Athletes Behaving BadlyMain MenuAthletes Behaving Badly: The Evolution of Socialist Hungary's Elite Sport Policy Through the Prism of PunishmentsAn Analysis of Elite Sport in Socialist Hungary Through Punishments Athletes ReceivedIntroductionHungarian Sport in the Cold WarMolding Athletes Behavior: Punishments as a LessonNo. 1 Crime: Defecting to the West1951: The Case of Sándor Szűcs1956: Mass Defections from Hungarian AthletesCase #2: Géza Kádas in 1957Case #3: Gábor BenedekDezső Gyarmati: The Athlete Who Got it AllThe Ambiguous Crime of Smuggling: Both A Prized Reward and Punishable OffenseConclusion: Impact of 1956 Revolution & Mass Defections on PunishmentsJohanna Mellis337c8aa15975253503108a6ba2daff82d0111139
1media/IMG_2610 Benedek Gabor.JPG2016-11-09T08:27:54-08:00Case #3: Gábor Benedek10image_header2016-12-13T08:59:53-08:00The Melbourne Olympic Games began a mere two weeks after the 1956 Revolution ended. The athletes themselves did not find out about the Soviet invasion and crushing of the rebellion until after they arrived in Australia. Many of the athletes at that point decided not to return to Hungary.[1] The Hungarian Olympic team formed a Revolutionary Committee as a sort of sport counterpart to the numerous revolutionary committees and councils that were created during the Revolution itself.
On of the elected leaders of the Revolutionary committee was pentathlete Gábor Benedek, shown above. He won a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics, and was the champion at the 1953 and 1954 World Pentathlon Championships. When he returned to Hungary after Melbourne, Benedek was forced into retirement by the Hungarian Physical Education and Sport, and stripped of his privileges. By 1959 he was allowed to begin training young pentathletes, several of whom went on to have enormously successful careers. Benedek ended up defecting to West Germany in 1969.
Although it is not clear why, Benedek's coaching career never took off the way it did for Dezső Gyarmati, the other leader of the Revolutionary Committee. Perhaps if Benedek had not left Hungary in 1969, he could have regained his status within Hungarian sport as an expert coach in modern pentathlon.