Lajos Pálinkás (born 21 May 1964 in Zirc, Veszprém) is a Hungarian sport shooter. He has competed for Hungary in pistol shooting at four Olympics (1992 to 2004), and has been close to an Olympic medal in 1996 (finishing seventh in the rapid fire pistol). Outside the Olympic career, Palinkas has produced a career tally of four medals in a major international competition, a total of three (one gold and two bronze) at numerous meets of the ISSF World Cup series and a bronze under the senior category at the 1989 European Championships.

Career

Having started the sport since the age of thirteen, Pálinkás has been training throughout his shooting career under coach Mihály Tesánszky for the national team at Zámolyi Shooting Range ( hu, Zámolyi Lövész Klub) on the outskirts of the nation's capital Budapest. Pálinkás competed internationally for Hungary at the age of twenty-five, and simultaneously pocketed his first medal with a bronze in rapid fire shooting at the 1989 European Championships in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Three years later, Pálinkás made his first Hungarian team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona, finishing twenty-second in the

rapid fire pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which ...

with 579 points. On his second Olympic appearance at

Atlanta 1996 The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, Pálinkás upgraded from his four-year fresh Olympic feat in Barcelona to successfully grab the eighth and last seed for his first Olympic final in the

with a qualifying score of 586. Battling against the most experienced shooters in the finale, Pálinkás came up with a steady aim to shoot a substantial 99.9 for a seventh-place finish at 685.9, just five points away from the Olympic medal haul. In 1999, Pálinkás reached the peak of his career on the international stage, as he claimed his first individual gold medal at the ISSF World Cup meet in Seoul, South Korea with 692.7 points. At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Pálinkás extended his Olympic program to two events that he had never done before in his sporting career, competing in both air and rapid fire pistol shooting. In his first event, the

10 m air pistol The 10 meter air pistol is an Olympic shooting event governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). It is similar to 10 meter air rifle in that it is shot with 4.5 mm (or .177) caliber air guns at a distance of 10 me ...

, held on the first day of the Games, Pálinkás fired a score of 570 points to finish in a distant twenty-ninth place from a field of forty-three shooters. Five days later, on 21 September, Pálinkás sought to repeat his Olympic finale bid from Atlanta in the

25 m rapid fire pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which ...

, but fell out of his contention to fourteenth with a qualifying score of 579, dropping five points from the final cutoff. Three years later, Pálinkás bounced back from a disastrous Olympic feat in Sydney to nail the fourth position, his best career result after fourteen years, at the European Championships in Plzen, Czech Republic with 687.8, just one point short of the bronze medal won by Germany's Klaus-Dieter Schmidt. Although he failed to medal, Pálinkás secured an Olympic quota place for Hungary on his fourth Games. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

in Athens, Pálinkás decided to drop the air pistol and instead focus on his specialty in the men's 25 m rapid fire pistol. He had registered a minimum qualifying score of 586 to compete as a 40-year-old veteran for his fourth Hungarian team, following a fourth-place finish at the European Championships a year earlier. Pálinkás got off to a bristling start with a perfect 100 on his initial try, until he aimed a rapid, four-second shot poorly at the very end of the first stage that saw him stumble down the leaderboard with a relatively low mark. He followed his miserable first day score of 287 with a much improved 290 on the remaining half of the competition, but his tally of 577 points was not enough to put him through to the final, forcing him in a two-way tie with Switzerland's Niki Marty for the twelfth position.

Olympic results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palinkas, Lajos 1964 births Living people Hungarian male sport shooters Olympic shooters for Hungary Shooters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Veszprém County