István Gyulai (21 March 1943 in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

– 11 March 2006 in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

) was a former Hungarian television commentator and General Secretary of the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

and the AIPS. A sprinter during his active

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

career, he was a 28-time national champion. He won two relay medals in two editions of the

Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a Blend word, portmanteau of the wor ...

: a gold medal over 4 x 100 metres in 1963 and a silver medal over 4 x 400 metres in 1965. He participated in the

1964 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequ ...

.Istvan Gyulai : 1943 - 2006

(2006-03-12). Retrieved on 2011-07-31. He was part of the Budapest Honvéd sports club. He started his television career in 1970 on Hungarian television. He led the sport section between 1990 and 1991. He was a member of the IAAF Council from 1984 until 2001, and from 1991 until his death he was the General Secretary of the IAAF. During his years in the council, he still worked for the Hungarian Television as well. He was a key figure in helping Hungary host major athletics events; among the competitions held in the country were two editions of the

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

, the

1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Budapest, Hungary, at the Kincsem Park on March 26, 1994. A preview on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald, Herald, and a report in ''The New York Times''. Complete results ...

and the

1998 European Athletics Championships The 17th European Athletics Championships were held from 18 August to 23 August 1998 in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. Men's results Track 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , Field 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , Women's results ...

.Inaugural Istvan Gyulai Memorial announced

(2011-05-23). Retrieved on 2011-07-31. On 7 October 2006 the athletics stadium in

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

was rededicated the István Gyulai Athletics Stadium in his honour. Five years after his death, the

Gyulai István Memorial The Gyulai István Memorial is an annual track and field meet that takes place at Bregyó közi Regionális Atlétika Központ in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. It was first held in 2011 at the Ferenc Puskás Stadium in Budapest. The meeting is part ...

– Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix was launched in his honour, with his younger son Márton acting as meeting director. His first wife, middle-distance runner Olga Kazi, also competed at the Olympics for Hungary.Olga Kazi
. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2011-07-31. Both his sons followed his steps in sports. The elder, Miklós Gyulai, a sprinter who was national champion and ran the 4x100 relay on the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and the 4x100 relay final on the 1999 World Championships, was also the founding member of the Hungarian

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobslei ...

team, competing in 1994, 1998 and 2002

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

. His younger son, Márton Gyulai is a former pilot of the Hungarian bobsleigh team having driven both the 2-man and the 4-man sled in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. The idea of the boys trying themselves out in bobsleigh came from their father and a close family friend, Andrew Frankl (father of Nicholas Frankl). On the occasion of his 70th birthday, his biography "A Királynő Helytartója: Gyulai István életrajzi regénye" was published in Hungarian with 2500 copies available online.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gyulai, Istvan 1943 births 2006 deaths Hungarian male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Hungary Athletics (track and field) administrators Athletes from Budapest Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games gold medalists for Hungary Medalists at the 1963 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1965 Summer Universiade Hungarian Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen