karoly takacs (21 January 1910- 5 January 1976) was the first shooter to win two Olympic gold medals in the 25 meter rapid fire pistol event, both with his left hand after his right hand was seriously injured. He is the third known physically disabled athlete to have completed in the Olympic games after George eyser in 1904 amd oliver halassy in 1928, followed by liz hartel in 1952 and neroli fairhall in 1984.
(personal information)
•nationality - hungarian
•born- 21 January 1910
•died- 5 January 1976(aged 65)
•sports- shooting player
(medal record)
men's shooting...
Olympic games...
•gold-1948 london 25m rapid fire pistol.
•gold-1952 helsinki 25m rapid fire pistol.
karoly takacs was born in budapest and joined the hungarin army by 1936. he was a word class pistol shooter, but he was denied a place in hungarin shooting team for the 1936 summer Olympics on the grounds that he was a sergeant, and only commissioned officers were allowed to complete. this prohibition was lifted in hungary after the berlin games, and karoly takacs had expectations of success at the 1940 summer Olympics, scheduled to be held at tokyo.
during army trainig in 1938, his right and was badly injured when a faulty grenade exploded. karoly takacs was determined to continue his shooting career, and switched to shooting with his left hand. he practiced in secret, surprising his country men of 1939. he also was a member of Hungarian team that won the 1939 uit world shooting championship in the event. the Olympic games scheduled for 1940 and 1944 were cancelled due to the second world war but karoly takacs surprised the world by winning the gold medal at the 1948 summer olympics in london, aged 38 beating the favourite Argentine carlos enrique diaz saenz valiente, who was the reigning world champion, who had approached him before the event and had asked him what was he doing there hearing about his accident. his reply was that he was there to learn, setting a world record. valiente later congratulated saying you have learned enough.
he won second gold medal in the same event at the 1952 summer olympics in helsinki, after the match valiente congratulated him again and said "you have learned more than enough now it's time to teach me". he also attended the 1956 summer olympics in melbourne, but finished eighth and failed to win a third medal. his story has given him a place among the "olympic heroes" of the international olympic committee. two olympic gold medals were won by jozef zapedzki (mexico -1968 and munich -1972) as well but not until ralf schumann's third victory in the 2004 olympics did a shooter succeed in winning three olympic gold medals in this event.
although most associated with rapid fire pistol, karoly takacs also win a bronze medal at the 1958 issf world shooting world championships in 25m centre fire pistol. he also won 35 hungarian national shooting championships.
after his shooting career, karoly takacs become a coach. he trained hungarian szilard kun, who won the silver at the 1952 summer olympics. he ended his army career as a lieutenant colonel.
karoly takacs preparing for shooting on poland- hungary-yugoslavia competition in bydgoszcz, poland in 1961.......
karoly takacs shooting on poland-hungary-yugoslavia competition in bydgoszcz, poland in 1961.........
Karoly takacs gravestone in budapest............