János Garay (fencer)

The native form of this personal name is Garay János. This article uses the Western name order.
Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Hungary
Men's Fencing
Gold Amsterdam 1928 Team sabre
Silver Paris 1924 Team sabre
Bronze Paris 1924 Individual sabre

János Garay (February 23, 1889, in Budapest, Hungary – March 5, 1945, in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, Oberösterreich, Austria) was a Hungarian fencer,[1] and one of the best sabre fencers in the world in the 1920s.[2][3]

Fencing career

Hungarian Championship

Garay was the Hungarian national sabre champion in 1923.

European and World Championships

In 1925 and 1930, Garay captured the Individual European Sabre Championship gold medal. He won the team sabre gold medal at the 1930 European Championships.

Olympics

He won silver medal for team saber at the 1924 Paris Olympics.[4]

He also won a gold medal in team saber at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.[4]

Concentration Camp and Death

He was one of 437,000 Jews deported from Hungary after Germany occupied the country in 1944.

Garay was killed shortly thereafter, in 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, shortly before the end of World War II.[5]

Janos Garay was not Jewish in religion. His parents were Jewish. He always felt very strongly Hungarian. He fought in the 1st World War as a Captain and was highly decorated. He was part of the team who went to negotiate in England during the War before Hungary joined the Germans. He had a high position in the Office of Foreign Trade. He was on the Gestapo list and therefore immediately taken from his office, as soon the Germans occupied Budapest. He was killed not because of his race or religious beliefs but for his action. After the war he was declared as a political prisoner killed by the Germans.

Hall of Fame

Garay, who was Jewish, was inducted in 1990 into The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel.[6][7][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mob.hu/cgi-bin/index.php?file=belso/memorian.html
  2. ↑ "Uc_Hilal : Jews In Sports @ Virtual Museum". Jewsinsports.org. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  3. ↑ "János Garay Biography and Olympic Results | Olympics at". Sports-reference.com. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "János Garay Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  5. ↑ Schaffer, Kay; Smith, Sidonie (2000). The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics, and the Games. Rutgers University Press. pp. 60–62. ISBN 978-0-8135-2820-5.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20030818200655/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/zcd078.htm
  8. ↑ "Janos Garay". webcache.googleusercontent.com. January 25, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2010.

External links