Olga Orban-Szabo

Olga Orban-Szabo
Born (1938-10-09) 9 October 1938
Cluj, Romania
Weapon(s) Foil
Hand right-handed
National coach(es) Andrei Vâlcea
Club CSA Steaua

Olga Orban-Szabo (born 9 October 1938) is a former Romanian foil fencer, world champion in 1962 and team world champion in 1969. A five-time Olympian, she won a silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as well as two team bronze medals at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics.[1][2][3]

Career

Orban was born in Cluj-Napoca, a member of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. She took up fencing at the relatively late age of 14 after her French teacher, Ecaterina Bartoș, led the whole class to the fencing hall where her husband Tibor was a coach.[4][5] Her talent became rapidly apparent and she was placed under the responsibility of coach Ludovic Ozoray at club Progresul Cluj. She won in 1954 her first national championship in the junior category, followed in 1955 by a title in the senior category.[6]

At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, her first Olympic participation, she earned a silver medal, the first Olympic medal obtained by Romania in fencing.[4] The gold medal went to Great Britain's Gillian Sheen, whom Orban had beaten twice during the event.[4] In 1961 Orban won with Maria Vicol, Ana Pascu and Ecaterina Orb-Lazăr Romania's first medal in senior World Fencing Championships with a team bronze medal, followed in 1962 by an individual gold medal.

After her retirement as a fencer Orban became a fencing coach at her club, CSA Steaua. In 1990 she moved to Hungary with her husband, water polo player Alexandru Szabo, and took up teaching at Budapest Honvéd.[6]

References

  1. "Olympics Statistics: Olga Orban-Szabo". databaseolympics.com. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  2. "Olga Orban-Szabo Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  3. http://www.3szek.ro/load/cikk/66482/egyetemes_magyar_sport_%E2%80%93_lapozgato_53
  4. 1 2 3 Daniel Remeș (16 September 2014). "Olga Szabo Orban: Marele meu regret este faptul că nu am câștigat o medalie de aur la Jocurile Olimpice!" (in Romanian). Romanian Fencing Federation.
  5. Killyéni, András, ed. (2011), Szabó-Orbán Olga: a lány, aki meghódította a világot (pdf) (in Hungarian), Cluj-Napoca, ISBN 978-973-0-11215-3
  6. 1 2 Nicu, Alexe, ed. (2002), "Federația Română de Scrimă", Educaţiei Fizice și Sportului din România (pdf) (in Romanian) 1, Bucharest: Aramis, p. 1054
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