Tamás Kásás (; born 20 July 1976) is a retired Hungarian

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

player. Kásás is often described as the best defensive player of his era, if not the best overall. He is known for his ability to spring out of the water and block shots, as well as his strength in one-on-one situations. He is also noted for his highly accurate shots and passes. He picked up the sport at the age of six, being taught by his father Zoltán, who is a coach in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the 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 a ...

. Zoltán Kásás was also a gifted player who won an Olympic silver medal in 1972, a World Championship in 1973, and a European title in 1974. He made his Olympic debut in 1996, where Hungary reached the semifinals before losing to the

Manuel Estiarte Manel Estiarte Duocastella (born October 26, 1961 in Manresa) is a Spanish former water polo player born in Manresa, a municipality in Barcelona, Spain. He is currently a member of Pep Guardiola's technical staff at Manchester City FC. He is u ...

-led Spanish squad. However, the Hungarian team bounced back to win European Championships in 1997 and 1999, as well as a Champions League cup in 1998, culminating with three Olympic gold medals at Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. Kásás played in five consecutive

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

for his native country from

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 ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

. He is, jointly with Croat

Igor Hinić Igor Hinić (born 4 December 1975) is a Croatian former professional water polo player, who was a member of the Croatia national team, that won the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olymp ...

and Greek

Georgios Afroudakis Georgios Afroudakis (born 17 October 1976) is a Greek water polo player. He played in five consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country from 1996 to 2012. He is, jointly with Croat Igor Hinić and Hungarian Tamás Kásás, the tenth athle ...

, the tenth athlete to compete in water polo at five Olympics. He is also a leading goalscorer in Olympic water polo history, with 56 goals. In 2007 Kásás won Euro League with

Pro Recco A.S.D. Pro Recco (Official name: Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Pro Recco) is an Italian water polo club from Recco, in Liguria. It currently plays in Serie A1. Pro Recco is the most successful club in men's water polo. In men's domestic ...

. He was named ''Most Valuable Player'' at the

2002 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup The 2002 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup was the twelfth edition of the event, organised by the world's governing body in aquatics, the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The event took place in the Tašmajdan Swimming Pool in Belgrade, ...

, where Hungary claimed the silver medal.

Honours

National

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Gold medal –

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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Gold medal –

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

;

Silver medal – 1998, 2005, 2007 * European Championship: Gold medal europe

Gold medal –

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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 ...

;

Silver medal – 1995, 2006; Bronze medal europe

Bronze medal – 2001, 2003, 2008, 2012 * FINA World League: Gold medal blank

Gold medal –

;

Bronze medal – 2002 * FINA World Cup: Gold medal blank

Gold medal –

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 ...

;

Silver medal – 2002, 2006; Bronze medal blank

Bronze medal – 1997 * Junior World Championships: (Gold medal – 1995) * Junior European Championship: (Gold medal – 1994)

Club

European competitions: * Coppa dei campioni pallanuoto

Euroleague Winners (5): (1998 – with Posillipo; 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 – with Pro Recco) * Coppa LEN

LEN Cup The LEN Euro Cup is the second-tier European water polo club competition run by the Ligue Européenne de Natation for those clubs who did not qualify for the LEN Champions League. The cup was inaugurated in 1992. History Names of the competitio ...

Winners (2): (1997 – with UTE; 2005 – with Savona) * Supercoppa europea pallanuoto

LEN Super Cup The LEN Super Cup is an annual water polo match organized by LEN and contested by the reigning champions of the two European club competitions, the LEN Champions League and the LEN Euro Cup. From 1976 to 2002, the LEN Super Cup was contested betwe ...

Winners (4): (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 – with Pro Recco) *

Adriatic League The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Mace ...

: 1x (2012 – with Pro Recco) Domestic competitions: * Scudetto

Italian Championship ( Serie A1): 9x (2000, 2001 – with Posillipo; 2005 – with Savona; 2007, 2008, ''2009, 2010, 2011, 2012'' – with Pro Recco) * Coccarda Coppa Italia

Italian Cup (

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

): 5x (2007, ''2008, 2009, 2010, 2011'' – with Pro Recco)

Awards

* Masterly youth athlete: 1996 * Member of the Hungarian team of year: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008 * Hungarian Water Polo Player of the Year: 1999, 2006 * Member of Hungarian national water polo team in the 20th century (2000) *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

: 2002 Belgrade *

Top Scorer: 2002 Belgrade * Honorary Citizen of

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 ...

(2008) * LEN Champions League Final Four MVP:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

* FINA Aquatics World Magazine – The Best water polo player of the Decade (2010) * Ministerial Certificate of Merit (2012) * Immortal member of the Hungarian Association of Athletes (2015) * Príma díj (2015) * Member of

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...

(2015) ;Orders * HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 4class BAR

Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2000) * HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 3class BAR

Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2004) * HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 2class BAR

Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary with the Star (2008)

References

External links

*
Tamás Kásás
at

(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kasas, Tamas 1976 births Living people Water polo players from Budapest Hungarian male water polo players Water polo drivers Water polo players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Water polo players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Water polo players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Water polo players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Water polo players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Hungary in water polo World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo 20th-century Hungarian people 21st-century Hungarian people

Honours

National

Club

Awards

See also

References

External links