Ibolya Csák
Encyclopedia
Ibolya Csák was a Hungarian
athlete.
at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
. She won a gold medal in the European Championships in Athletics
in 1938 in unusual circumstances. Csák was the first Hungarian woman to win a gold medal in both events.
Her win in the 1936 Olympics was one of the tightest in the history of high jumping. Three athletes cleared 160 cm but none cleared 162. The three competitors were offered a fourth opportunity and Csák was the only one to clear the height.
She was Jewish; she was one of a number of Jewish athletes who won medals at the Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936.
Csák won the gold medal in the 1938 European championships after the original winner, Germany's Dora Ratjen
, turned out to be a man. The height Csak cleared in that event was the Hungarian record for the high jump for the next 24 years.
She won nine Hungarian titles in all, including two in the long jump.
She was a competitor of the National Gymnastics Club (NTE) from 1929 till 1939, a gymnast from 1929 till 1932 and an athlete from 1933 till 1939. She also received the International Fair Play Life Achievement Award in 2005.
She had two children, Ibolya (1940) and Attila (1942).
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
athlete.
Career
She was best known as the winner of the women's high jumpHigh jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
. She won a gold medal in the European Championships in Athletics
European Championships in Athletics
The European Athletics Championships is an event organized by the European Athletic Association. It is organised every four years, the same year as the Commonwealth Games and between the Summer Olympic Games cycle. After the 2010 Championships in Barcelona, the European Championships will take...
in 1938 in unusual circumstances. Csák was the first Hungarian woman to win a gold medal in both events.
Her win in the 1936 Olympics was one of the tightest in the history of high jumping. Three athletes cleared 160 cm but none cleared 162. The three competitors were offered a fourth opportunity and Csák was the only one to clear the height.
She was Jewish; she was one of a number of Jewish athletes who won medals at the Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936.
Csák won the gold medal in the 1938 European championships after the original winner, Germany's Dora Ratjen
Dora Ratjen
Heinrich Ratjen was a German athlete who competed for Germany in the women's high jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics at Berlin, finishing fourth, but was later discovered to be male...
, turned out to be a man. The height Csak cleared in that event was the Hungarian record for the high jump for the next 24 years.
She won nine Hungarian titles in all, including two in the long jump.
She was a competitor of the National Gymnastics Club (NTE) from 1929 till 1939, a gymnast from 1929 till 1932 and an athlete from 1933 till 1939. She also received the International Fair Play Life Achievement Award in 2005.
Personal
Between 1936 and 1970, she worked in the central office of the Hungarian Banknote Printing Co.She had two children, Ibolya (1940) and Attila (1942).
See also
- List of select Jewish track and field athletes