Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #20 - Pal Kovacs

Pal Kovacs

Hungary

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#3 among Fencers

#1 among Hungarian Olympians

Olympic Results

1936

Team Sabre - Gold

1948

Individual Sabre - Bronze

Team Sabre - Gold

1952

Individual Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

1956

Team Sabre - Gold

1960

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 8

Gold - 6

Bronze - 1

Pal Adam Kovacs was born on July 17, 1912 in Debrecen, Hungary, and trained as a youth to be a hurdler, but as an adult he switched over to focus on fencing, and became one of the all-time greats, so it was a good change.

He first made the Hungary national team in 1933, so his first experience in the Olympics came in Berlin in 1936. He only competed in the team event that year, as only 3 from each nation per allowed in the individual event. He went 14-2 through the first three rounds in the team sabre event, as Hungary made it easily to the final pool. He wasn't used in the toughest match, against Italy, but he went 7-0 in the other 2 finals matches, and Hungary easily won the gold medal for the second straight Olympics, and Kovacs won his first gold medal.

Because of World War II, he wouldn't get to compete in his second Olympics until 1948, when he was 36 years old. That year, Hungary got a bye in the first round, and didn't use him in the second round due to a quick victory, but he went 4-0 in their semifinal match against Argentina. He competed in all 3 matches in the final, going 8-3 overall, but only 2-2 against Italy, but they were still good enough to win the gold medal again.

Due to competing in the team final, Kovacs was given a first-round bye in the individual event. Over the next two rounds, he was a perfect 12-0, earning him a spot in the final pool. In that pool, however, he finished 5-2, losing to gold medalist Aladar Gerevich and then in his final match that didn't matter, since he was already assured of the bronze medal.

Four years later, he competed for a 3rd time in the Olympics in Helsinki. He was barely used in the early rounds of the team event, going 8-0 for the team as they advanced easily to the final pool once again. He had a rough time in the final pool, going only 7-5 across three matches, but Hungary won them all, and took the gold medal for the 4th straight time in that event.

In that year's individual sabre event, Kovacs was completely unbeatable. After a bye through the first round, he beat everybody in his path, winning all 11 of his bouts on his way to the final, where he kept his perfect run intact, winning all 8 bouts in the final pool to finish with the gold medal after a perfect 19-0 run through the tournament.

In 1956, he was again a big part of Hungary's title defense in the team sabre event. He wasn't used until the final pool, but in that round, he went 8-4 as Hungary won the gold medal for the 5th Olympics in a row, and the 4th straight time for Kovacs.

That year, he started to show his age in the individual sabre event, where he had been perfect and undefeated 4 years earlier. This time, he lost 3 bouts in the early rounds, but still made it to the final for the third straight time, but this time he only won 2 bouts in the final pool, and ended up finishing in 6th place, the only time in his career that he would miss out on a medal.

He returned for one final Olympic run in 1960, as a 48-year-old, fencing alongside Aladar Gerevich, also making his last appearance at age 50. Kovacs went 3-0 in the first round, before the tournament shifted to single-elimination for the first time. He wasn't used in the quarterfinals, but went 2-2 in their semifinal match against Italy, where they won 9-6 to advance to the final. He struggled to a 1-3 record in the final against Poland, but Hungary still had enough in the tank to beat them 9-7, and Kovacs won his 5th straight team gold, and 6th overall.

Following those Olympics, he retired to run a cafe in Budapest, which he did for decades, retiring shortly before he passed away in 1995. He only competed in 8 events in his career, and won gold in 6 of them, including his perfect run to individual gold in 1952, which makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #21 - Boris Shakhlin

Boris Shakhlin

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#5 among Gymnasts

#3 among Male Gymnasts

#3 among Soviet Olympians

#2 among Male Soviet Olympians

Olympic Results

1956

Team - Gold

Pommel Horse - Gold

1960

Individual All-Around - Gold

Team - Silver

Vault - Gold

Parallel Bars - Gold

Horizontal Bar - Bronze

Rings - Silver

Pommel Horse - Gold

1964

Individual All-Around - Silver

Team - Silver

Horizontal Bar - Gold

Rings - Bronze

Total

Events - 24

Gold - 7

Silver - 4

Bronze - 2

Boris Anfiyanovich Shakhlin was born on January 27, 1932 in Ishim, USSR, which is now part of Russia, but he was ethnically Ukrainian. He began training in gymnastics at age 12, and competed in his first world championships at age 22, winning team gold and a silver on the horizontal bar. He remained as part of the Soviet team for the remainder of his gymnastics career, and his first Olympics came in 1956 in Melbourne.

