Katalin Szőke (17 August 1935 – 27 October 2017) was a Hungarian swimmer. She competed at the 1952 Olympics and won two gold medals, in the 100 m and 4 × 100 m freestyle events. Two years later she repeated that success at the 1954 European Championships. She also competed in these two events at the 1956 Olympics but without success. During her career Szőke set four world records. In 1985 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Biography

Szőke 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 ...

to Márton Homonnai, an Olympic champion in water polo in 1932 and 1936. During World War II, her father was a policeman and a member of the

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party (, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to ...

, which supported the Nazis. After the war, fearing prosecution (he was sentenced to death in absentia), he flew via Germany and Brazil to Argentina, where he died in 1969. Meanwhile, his daughter remained in Hungary and took her mother's name to hide relationship with her father. In 1956, due to the Soviet intervention in Hungary, she immigrated to the United States. She married an Olympic water polo player Kálmán Markovits, but later divorced him and married his teammate,

Árpád Domján Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred king, sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military lea ...

. They settled in Los Angeles, where she worked at a bank and did some modelling, while her husband built a successful career in developing office buildings and living apartments. They both adopted a last name of Domyan, and raised a son, Bryan Domyan, who became a basketball player.

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* 1935 births 2017 deaths Hungarian female freestyle swimmers Hungarian female swimmers Olympic swimmers for Hungary Swimmers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Hungary Swimmers from Budapest World record setters in swimming Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Olympic gold medalists in swimming 20th-century Hungarian sportswomen 21st-century Hungarian women {{Hungary-Olympic-medalist-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links