Getting ready for the Olympic Games – Portrait with Krisztián Kulcsár, President of the Hungarian Olympic Comittee

We mostly know Krisztián Kulcsár for his successes in sport. He is a two-time Olympic silver medallist, and a multiple World Champion epee fencer. Besides his sport career, he worked in the financial world for a long time, and he was also director of a company furthermore international sport diplomat before he was chosen as President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. Please read the GLOBS Magazine interview with Krisztián Kulcsár.

You were born in a real sport family. You father, Gábor Kulcsár, played in the national basketball team many times, while your uncle, Győző, is known as  a four time Olympic Champion epee fencer. Even so, you first started out with swimming. How did you find epee fencing?

After the divorce of my parents, my mother remarried and her new partner was the Olympic Champion pentathlonist, István Móna. He had a clear vision about my path. I started swimming in KSI (Central Sport School) in 1978-79. However, my original goal was only to get a general physical fundamentum. I started to engage in modern pentathlon at the age of 14, and for a long time it seemed to be the right path for me. Naturally, my stepfather had a great impact on it. It is a fantastic sport, I still have a very close relationship with the Hungarian and international pentathlon society. But it soon turned out that I was no good at running. It was in 1986, when it became clear that I wanted to switch to epee fencing.

And the good results came quite quickly…

Yes, fortunately, this was the case – first in my age group, and then on international level as well. I found myself in the junior national team after a few years of fencing. It was quite a dynamic start to my career.

What kinds of skills, qualities are necessary to achieve this type of successes?

On one hand, psychical qualities are needed: you cannot achieve successes without persistence and enthusiasm. On the other hand, fencing is a technical sport, which can be learnt, but you have to practice a lot and use your brain in the sense that it must fit to your qualities.

Some people are excellent competitors and are stronger mentally, while others have outstanding physical qualities, mental coordination, strength or a better sense of tactics.

It all depends on how the fencer can use the available combination of skills, and whether or not the athlete is able to force his/her style and will on the opponent. It is a very entertaining and interesting sport, unfortunately this doesn’t really get through the television screen, especially for laymen. But if you start fencing, you’ll fall in eternal love for sure.

You already qualified to the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 at a young age, and won a silver medal in the team competition. Later in Athens, the gold medal was as near as could be. Please, tell us about these experiences!

My first participation at Olympic games came relatively early. There was a change of generation in Hungarian epee fencing. The members of the older generation, the prominent World Champions of this sport like Jenő Papp, Zoltán Székely and István Gelley have retired, and the boost of a younger generation was planned. Iván Kovács, Gábor Totola and I were chosen to represent Hungary along with two more experienced athletes, Ernő Kolczonay and Ferenc Hegedűs. Unfortunately, the individual performances didn’t go according to expectations, even though Iván was among the top eight. But we managed to fight for the gold medal in the team performance. At the age of 21, this was the beautiful start of a long career despite the fact that we didn’t win the Olympic title. We had a second chance in 2004. At that time, we had to face the French team in the final.

How does an athlete experience that he’s within the reach of the gold medal, but gets the less shining medal in the end?

If someone gets to the final, it indicates that the person is in good shape. Of course it is very painful when you lose your last match.

When we lost against the Germans in 1992, we were a young team, we were hungry for success, we were enthusiastic and we sacrificed a lot for the success.

It was painful that we beat the German team in the qualification round, but we didn’t manage to win in the final. The silver medal of Athens was a different story. We lost against the French team, against which we didn’t manage to win during the whole year. Even though the final was very tense, we were shoulder to shoulder until the last three fencing-bouts – the team match consists of nine fencing-bouts – and we could’ve been closer to Fortuna, the outcome was different.

It’s always a matter of debate how professional sportsmen can continue their career after retiring. But this wasn’t a problem for you thanks to your jurist and economist qualifications. Did you shape your fate consciously?