In the team competition, the Soviets were the defending champs, but the Japanese were improving rapidly, and they made this a tough competition. Shakhlin was the 5th-highest scoring member of the Soviet team, as one of the newcomers, but Viktor Chukarin and Yury Titov led them to another gold medal, ahead of Japan by 1.85 points.

The results from the team event decided the individual all-around medals as well, and in that event, Shakhlin finished tied for 8th place. The medals for the individual events were also determined this way. He nearly earned a medal in the vault, where he finished tied for 4th, just 0.05 points behind Titov for the bronze. He did, however, win the gold medal in the pommel horse, where his combined score of 19.25 put him 0.05 ahead of Takashi Ono for first place.

By the time the 1958 World Championships came around, he was the best gymnast in the world, and he proved it by winning 5 gold medals, including the individual all-around. He carried that momentum into the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where his own teammates and the Japanese gymnasts would be his chief competition.

1960 was the year that the Japanese gymnastics dynasty began. They were finally able to overcome the USSR, winning the gold medal by 2.5 points, leaving a team silver for the Soviets. In the individual all-around scoring, however, Shakhlin came out on top, 0.05 points ahead of Ono, giving him the toughest gold medal to earn in gymnastics.

That year is when the event finals were a separate event, with a final performance score combined with the qualifying score to determine the medals. The top 6 on each apparatus advanced to the final, and Shakhlin qualified in 5 of the 6, failing only in the floor exercise, where he finished 7th.

In the vault, he had qualified in third place, but in the final, he posted the best score, a 9.75, which raised him into a tie for first with Ono, and the pair shared the gold medal. He and Ono tied for first in qualifying for the parallel bars, but he again outperformed Ono in the final, and earned a solo gold medal as a result.

He was tied for second in qualifying for the horizontal bar, but slipped back to third after the final, ending up with the bronze medal. On the rings, he qualified #2, but teammate Albert Azaryan had an insurmountable lead, and he was content to finish with the silver. In the pommel horse, he started out in first, and held it in the final, earning him a repeat gold in the event.

He won 7 total medals in the 1960 Olympics, which at the time was tied for the most ever in a single Olympics, since surpassed by Aleksandr Dityatin and Michael Phelps. By 1962, he was still great, but had slipped slightly, winning 4 silvers and 2 bronzes at the World Championships, but no golds. 

At the 1964 Olympics, he was still the top athlete on the Soviet team, but they were defeated again by the Japanese team, by an identical 2.5 point margin. He also finished in second place in the individual all-around, but wasn't all that close to the gold, as Yukio Endo beat him by 0.55 points. He qualified for the finals in just 3 of the individual events.

He was #4 in qualifying for the vault, but had a disappointing 9.525 in the final, and he ended up in 5th place. He was the top qualifier in the horizontal bar, which was his favorite event, and he posted the best score in the final as well, so he was finally able to earn his first Olympic gold in the event. In the rings, he qualified in 4th place, but a poor showing from Endo, along with a solid 9.7 from Shakhlin, enabled him to move up to 3rd and take the bronze medal.

He continued to compete after those Olympics, but earned only a single medal, the team silver, at the next World Championships. He was still planning to compete in the 1968 Olympics, but after suffering a heart attack in 1967, he decided to retire from competition. After retirement, he lived in Kyiv for most of the rest of his life, before he passed away in 2008.

