Olga Szabó-Orbán

Olga Szabó-Orbán (née Orbán, 9 October 1938 – 5 January 2022) was a Romanian foil fencer, world champion in 1962, and team world champion in 1969. A five-time Olympian, she won an individual silver medal in 1956 and team bronze medals in 1968 and 1972.[2][3][4]

Olga Szabó-Orbán
Orbán (left) in the 1960s
Personal information
Born(1938-10-09)9 October 1938
Cluj, Romania
Died5 January 2022(2022-01-05) (aged 83)[1]
Bârzava, Romania
Sport
SportFencing
WeaponFoil
Handright-handed
National coachAndrei Vâlcea
ClubCSA Steaua
Medal record
Women's Foil
Representing  Romania
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place1956 MelbourneIndividual
Bronze medal – third place1968 MexicoTeam
Bronze medal – third place1972 MunichTeam
World Championships
Gold medal – first place1962 Buenos AiresIndividual
Gold medal – first place1969 HavanaTeam
Silver medal – second place1965 ParisIndividual
Silver medal – second place1965 ParisTeam
Silver medal – second place1970 AnkaraTeam
Bronze medal – third place1961 TurinTeam
Bronze medal – third place1967 MontrealTeam
Bronze medal – third place1970 AnkaraIndividual

Career

Orbán was born into a Hungarian minority in Transylvania. She took up fencing at the relatively late age of 14 after her teacher Ecaterina Bartoș led the whole class to the fencing hall, where her husband Tibor was a coach.[5][6][7] 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.[8]

At the 1956 Olympics she earned a silver medal, the first Olympic medal in fencing for Romania.[5] The gold medal went to Great Britain's Gillian Sheen, whom Orbán had beaten twice during the event.[5] In 1961 Orbán won with Maria Vicol, Ana Pascu and Ecaterina Orb-Lazăr Romania's first medal at the World Fencing Championships with a team bronze medal, followed in 1962 by an individual gold medal. After retiring from competitions Orbán became a fencing coach at her club CSA Steaua. In 1990 she moved to Hungary with her husband, Olympic water polo player Alexandru Szabó, and later worked at the Budapest Honvéd sport club.[8][7]

Personal life and death

Olga Szabó-Orbán died in January 2022, at the age of 83.[9]

References
  1. Búcsú a kolozsvári vívás nagyasszonyától, Szabó-Orbán Olgától. Szabadsag.ro. 7 January 2022
  2. "Olympics Statistics: Olga Orban-Szabo". databaseolympics.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  3. "Olga Orban-Szabo Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  4. Egyetemes magyar sport – Lapozgató (53.) – 2013. december 30., hétfő – Háromszék, független napilap Sepsiszentgyörgy. 3szek.ro. Retrieved on 1 October 2016.
  5. 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.
  6. Killyéni, András, ed. (2011), Szabó-Orbán Olga: a lány, aki meghódította a világot (PDF) (in Hungarian), Cluj-Napoca, ISBN 978-973-0-11215-3{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. Olga Orban. Romanian Olympic Committee
  8. Nicu, Alexe, ed. (2002), "Federația Română de Scrimă" (PDF), Educaţiei Fizice și Sportului din România (in Romanian), vol. 1, Bucharest: Aramis, p. 1054
  9. A murit prima medaliată olimpică şi prima campioană mondială a scrimei româneşti (in Romanian)
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