| Éva Székely | |
| Birth Date: | 3 April 1927 |
| Birth Place: | Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary |
| Death Place: | Budapest, Hungary |
| Sport: | Swimming |
| Club: | Neményi MADISZ BVSC, Budapest |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Éva Székely (3 April 1927 – 29 February 2020)[1] was a Hungarian swimmer.[2] She won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and the silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics, set six world records, and won 44 national titles.[2] She held the first world record in the 400 m individual medley in 1953.
Székely was born in Budapest, Hungary.[3] Her mother was Orthodox Jewish from Upper Hungary, while her father was from Transylvania.[4] As a child, she competed for a local swim team[3] and in 1941, at 14 years of age, she set a national speed record, although she was barely allowed to start because she was a Jew[5] and was soon expelled from the team because of her religion.[3] She was excluded from competition for the next four years, and survived the Holocaust partly because she was a famous swimmer.[2] Towards the end of World War II, she lived with 41 people in a crowded two-room “safe-house” in Budapest run by the Swiss, and to keep in shape, every day she ran up and down five flights of stairs 100 times.[3] [2]
At the end of World War II she met her husband, Dezső Gyarmati, a three-time Olympic water polo champion (1952, 1956, and 1964) in water polo; they later divorced and he predeceased her in 2013.[3] [2] [6] Their daughter Andrea Gyarmati, born in 1954, was a backstroke and butterfly swimmer who won two medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.[3] [2] After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 the family defected to the United States but they did not stay, returning to care for Székely's parents – from then on the Hungarian authorities did not allow them to leave the country in each other's company.[2]
Székely won three gold medals at the 1947 World University Games[3] followed by five gold medals at the 1951 World University Championship.[3] She won the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke (setting a new Olympic record) at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, and the silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[7] [2] [3] She also set six world records, and won 44 national titles.[2] She held the first world record in the 400 m individual medley, in 1953.
After retiring from competitions Székely worked as a pharmacist and swimming coach, training her daughter among others.[3]
In 1976 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.[8] She was named as one of Hungary's Athletes of the Nation in 2004, and received the Prima Primissima award in 2011.[2] She was also inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[3]
Székely died on 29 February 2020 at Budapest, at the age of 92.[9]
She authored three books, one of which was translated into other languages: