Budapest, October 3, 2018 - Hungarian fencer Győző Kulcsar, who won four gold medals in the epee discipline at three Olympic Games from 1964 to 1972, has died at the age of 77. Earlier this week hundreds of people paid their respects to the “Athlete of the Nation” in the Hungarian capital.

The “Paganini of the epee,” in homage to the Italian violin virtuoso, Kulcsar won an individual gold at the Mexico City Games in 1968, exactly fifty years ago, and team golds at Tokyo in 1964, Mexico in 1968 and Munich in 1972.

He also won bronze medals in 1972 and at the Montreal Games in 1976, as well as three world championship golds. After Kulcsar retired from competition, he trained several Hungarian fencers to Olympic medals, including the gold medalist Timea Nagy, two-time Olympic gold-winner, and Emese Szasz, who won gold also at the 2016 Games in Rio.

He was a coaching genius, who trained Italian fencers as well, in Vercelli, Italy, between 1985 and 2001, out of whom Maurizio Randazzo won an Olympic gold, while Elisa Uga became an Olympic silver medalist.

Győző Kulcsár received several national and international acknowledgements and in 2017 he was given the prestigious “Lifetime Achievement Award” established by the Hungarian Sport Journalists’ Association together with the Hungarian Olympic Committee.