Zador, Erwin

At the age of 21, he became a member of the national team, which in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament defeated the USSR team with a score of 4: 0. Due to the fact that the match was held after the suppression of the Hungarian uprising by the Soviet troops, it turned out to be extremely tense. The Soviet water polo player Valentin Prokopov , after a verbal skirmish with Zador, stabbed him with a fist and cut the skin over the Hungarian right eye, causing heavy bleeding. Despite this, the Hungarian athlete continued the game, leaving a bloody mark in the pool. The audience staged an obstruction to the USSR national team, and a minute before the final whistle, it was disqualified. In the final, the Hungarians defeated the Yugoslav national team with a score of 2: 1 and became Olympic champions.

Immediately after the end of the Olympic Games, half of the Hungarian national team, including Zador, sought political asylum in the West. Moreover, he was the only one who did not return home. In the following years, he worked as a swimming coach in the United States, among his wards was the young Mark Spitz .

In the spring of 2006, he became one of the characters in the film directed by Colin K. Gray, “ Fury of Freedom, ” dedicated to the game of the Hungarian national team in the Melbourne tournament. In the same year, he refused to come to Budapest for the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, saying that he did not want to receive an award from the government, which includes people who were active communists before 1989.

• Erwin Zador - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Elhunyt Zádor Ervin olimpiai bajnok vízilabdázó - April 30, 2012 (Hungarian)