1956: Mass Defections from Hungarian Athletes
The mass defection after Melbourne can only be described as a nightmare for the Hungarian sport administration. It was one thing for athletes from the USSR and other socialist countries to learn techniques from the Hungarians. The 1956 “brawn” drain was an entirely different matter. It essentially gifted one-quarter of Hungary’s top sporting talent and knowledge to the other side of the Cold War.
[1] The rest of the athletes who did not return to Hungary either stayed in Australia, or went to the UK. The attempt to help Hungarian athletes defect to the US occurred due to the last-minute, coordinated efforts of individual Hungarian-Americans, US journalists, the CIA, and Sports Illustrated. See Toby Rider, Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2016, especially Chapter Six.
[2] This was due to the difficulties they faced in finding jobs that would allow them to continue training at the levels they did in Hungary (a benefit of state amateurism), the fact that it took several years to get US citizenship, and the overall struggles they incurred in adapting to life in the US.