At the time of his retirement, he had the record for most total Olympic medals by a man, with 13, and most individual gold medals by a male gymnast, with 6, a record he still holds. His performance at the 1960 Olympics was one of the greatest ever, with 7 total medals and 4 golds, and there is no doubt that he is one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

NCAA Football Rankings - 25 Oct

For the past two weeks, Alabama has held the top spot despite being on a losing streak. This week, the Tide turned, but because they only beat a mediocre Texas A&M team by 11 at home, they finally slipped in the rankings, falling behind idle Notre Dame and undefeated Miami. Texas returned to the top 10 after beating Ole Miss, who also climbed due to losses by Houston and Tennessee. Arizona made their top 25 debut after winning their 5th straight, as did Wisconsin after upsetting USC. Here are my full current rankings:

						Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L
1	2	Notre Dame	-23.03	6	1	11	1
2	3	Miami	-22.12	7	0	11	1
3	1	Alabama	-21.82	6	2	9	3
4	4	LSU	-21.8	6	2	9	3
5	5	Ohio State	-20.62	6	1	10	2
6	6	UCLA	-18.03	7	0	11	1
7	7	Georgia	-17.7	6	1	9	3
8	8	Indiana	-17.41	7	1	11	1
9	13	Texas	-16.3	5	2	8	4
10	12	Ole Miss	-16.08	5	2	9	3
11	9	Houston	-15.59	6	2	9	3
12	15	Wake Forest	-15	6	1	10	2
13	11	BYU	-14.45	6	1	10	2
14	10	Tennessee	-14.42	6	2	9	3
15	18	Utah	-14.12	7	0	10	2
16	16	Nebraska	-13.87	5	2	8	4
17	19	Oklahoma State	-13.51	5	2	9	3
18	22	Boise State	-12.76	6	1	9	2
19	26	Arizona	-12.63	6	1	9	3
20	14	Texas Tech	-12.42	6	1	9	3
21	25	Northwestern	-12.26	6	2	9	4
22	21	Kentucky	-12.21	7	1	9	3
23	28	Wisconsin	-12.16	4	3	8	4
24	23	Missouri	-11.64	5	2	8	4
25	17	Oregon	-11.59	4	3	7	5
26	24	Florida	-11.51	5	2	8	4
27	32	Louisville	-11.22	4	3	7	5
28	20	James Madison	-11.14	7	1	11	1
29	27	South Carolina	-10.24	4	3	7	5
30	37	New Mexico	-10.07	6	1	10	2
31	29	Oregon State	-9.781	5	2	8	3
32	34	UCF	-9.763	4	3	8	4
33	42	Liberty	-9.362	6	1	11	1
34	48	Oklahoma	-8.62	4	3	6	6
35	33	Mississippi St	-8.267	4	3	7	5
36	39	North Dakota State	-8.07	6	2	10	2
37	41	Florida State	-8.042	3	4	6	6
38	46	Texas A&M	-8.034	4	4	6	6
39	38	Baylor	-7.765	4	3	6	6
40	35	USC	-7.671	6	2	7	5
41	40	Pittsburgh	-7.604	5	3	8	4
42	31	North Carolina	-7.467	4	3	7	5
43	47	North Texas	-7.359	5	2	9	3
44	55	SMU	-7.152	6	1	8	4
45	30	TCU	-7.011	3	4	5	7
46	36	Auburn	-6.895	4	3	6	6
47	44	Duke	-6.29	5	2	7	5
48	50	Penn State	-6.239	4	3	8	4
49	51	Virginia Tech	-5.956	6	2	8	4
50	63	UT San Antonio	-5.596	7	1	10	2
51	43	Iowa	-5.439	5	2	7	5
52	73	Cincinnati	-5.241	5	2	7	5
53	45	Memphis	-5.217	6	2	8	4
54	53	Army	-4.855	5	2	8	4
55	67	Illinois	-4.61	4	3	6	6
56	49	Clemson	-4.244	4	3	6	6
57	62	Purdue	-3.535	3	4	5	7
