Alfréd Hajós
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Alfréd Hajós (1 February 1878 – 12 November 1955) was a Hungarian
swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...
,
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
(soccer) player, referee,
manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
, and career
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. He was the first modern Olympic swimming champion and the first Olympic champion of
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...
. Formerly excelling in track including discus and hurdles, he was part of the first National European football/soccer team fielded by
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...
in 1902, later serving as a referee as well as the manager and coach of the national football team.


Biography

Hajós was born in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, as Arnold Guttmann, to a family of
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
heritage. He was 13 years old when he felt compelled to learn swimming after his father drowned in the
Danube River The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...
. He took the name Hajós (sailor in Hungarian) for his athletic career because it was a Hungarian name. In 1896, Hajós was an architecture student at the Royal Joseph Technical University in Hungary when the Athens Games took place. He was allowed to compete, but permission from the university to miss class was difficult to obtain. Upon return, the dean did not congratulate Hajós on his Olympic success, but instead said: "Your medals are of no interest to me, but I am eager to hear your replies in your next examination."


Olympic swimmer

At the 1896 Games, the swimming events were held in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
in the cold Bay of Zea at Phaleron, requiring athletes to battle the elements. The 18-year-old Hajós won his two
gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...
s in extremely cold conditions in April (the water temperature was about with 12-foot (4 m) waves crashing down on him. Impressively, he took gold medals in two of the four swimming events, winning both the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 1:22.2, and the 1,200-metre freestyle in 18:22.1. He was the youngest winner in
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
. His brother, Henrik Hajós, later won a gold medal in 4x250 m Freestyle swimming at the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens. Prior to the 1896 Athens Olympics, Hajós was the 100 metre freestyle European swimming champion in 1895 and 1896.


Track and football (soccer)

A versatile athlete, he won Hungary's 100 metre sprint championship in 1898, as well as the National
400 metre hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, onc ...
and discus titles. He also played as a forward in Hungary's national
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
(soccer) championship between 1901 and 1903, and on 12 October 1902, he again went down in history as one of the eleven football (soccer) athletes who played in the first international match played by the Hungarian national team, captaining his side in a 0–5 loss to
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. Between 1897 and 1904 he was also a football (soccer) referee, and during 1906 he was the coach of Hungary's national football (soccer) team, leading the nation in three games, achieving a record of two draws and 1 win.


Architecture


Silver medal

In 1924, Hajós, an architect specializing in sport facilities, entered the art competitions at the Paris Olympic Games. His plan for a stadium, devised together with
Dezső Lauber Dezső Lauber (23 May 1879 – 5 September 1966) was a Hungarian all-round sportsman and architect. He was born in Pécs and died in Budapest. Career Lauber was an all-round champion athlete in the late 19th and early 20th century, com ...
(who played
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
in the
1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...
), was awarded the silver medal; the jury did not award a gold medal in the competition. Thus making him one of only two Olympians ever to have won medals in both sport (swimming) and art (architecture) Olympic competitions.


Career

Graduating from the Technical University of Budapest in 1899, he originally had a partner, but became independent after the first World War. From 1948, he was technical advisor to the Design Office for Building Construction and was involved in the reconstruction of large public buildings in Budapest and Hungary. The best known sports facility designed by Hajós is the Alfréd Hajós National Swimming Stadium built on Margitsziget (Margaret Island) in the Danube in Budapest, which was built in 1930, and used for the 1958, 2006 and
2010 European Aquatics Championships The 2010 European Aquatics Championships were held from 4–15 August 2010 in Budapest and Balatonfüred, Hungary. It was the fourth time that the city of Budapest hosted this event after 1926, 1958 and 2006. Events in swimming, diving, synch ...
, and the 2006 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup.


Honors

In 1953, the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
awarded him the Olympic diploma of merit. He is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and in 1981 was also made a member of the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) () is the international hall of fame for Jewish athletes and special contributors to the world of sport. The purpose of the IJSHOF is to honor Jewish individuals, worldwide, who have accompli ...
. In 2010, Hajós posthumously was awarded the Ybl Miklós Prize, the greatest honor bestowed upon architects in Hungary.


Buildings

His first designs were in
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
and eclectic style, later he turned to
modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
and was influenced by Italian styles. * Hotel Aranybika,
Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...
* Gymnasium of Janko Francisci - Rimavský, (
Levoča Levoča (; ; ) is the principal town of Levoča District in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia, with a population of 14,256. The town has a historic center with a well-preserved town wall, a Gothic architecture, Gothic church with the talle ...
, 1913) * Protestant Church Centre, Budapest *
Újpest FC Újpest Football Club () is a Hungary, Hungarian professional association football, football club based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I. Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in ...
's UTE Stadium,
Újpest Újpest (; , ) is the 4th District in Budapest, Hungary. It is located on the left bank of the Danube River. The name Újpest means "New Pest" because the city was formed on the border of the city of Pest, Hungary in 1838. Újpest was a village ...
, Megyeri ut (1922) * Swimming Stadium, Budapest, Margitsziget (today it bears his name) * Millenáris Sportpálya, Budapest XIV * Sports ground,
Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...
* Sports ground,
Pápa Pápa is a historical town in Veszprém county, Hungary, located close to the northern edge of the Bakony Hills, and noted for its baroque architecture. With its 28,549 inhabitants (2024), it is the cultural, economic and tourism centre of the r ...
* Sports ground,
Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...
* Sports ground,
Kaposvár Kaposvár (; also known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in southwestern Hungary, south of Lake Balaton. It is one of the leading cities of Transdanubia, the capital of Somogy County, and the seat of the Kaposvár District and th ...
* Girls' School (Hungarian: III. állam polgári leányiskola Pozsonyban, Slovak: III. štátna meštianska škola dievčenská v Bratislave) 1914,
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
* Népkert Vigadó, Miskolc, Népkert * Swimbath, Szeged (Ligetfürdő, 1930)


Gallery

Budapest Hajos Alfred Sportuszoda IMG 0458-1000.jpg , Alfréd Hajós National Swimming Stadium in Budapest (1930) Aranybika szálloda (16467. számú műemlék) 2.jpg, Grand Hotel Aranybika (1915)


See also

*
List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame is a history museum and hall of fame, serving as the central point for the study of the history of swimming in the United States and around the world. List of the members of the International Swimming Hall ...
* List of select Jewish swimmers


References


External links

* * *
The Hajós Alfréd Társaság, the Alfréd Hajós Society

Alfréd Hajós in International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

Alfréd Hajós at Jewish.hu's list of famous Hungarians
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hajos, Alfred 1878 births 1955 deaths Hungarian football managers Hungarian architects Olympic swimmers for Hungary Swimmers at the 1896 Summer Olympics 19th-century sportsmen Olympic gold medalists for Hungary Olympic silver medalists in art competitions Swimmers from Budapest Jews from Austria-Hungary Jewish Hungarian sportspeople Jewish swimmers Jewish architects Art Nouveau architects Medalists at the 1924 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1896 Summer Olympics Hungarian male freestyle swimmers Olympic gold medalists in swimming Hungarian men's footballers Hungary men's international footballers Art competitors at the 1924 Summer Olympics Men's association football forwards Budapesti TC players Sportspeople from Austria-Hungary