A Coruña creates the international weightlifting tournament Ferenc Szabo, scout of champions

In October 2022, A Coruña will host the first edition of the international weightlifting tournament Ferenc Szabo, a born athlete who became absolute champion of Hungary at just 23 years of age and who, with his great intuition, has discovered important Galician talents who have emerged as world champions or European medalists in this discipline.

The creation of this competition has been confirmed this Thursday by the Sports Councillor, Mónica Martínez, during her visit to the weightlifting club champion of the Copa del Rey de la Reina, CH Coruña, at the Casa del Agua. The reason for choosing Szabo to name this new tournament is because the present and future of weightlifting in the community is in his hands and one of his vital challenges before retiring is to get a Galician to go to the Olympic Games of Paris 2024 of this modality.

His personal and professional history in the sport has not been easy, since he tried to follow in the footsteps of his father, an eminent figure in weightlifting in Hungary (he practiced it until he was 87 years old and was crowned world champion in the category master) and who went to the Olympic Games in Munich 72 and Montreal 76 as an international judge. He started in this world very young, combining studies and training five days a week in his native Hungary (he grew up a few meters from the iconic Hungarian Parliament, in Budapest). The hard work paid off and following the family trail of success in this sport, at the age of 15 he was already the children's champion of his country and at the age of 23 he was a member of the Hungarian national team.

An unfortunate accident that makes him a coach

At that time he was shortlisted to attend the 1980 Moscow Games and he married his current wife, who started weightlifting thanks to Szabó and a few years ago even became world champion in the masters category . Everything was cut short when an unfortunate accident on his honeymoon in the Adriatic Sea left him without part of a leg and ended his career, an episode that diverted him towards the role of coach.

Far from giving up, a few months after the accident he began working as a coach for the Hungarian army club, a job he carried out from the age of 23 to 34 until he got the opportunity to move to Galicia. A change of course that benefited weightlifting from A Coruña, since his scouting role since 1991 in the city's institutes has borne fruit.

Likewise, thanks to him, people from A Coruña such as Víctor Castro (European champion), Irene Martínez (considered the heiress of the Olympic medalist Lydia Valentín and who won a medal in the European championship) or Ruth Fuentefría (European runner-up with only 15 years old) have started weightlifting and are elite athletes with projection.