József Sir (born Schier; 28 April 1912 – 22 September 1996) was a Hungarian sprinter. He won three medals at the 1934 European Championships and was a four-time International University Games gold medallist.

Career

Sir won three medals, two silvers and a bronze, at the inaugural

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

in 1934. He won silver in the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

behind

Chris Berger Christiaan David "Chris" Berger (27 April 1911 – 12 September 1965) was a Dutch athlete, competing in the sprints. Career Berger was a football player and changed to running after winning a 100 national title among footballers. In 1930 he ran ...

of the Netherlands, with both clocking 21.5. In the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

he ran 10.7 and placed third behind Berger (10.6) and Germany's

Erich Borchmeyer Erich Borchmeyer (23 January 1905 – 17 August 2000) was a German Track and field athletics, athlete, who competed mainly in the 100 metres. Borchmeyer was born in Münster. He competed for Germany in the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los An ...

. He won his third medal in the

4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the individu ...

with the Hungarian team, which ran 41.4 and lost only to Germany. Sir won three gold medals at the 1935 International University Games in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, running 10.8 and 21.6 for 100 and 200 metres and 41.6 with the Hungarian relay team. At the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

he advanced to the semi-finals in the

; he placed last in his semi-final and was eliminated. In the

he went out in the quarterfinals, and the Hungarian relay team failed to qualify for the final. Sir won four more medals at the International University Games in 1939. There were two competing meetings that year, in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

; Sir participated in the Vienna meet, winning gold in the 100 metres (10.7), silver in the 200 metres (21.9) and bronze with the 4 × 100 metres relay team. He won another bronze in the 10 × 200 metres relay, a one-off event. Sir was Hungarian champion at both 100 and 200 metres in 1934, 1935 and 1939. In addition, in 1934 he won the

AAA Championships The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the officia ...

at 100 yards in 9.9. His best time for 100 metres was 10.4, which he ran in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

on 1 July 1934; it was a Hungarian record, and remained so for more than thirty years. Sir served in the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

Council from 1964 to 1984. He proposed the IAAF Technical Aid Programme, which sought to develop the sport, and became its first director when it was approved.

Competition record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sir, Jozsef 1912 births 1996 deaths Athletes from Budapest Hungarian male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Hungary European Athletics Championships medalists