András Szente

Who was András Szente?

András Szente was a Hungarian sprint canoer who competed from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won two silver medals at Rome in 1960, earning them in the K-1 4 × 500 m and the K-2 1000 m events.

Szente also won two silver medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships.

The Life of András Szente

Szente András V was born on December 10, 1939, in Budapest, Hungary to Szente Erzsebet and Szente András IV. András was one of four children with an older sister named Katalin and younger twin brothers named István and József. His father owned his own hair salon and was a well-known hairstylist in Budapest with a client list that included some of the most famous opera and movie stars of the time. Growing up in communist Hungary, András saw firsthand how communism limited freedom in Hungary, and his experiences growing up would shape his life forever in ways that he could not have imagined as a young boy.

In his early teens András took up the sport of kayaking, which is a national pastime for the Hungarian people.