Péter Kelemen (born 2 September 1946) is a retired Hungarian

modern pentathlete The modern pentathlon is an Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, laser pistol shooting, and cross country running. The sport wa ...

. Kelemen began his career in 1958 as a

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 ...

for

Budapesti VSC Budapesti Vasutas Sport Club-Zugló commonly known as BVSC-Zugló is a professional football club based in Zugló, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II. The club was founded in 1911. Its football section became closed ...

. He switched to

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Summer Olympics, Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, Laser pistol (sport), laser pistol shooting, and ...

in 1963, following the advice from his PE teacher, joining Újpesti Dózsa. His first major achievement in the sport came in 1966 when he won a gold medal at the Junior World Championship, in both team and individual events. After being ninth at the 1969 World Championship, he won the same competition the following year, in

Warendorf Warendorf (, Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Warnduorp'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of Warendorf (district), Warendorf District. The town is best known today for its well-preserved medieval town centre, for eq ...

, Germany, by defeating his compatriot

András Balczó András Balczó (born 16 August 1938) is a retired Hungarian modern pentathlete. He competed at the 1960, 1968 and 1972 Olympics in the individual and team events and won three gold and two silver medal; he missed only one medal, finishing four ...

by only three points, gathering around 5000 points in total. Kelemen was the first modern pentathlete to win the individual event at both Junior and Adult World Championships. In 1970, Kelemen was chosen as the

Hungarian Sportsman of the Year Hungarian Sportspeople of the Year () awards are granted each year since 1958, with categories for sportsmen, sportswomen, teams, coach (sports), coaches (since 1985) and presidents (since 1995). List of winners Statistics Individual winn ...

, while the pentathlon team was chosen as the Team of the Year. He was selected as a back-up team member for the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

, but was excluded from the team later due to a conflict between his coach, András Nyulászi, and the Hungarian Modern Pentathlon Association. Kelemen retired from the sport in 1977 and started a coaching career. He coached Újpesti Dózsa and Budapesti VSC as a fencing coach. In 1988, he was invited to

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

in order to coach the South Korean Modern Pentathlon Team as a fencing and compound coach. From 1981, he was the director of the shooting center at Újpesti Dózsa, and also coached

Csilla Füri Csilla Füri (born 24 April 1972) is a retired modern pentathlete from Hungary. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, where she finished eleventh in the women's event with a score of 5,144 points. Füri is a two-time natio ...

, another Hungarian modern pentathlete. He also served as a director of the technical board in the National Modern Pentathlon Association. From 2001 until his retirement in 2007, he coached the BHSE's Modern Pentathlon Team.

Personal life

His first wife, Jutka Békei, is a former

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

athlete; the couple had two sons, Szabolcs, born 14 December 1971, and Zoltan, born 13 October 1977.

References

1946 births Living people Hungarian male modern pentathletes World Modern Pentathlon Championships medalists Modern pentathletes from Budapest 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen 21st-century Hungarian people {{Hungary-modern-pentathlon-bio-stub