Éva Székely

Who is Éva Székely?

Éva Székely is a Hungarian Jewish female swimmer. She won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and the silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics. She was a Hungarian swim champion and set a national speed record in 1941, despite almost not being permitted to start, because she was a Jew. She was excluded from competition for the next four years. She survived the Holocaust in part because she was so well known.

Her daughter, Andrea Gyarmati was a backstroke and butterfly swimmer who won two medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Her former husband Dezső Gyarmati is a champion in water polo.