Alfred Hajós, original name: Arnold Guttmann, Hungarian swimmer who won three Olympic medals and was the first Olympic swimming champion at the revived games in Athens in 1896.
Hajós began swimming at age 13 after his father drowned in the Danube River. In 1895 he won the 100-metre freestyle title at the European championships in Vienna. At the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, the swimming contests were held outdoors, in the cold Bay of Zea at Phaleron. Hajós won gold medals in two of the four swimming events, one in 100-metre freestyle and one in the 1,200-metre freestyle.
"Compared with present Olympic participants whose main travel problem
may be jet lag, the small group of Hungarian competitors setting off for
Athens faced a much bigger one. The train journey from Budapest to Salonica
alone took three days. Then there was a wait of several hours before embarking
on the ferry to Athens, a further 36-hour trip.
There were a total of 137 participants at the games - these days
there are 10,000 plus - from 10 nations, including eight from Hungary,
23 from Britain and 21 from USA. Germany, with 42, provided the largest
contingent. What impressed Father was partly the interest in the games
shown by the Press - in sharp contrast with the Hungarian one: and even
more the huge attendances at the stadium, peaking at around 60,000 at the
opening ceremony.
Father had eight days before his first event to acclimatise, especially
to get used to the freezing (11C- 13C) water of the Bay of Zea where the
swimming events were to be held. On the big day, April 11th, he arrived
early: To his surprise, a crowd he estimated at around 40,000 surrounded
the bay to watch the races. The conditions, even in the context of the
times, were primitive, with the start and finishing lines marked by ropes
attached to buoys. The 16 competitors were transported to the start by
small steamers: there were not even boards or planks to dive from. Father
won the 100m race in the even then, rather slow time of 1min 22.2 secs.
The Hungarian flag was hoisted and to his - and the small Hungarian colony’s
disgust, the Austrian anthem was played by the band. So when the band stopped,
the Hungarians present sang their own anthem - and it began to sink in
that one of their own actually won an Olympic championship. (It was like
“God Save the Queen” played at games with a Scots team involved)
The 500m race started within a half an hour, so Hajós, barely
recovered from the earlier race, had to watch an Austrian he had already
beaten before, winning it.
Friends suggested to him to give the last, 1200m race a miss, not
to jeopardise the glory earned in the 100m, but by that time, “I felt fresh
and in good spirits”. He was also encased in a thick oily substance to
guard against the freezing water.
Father confessed later that the race was one of the few times he
feared death. Out in the open sea the fifteen competitors had heavy waves
to cope with, and at some stage of the race he was several lengths behind
the Greek leaders. However he caught up with them before reaching the bay,
by which time the waves had subsided, and with one competitor after another
giving up, he won easily in the then world record time of 18m.22 secs.
The flag went up again, the Hungarian colony sang again: but Father was
too stiff, too tired even to climb out - he had to be hoisted from the
ice cold water by kind Greek sailors and wrapped up warmly before being
embraced and cheered by Hungarian fellow athletes and officials".
(Extract from "The Champion and I" by Andrew Hargrave, unpublished)
At the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, Hajós, an accomplished architect, won a silver medal for sports architecture. An avid athlete, he twice was a member of the Hungarian national football team.
Architect. Principle work being the National Covered Swimming
Stadium on Margaret Island, Budapest, and the hotel, Arany Bika, in
Debrecen.
Article by Mihaly Kocsis
on Alfred Hajos (Needs Acrobat
Reader)
Michael A Hargrave: mhargrave@bigpond.com
First Published: 25 January 2001
Last Updated: 13 August 2001