Page 103 - Olympism in Socialism

and later the Bosporus. These were not just
isolated phenomena. Challenges of this type
would be issued in almost all the various sports
events, and they were not only motivated by
money but also by “virtus”, by the attitude of
“look what I can do”. This movement had its
golden age in 18th-century England, when it was
considered a pastime worthy of a gentleman, and
outstanding achievements, especially in horse
racing, were registered. These exploits, these
eccentric and admirable displays of strength,
these breakneck stunts did not only ensure the
victors’ popularity, but in Hungary where anti-
Habsburg feeling was general, these sportsmen
were almost looked on as national heroes, all the
more so as many of them were veterans of the ‘48
war. Many of those who took part in this national
sports movement won international fame for their
achievements. The all-round sportsman became
fashionable in Hungary as well.
Athletics were organised on the English
model, the leader of the first gymnastics club was
Ignac Clair, a former captain of the guards under
Napoleon. The National Fencing Institute was
established in 1840; it was characteristic of the
times that Sandor Petofi and Lajos Kossuth were
both its active members. Two aristocrats, Count
Istvan Szechenyi and Baron Miklos Wesselenyi,
undertook to call attention to the importance of
the physical training of young Hungarians.
Wesselenyi himself was an excellent
horseman, swordsman and marksman and even
swam across the Balaton. When he returned from
Western Europe he decided, together with
Szechenyi, to popularise sports in Hungary.
“There is no other nation for whom the mastery
of swordsmanship is more fitting and more
necessary” — he wrote in his first work,

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