A Heroes' Welcome for TeamHun

The final party of the Hungarian Olympic team will arrive home tomorrow to a heroes’ welcome in Budapest.

Ranked twelfth on the Rio medal table with eight gold, three silver and four bronze medals, and eighth in the all-time Olympic medal table, Hungary is a medium-sized nation with a population of just under 10 million.The relative size of country to athletes makes it one of the most formidable sporting nations in history.

Rio’s top ten performing athletes (taking team and individual medals into account) comprise six Americans, one Briton, one Jamaican and two Hungarians.But going by individual performances alone, then the "Iron Lady" of swimming, Katinka Hosszú, would be the most successful athlete in Rio.

Women led the way for TeamHun as Hungary’s first gold of the Games was brought home by the fencer, Emese Szász.She was joined by triple-gold winners Hosszú and the canoeist Danuta Kozák (the other Hungarian in the top ten Olympic athletes at Rio). Anita Márton was the first European track and field athlete to win a medal at Rio (in women’s shot put), also setting a new national record. In swimming, Hosszú set an Olympic and World record in the 400m individual medley, and an Olympic record in the 200m medley.

Áron Szilágyi retained his title of Olympic champion in individual sabre.The swimmer Dániel Gyurta, former world record holder, Olympic champion and UNESCO fair-play swimmer, was elected to an eight-year term on the IOC Athlete’s Commission.

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