Kornél Pajor

Who is Kornél Pajor?

Kornél Pajor is a former speed skating World Champion from Hungary. He was born in Budapest.

In early 1943, Pajor was a young and promising skater of 19 years old, but because World War II was in progress there were not many competitions. In Klagenfurt, Austria, at one of the few skating competitions that year, he won the 3000 m. After the war, skating competitions slowly returned to normal, and Pajor participated in the 1948 Winter Olympics of St. Moritz, with a fourth place on the 10000 m as his best result.

The next year, 1949, turned out to be Pajor's best year: He became Hungarian National Allround Champion for the fourth time and then won bronze at the European Allround Championships, while setting a new world record on the 5000 m during those championships. On the 10000 m during those championships, he skated a time of 16:58.7, which was faster than Charles Mathiesen's nine-year-old world record of 17:01.5 on that distance. However, Hjalmar Andersen became the new world record holder on the 10000 m, skating an even faster 16:57.4. Two weeks later, at the 1949 World Allround Championships in Oslo, Norway, Pajor won gold, making him the first Hungarian skater to become World Allround Champion. As of 2007, he is still the only Hungarian, male or female, to win gold, or even any medal, at any of the different disciplines of World Championships in speed skating