Dezső Gyarmati: The Athlete Who Got it All
Dezső Gyarmati's life went quite differently than Benedek’s. He defected briefly to the United States with his wife, the highly successful swimmer Éva Szekély. When they left Hungary, it was not with the rest of the Hungarian Olympic team. Instead, they returned to Hungary after Melbourne. But after reportedly getting beaten up by some Russian soldiers, the two decided to defect on their own accord (and resources) just before Christmas of 1956. They lingered in Austria, hoping to gain visas and passage to the United States. Gyarmati and Szekély made it to America. But without any aid from the US government, the pair left and went to Italy, hoping to try their luck with the well-developed water polo circle there. After some negotiation with the Hungarian government, they returned to Hungary in 1958.[1]
Unlike Szűcs, Gyarmati's defection did not spur a death sentence. Gyarmati faced a 1-year suspension from competitive sport. Gyarmati rejoined the national team late in 1958 however, and competed for Hungary at the 1960 Rome Olympics. After retiring, he became the coach of the national water polo team in the mid-1970s. His career peaked in 1976, when the Hungarian men’s water polo team won the gold medal at the Montreal Olympics that year.
The significant difference in how the defections of Szűcs and Gyarmati were treated illustrates a near-radical shift in sport leaders' tactics with athletes. Rather than be relegated to the background (like Benedek), Gyarmati is still considered the best Hungarian water polo player of all time. The below video, made in his honor after his death, shows the reverence that surrounded Gyarmati. He was and still remains a hero in the eyes of Hungarians. In many ways, he really was the athlete who got it all.
The significant difference in how the defections of Szűcs and Gyarmati were treated illustrates a near-radical shift in sport leaders' tactics with athletes. Rather than be relegated to the background (like Benedek), Gyarmati is still considered the best Hungarian water polo player of all time. The below video, made in his honor after his death, shows the reverence that surrounded Gyarmati. He was and still remains a hero in the eyes of Hungarians. In many ways, he really was the athlete who got it all.
[1] Harry Blutstein, Sport and International Politics in the 1950s (forthcoming 2017).
