Rita Kőbán (born 10 April 1965) is a Hungarian

canoe sprint Canoe sprint is a water sport in which athletes race canoes or kayaks on calm water. Overview Race categories vary by the number of athletes in the boat, the length of the course, and whether the boat is a canoe or kayak. Canoe sprints are so ...

er. She competed at the 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics and won six medals, with two golds (

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

: K-4 500 m,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

: K-1 500 m), three silvers (

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

: K-4 500 m, 1992: K-1 500 m,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

: K-4 500 m), and one bronze (1992: K-2 500 m). Kőbán has also been successful in the

ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships The ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships are an international event in canoe racing, one of two Summer Olympic sport events organized by the International Canoe Federation (the other being the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships). The World Cham ...

collecting 26 medals. This includes nine golds (K-1 200 m:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

; K-1 500 m: 1995, K-2 200 m: 1994, K-4 200 m: 1994,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

; K-4 500 m:

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

, 1999), ten silvers (K-1 500 m:

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, 1994; K-1 5000 m: 1993, K-2 200 m: 1998, K-2 500 m:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, K-4 500 m:

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, 1989,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, 1991, 1994), and seven bronzes (K-1 200 m: 1999, K-1 500 m: 1999, K-2 200 m: 1999, K-2 500 m: 1998, K-4 500 m: 1985, 1993, 1995). She was elected Hungarian Sportswoman of the Year in 1994 and 1995, ending the string of six consecutive titles by

Krisztina Egerszegi Krisztina Egerszegi (; born 16 August 1974) is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era. She is a three-time Olympian (1988, 1992 and 1996) and five-time Olympic ch ...

. After retiring from competitions, she briefly worked as a TV presenter. Kőbán has been a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

since 1991."A Hónap Vegetáriánusa: Kőbán Rita"
bhaktikutir.hu. Retrieved 22 January 2023.

Awards

* Masterly youth athlete: 1982, 1983 * Hungarian kayaker of the Year (7): 1984, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996 * HUN Order of Labor 2kl BAR

Work Order of Merit of Hungarian People's Republic – Silver Cross (1988) * Csepel SC – Athlete of Year (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) * HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 4class BAR

HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 4class BAR

Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary – Officer's Cross (1992) * Member of the Hungarian team of year (with

Erika Mészáros Erika Mészáros (born 24 June 1966 in Budapest) is a Hungarian sprint canoer who competed from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Competing in three Summer Olympics, she won two medals in the K-4 500 m event with a gold in 1992 and a silver in 1 ...

Éva Dónusz Éva Dónusz (born September 29, 1967) is a Hungarian sprint canoer who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, she won two medals at Barcelona in 1992 with a gold in the K-4 500 m an ...

Kinga Czigány Kinga Czigány (born 17 February 1972) is a Hungarian sprint canoer who competed in the 1990s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal in the K-4 500 m event at Barcelona in 1992. Czigány also won five medals at the ...

): 1992 * Perpetual champion of Csepel SC (1994) * Hungarian Sportwoman of the Year (2) – votes of sports journalists: 1994, 1995 *

MOB Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...

Golden ring (1995) * Honorary Citizen of

Csepel Csepel (german: Tschepele) is the 21st district and a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. Csepel officially became part of Budapest on 1 January 1950. Location Csepel is located at the northern end of Csepel Island in the Danube, and covers ...

(1996) *

HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 3class BAR

Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary – Commander's Cross (1996) *

Hungarian Heritage Award The Hungarian Heritage Award ( hu, Magyar Örökség díj) is a distinction awarded to Hungarian institutions or persons who have contributed to activities of Hungarian culture, economy, sports or science, to ensure the spiritual uplift of Hungar ...

(1999) * Príma Primissima award (2016)

References

* *

External links

* * 1965 births Canoeists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Hungarian female canoeists Living people Olympic canoeists for Hungary Olympic gold medalists for Hungary Olympic silver medalists for Hungary Olympic bronze medalists for Hungary Olympic medalists in canoeing ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in kayak Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Canoeists from Budapest 20th-century Hungarian women {{Hungary-Olympic-medalist-stub