Alfréd Hajós

Alfréd Hajós was a Hungarian swimmer, footballer, referee, national team coach and architect, born Arnold Guttmann in Budapest on 1 February 1878 and died there on 12 November 1955. He took the name Hajós, meaning sailor, after learning to swim at thirteen following his father's drowning in the Danube. At the 1896 Athens Games, held in the cold open sea of the Bay of Zea, the eighteen-year-old architecture student won both the 100 metre and the 1,200 metre freestyle, becoming the first modern Olympic swimming champion and Hungary's first Olympic champion. He also won Hungarian titles in sprinting, hurdles and discus, played in Hungary's first international football match in 1902, refereed from 1897 to 1904 and coached the national side in 1906. As an architect of sports facilities he won a silver medal in the 1924 Olympic art competitions and designed the Margaret Island swimming stadium that now carries his name.