Éva Székely (3 April 1927 – 29 February 2020) was a Hungarian swimmer. 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. She held the first world record in the 400 m individual medley in 1953.

Biography
Székely was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her mother was Orthodox Jewish from Upper Hungary, while her father was from Transylvania. As a child, she competed for a local swim team 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 and was soon was expelled from the team because of her religion. She was excluded from competition for the next four years, and survived the Holocaust partly because she was a famous swimmer. 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.

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. Their daughter Andrea Gyarmati, born in 1954, was a backstroke and butterfly swimmer who won two medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. 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.

Székely won three gold medals at the 1947 World University Games followed by five gold medals at the 1951 World University Championship. 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.  She also set six world records, and won 44 national titles. 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.

In 1976 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She was named as one of Hungary’s Athletes of the Nation in 2004, and received the Prima Primissima award in 2011. She was also inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Death
Székely died on 29 February 2020 at Budapest, at the age of 92.

Publications
She authored three books, one of which was translated into other languages:

 Only winners are allowed to cry!  (Sírni csak a győztesnek szabad!) Budapest, 1981, Magvető Kiadó
 I came, I saw, I lost?  (Jöttem, láttam… Vesztettem?) Budapest, 1986, Magvető Kiadó
 I Swam It/I Survived  (Megúsztam) Budapest, 1989, Sport Kiadó

See also
 List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
List of select Jewish swimmers

References

External links
 "Éva Székely; Jewish Holocaust Survivor; Interview language: Hungarian (video)"
 
 
 

1927 births
2020 deaths
Hungarian female breaststroke swimmers
Jewish swimmers
Hungarian Jews
Olympic swimmers for Hungary
Swimmers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Swimmers from Budapest
Olympic silver medalists for Hungary
Olympic gold medalists for Hungary
World record setters in swimming
European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in swimming
Olympic silver medalists in swimming
Hungarian female swimmers
20th-century Hungarian women
21st-century Hungarian women
Hungarian defectors
Hungarian expatriates in the United States
Swimming coaches
Hungarian sports coaches
Jewish sportswomen
Székely people