László (Ladislaus) Szollás (13 November 1907 – 4 October 1980) was a Hungarian world champion and Olympic medalist pair skater.

Early life

Szollas was Jewish. He attended the Ludovika Military Academy in the Horthy era..

Figure skating career

With partner

Emília Rotter Emília Rotter (8 September 1906 in Budapest, Hungary – 28 January 2003) was a Hungarian pair skater. With partner László Szollás she won the World Figure Skating Championship four times in five years (1931, 1933, 1934, and 1935), and we ...

he won the

World Figure Skating Championship The World Figure Skating Championships (''"Worlds"'') is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the categories of men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Gen ...

four times in five years (1931, 1933, 1934, and 1935), and they were the 1932 World

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

ists. They were also the 1934 European Champions, and 1930 and 1931 silver medalists. They represented Hungary at the 1932 Winter Olympics and at the 1936 Winter Olympics, winning two

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

Later life

Subsequently, he fought against the Soviet Union on the eastern front in WW2. He became a prisoner of war and was imprisoned in a POW camp for 4 years in Siberia. Upon returning to Hungary the Hungarian Stalinist government nationalized nearly all of his assets, including a large rental apartment building in Budapest's 7th district.. After retirement, he attended

Semmelweis Medical School Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (; hu, Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp ; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "saviour of mothers", he discovered that t ...

in Budapest and earned a medical degree at the Péter Pázmány University and became a sports medicine doctor at the Sport Korhaz (Hospital for Professional Sports) in Budapest and a surgeon at the Országos Sportegészségügyi Intézet in Budapest. After the war he returned to Hungary and worked as a physician in the National Institute of Physical Education and Sports Hygiene in Budapest and served as President of the Hungarian Skating Association.

Hall of Fame

He and his partner, Emília Rotter, were elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Competitive highlights

(with Rotter)

References

External links

Pairs on Ice profile

Jews in Sports bio
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Szollas, Laszlo 1907 births 1980 deaths Hungarian male pair skaters Figure skaters at the 1932 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1936 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters of Hungary Olympic bronze medalists for Hungary Figure skaters from Budapest Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1932 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1936 Winter Olympics Jewish Hungarian sportspeople Jewish sportspeople Semmelweis University alumni Hungarian military personnel of World War II Hungarian prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union