiade title.

In 1940 Terták obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Budapest. From 1945 to 1950 he was the vice-president of the Hungarian National Skating Association. Terták played a significant role in the re-organization of Hungarian figure skating after World War II. From 1947 he also acted as an international judge. He was the lead judge in the men’s competition at the 1980 Winter Olympics and at the 1984 Sarajevo Games pairs event. From 1951 he became a member of the technical committee of the International Skating Association (ISU), and from 1957 served as president.

Terták graduated from the College of Physical Education in 1963 with a degree in coaching skating, and from 1960 taught figure skating courses at the college. In 1979 Terták developed a new method for calculating the results of figure skating. In 1988, he resigned from the International Federation, but in the same year he became an honorary associate professor at the College of Physical Education.

In 1993 he was awarded the Medal of Merit of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. In 1998, the President of the IOC recognized his invaluable merits with the highest award of the Olympic Movement, the IOC’s Medal of Merit.