58	66	Louisiana Tech	-3.364	5	2	8	4
59	64	South Florida	-3.188	5	2	8	4
60	54	Tulsa	-3.124	4	4	7	5
61	60	Fresno State	-2.919	4	3	6	5
62	68	Michigan	-2.885	4	3	6	6
63	81	Syracuse	-2.579	3	4	5	7
64	72	Michigan St	-2.562	2	6	4	8
65	75	Virginia	-2.422	4	4	6	6
66	65	West Michigan	-2.392	5	3	8	4
67	57	Texas State	-2.307	4	3	6	5
68	56	Kansas State	-2.287	4	3	6	6
69	88	West Virginia	-2.182	5	3	6	6
70	59	Iowa State	-1.906	3	4	5	7
71	83	Connecticut	-1.826	4	3	7	5
72	52	Georgia State	-1.808	4	3	7	5
73	76	Toledo	-1.476	6	2	9	3
74	58	Louisiana	-1.196	5	3	8	4
75	69	Georgia Southern	-1.117	3	4	6	6
76	82	Kansas	-1.001	3	4	4	8
77	74	UNLV	-0.963	4	3	7	5
78	79	Arkansas	-0.296	3	4	4	8
79	70	Ohio	0.1325	6	2	9	3
80	61	Air Force	0.2215	5	2	8	4
81	71	Navy	0.384	2	5	4	8
82	84	Washington	0.3861	4	3	5	7
83	105	Boston College	0.3895	4	3	5	7
84	89	Maryland	1.041	2	5	4	8
85	90	Minnesota	1.1102	5	2	6	6
86	85	Jacksonville State	1.1151	5	2	8	4
87	95	East Carolina	1.889	3	4	6	6
88	80	Florida Intl	1.9108	3	4	6	6
89	78	South Alabama	1.9923	4	3	7	5
90	97	Arizona State	2.0693	4	3	5	7
91	94	NC State	2.1124	3	4	5	7
92	87	Florida Atlantic	2.1402	5	2	7	5
93	102	Appalachian St	2.5003	5	2	8	4
94	86	Colorado	2.5213	2	5	3	9
95	99	Miami (OH)	3.1519	5	3	7	5
96	91	Arkansas State	3.2336	4	4	6	6
97	77	Tulane	3.2624	3	4	5	7
98	101	Vanderbilt	3.8547	3	5	3	9
99	103	Nevada	3.8707	3	4	5	7
100	93	California	4.1911	3	5	4	8
101	96	San Diego State	4.5092	3	5	4	7
102	98	UMass	4.9567	4	4	6	6
103	110	New Mexico St	4.9677	3	4	5	7
104	106	Rutgers	4.9932	2	5	3	9
105	104	UAB	5.1439	4	3	6	6
106	120	Delaware	5.2082	3	4	5	7
107	112	Coastal Carolina	5.2144	2	5	4	8
108	107	West Kentucky	5.3389	3	4	5	7
109	109	Stanford	5.5821	4	4	5	7
110	124	Mid Tennessee	5.594	4	3	6	6
111	111	Colorado State	6.1042	3	4	4	7
112	119	Rice	6.2918	1	7	2	10
113	92	Georgia Tech	6.465	2	5	2	10
114	116	Temple	6.6953	2	5	4	8
115	121	Utah State	7.1238	2	5	3	8
116	114	San Jose State	7.1415	4	4	6	7
117	117	Central Michigan	7.3342	3	5	5	7
118	127	Wyoming	7.4268	5	3	6	6
119	125	Eastern Michigan	7.4834	4	5	5	7
120	113	Buffalo	7.5266	5	3	7	5
121	100	Kennesaw State	7.8863	1	6	3	9
122	115	Washington St	7.9363	1	7	2	9
123	123	Kent State	8.2987	3	5	5	7
124	126	Ball State	8.9259	3	5	5	7
125	108	Troy	9.2174	3	4	4	8
126	122	Old Dominion	9.312	2	6	4	8
127	132	Hawaii	9.5111	2	6	4	8
128	118	Sam Houston	9.6113	1	6	3	9
129	131	Marshall	10.233	4	3	6	6
130	129	Bowling Green	11.263	2	6	3	9
131	130	Southern Miss	11.36	2	5	3	9
132	128	Missouri State	11.856	2	5	3	9
133	133	Charlotte	13.773	1	6	2	10
134	134	Akron	15.212	1	7	2	10
135	135	UTEP	15.901	1	6	2	10
136	137	Louisiana Monroe	16.037	1	6	2	10
137	138	Sacramento State	20.345	1	7	2	10
138	136	Northern Illinois	21.184	0	7	1	11