Kornél Pajor (1 July 1923 – May 2016) was a Hungarian

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

World Champion. He 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 ...

Career

In early 1943, Pajor was a young and promising skater of 19 years old, but because

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

was in progress there were not many competitions. In Klagenfurt,

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 ...

, at one of the few skating competitions that year, he won the 3000 m. After the war, skating competitions slowly returned to normal, and Pajor participated in the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (; ; ; ) and commonly known as St. Moritz 1948 (; ), were a winter multi-sport event held from 30 January to 8 February 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the ...

St. Moritz St. Moritz ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in the administrative region of Maloja in the Swiss ...

, with a fourth place on the 10000 m as his best result. The next year, 1949, turned out to be Pajor's best year: He became Hungarian National Allround Champion for the fourth time and then won bronze at the European Allround Championships, while setting a new world record on the 5000 m during those championships. On the 10000 m during those championships, he skated a time of 16:58.7, which was faster than Charles Mathiesen's nine-year-old world record of 17:01.5 on that distance. However,

Hjalmar Andersen Hjalmar "Hjallis" Johan Andersen (12 March 1923 – 27 March 2013) was a speed skater from Norway who won three gold medals at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games of Oslo, Norway. He was the only triple gold medalist at the 1952 Winter Olympics, an ...

became the new world record holder on the 10000 m, skating an even faster 16:57.4. Two weeks later, at the 1949 World Allround Championships in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, Pajor won gold, making him the first Hungarian skater to become World Allround Champion. , he is still the only Hungarian, male or female, to win gold, or even any medal, at any of the different disciplines of World Championships in speed skating (

Emese Hunyady Emese Hunyady (born 4 March 1966) is a former Hungarian-Austrian speed skater. At age ten, Hunyady participated at the 1977 Hungarian Sprint Championships for Juniors, finishing sixth. Representing Hungary, she had her first international com ...

of course having been naturalised to the Austrian nationality (1985) when she became World Champion (1994 Allround; 1999 1500m) After those 1949 World Championships, Pajor did not return home from Oslo, defecting from Hungary. When Pajor participated in the 1951 World Allround Championships and won a bronze medal, he did not represent any country. The

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international sport governing body, governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded ...

(ISU) allowed him to participate as an "independent skater" representing the ISU. In 1952, skating for ''IF Castor'' (''Idrottsföreningen Castor'' – Sport Federation Castor) of

Östersund Östersund (; ) is an Urban areas in Sweden, urban area (Stad (Sweden), city) in Jämtland in northern Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-larg ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, Pajor won bronze at the European Allround Championships held in his new hometown of Östersund, representing Sweden. In Sweden he worked as an

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 ...

and had his own architect firm in

Djursholm Djursholm () is one of four suburban districts in, and the seat of Danderyd Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. Djursholm is included in the multi-municipal Stockholm urban area. Djursholm is divided into a number of different areas: Djursho ...

.Gunnar Ohlsson minns Domusbygget
Uddevallabloggen 2009-01-01

Medals

An overview of medals won by Pajor at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

World record

Over the course of his career, Pajor skated one

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

: Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the ''WR'' column lists the official world records on the dates that Pajor skated his personal records. Note that Pajors's personal record on the 10000 m was not a world record because

skated 16:57.4 at the same tournament. Pajor has an Adelskalender score of 189.885 points. His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was a seventh place.

References

Kornél Pajor at SpeedSkatingStats.com

Kornél Pajor
''Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V.'' (German Skating Association).

''Magyar Országos Korcsolyázó Szövetség'' (Hungarian National Skating Federation).
Historical World Records
''International Skating Union''.
Medal Winners in World Allround Championships
''International Skating Union''.
Medal Winners in European Allround Championships
''International Skating Union''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pajor, Kornel 1923 births 2016 deaths Hungarian male speed skaters Swedish male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters for Hungary Speed skaters at the 1948 Winter Olympics World record setters in speed skating Swedish architects Speed skaters from Budapest Hungarian defectors Hungarian emigrants to Sweden KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists 20th-century Swedish sportsmen 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen