Laszlo Tabori, A Biography

Andras Ko

Description

Laszlo Tabori's dream to compete in the Melbourne Olympics became a reality but his hope of standing on the victory stand had but all been dashed by the events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. "My Hungarian teammates, Rzsavlgyi, Iharos and I had set 23 world records in track and field and were the favorites leading into the Games. I had won championships in Hungary, England, and the United States. "It was however, at this time, Tbori defected along with some of his Hungarian Olympic team members and came to America from Melbourne, not to return home again until 25 years later. Communism ruled his country. Tbori's was always running. The lessons he learned early on...beginning in the early days of his childhood during the German and Russian occupation of his homeland, continuing through his years as a world class runner, and on to this day... imparted upon him the 'will to survive.'The methods his coach, Mihaly Igloi used are the doctrines of Tbori's coaching philosophy today. Lszl Tbori, a renowned and honored coach has carved out a life for himself. He has passed his methods on, coaching world-class athletes, Olympians, and world record holders. They in turn now coach some of the great runners of today!When asked', "Why did you work so hard?" Tbori responded, "So we would be better than the rest." The Hungarian translation: "It was our ticket to a better life."

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781622878628
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

L Á S Z L Ó T Á B O R I
A B I O G R A P H Y

The Legendary Story of the Great Hungarian Runner

First Edition Design Publishing
Sarasota, Florida USA
LÁSZLÓ TÁBORI
Copyright ©2015 Image Design Publishing

ISBN 978-1622-878-61-1 PRINT
ISBN 978-1622-878-62-8 EBOOK

LCCN 2015934669

May 2015

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r or publisher .
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Special appreciation given to:
Ralph Berkin for the translation from Hungarian to English

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Photographs throughout the book from the Hungarian Sports Museum archive,
László Tábori’s photo albums and the author

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Editing and additional photography by Laurie Kulchin Tábori

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Layout & printing: First Edition Design Publishing

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Front cover photo –
Tábori at the University of Southern California; Los Angeles 2010
Sándor Iharos, László Tábori and István Rózsavölgyi; Budapest, Hungary 1955

Back cover photo –
Tábori winning the 3 mile race; London 1955

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For my grandchildren
- Nicolas, Izabella and Mari –
Our future generation

With much love,
-Nagypapa
PREFACE
“Records are made to be broken.”

– Sports adage.


In the opening lines of The Story of Magellan, Stefan Zweig writes: “An author should always account for the inner prompting that leads him to his choice of subject.” My book was born out of curiosity. I was no more than a kid when I first saw László Tábori, Sándor Iharos and István Rózsavölgyi on the running track. I even had pictures of the world- record-holding relay team pinned up on my bedroom wall but I had never met any of them in person. It was while working on a documentary film about them some years back that the chance to meet Rózsavölgyi and Tábori came. (Sadly, Sándor Iharos had passed away earlier.) From his r e ti r e m e n t i n th e H u ngaria n cit y o f T ata , Ró zs avölg yi wa s mo r e tha n delighted to help in any way he could and Tábori even went as far as flying back to Hungary from Los Angeles. It was after the film had been made and shown that I decided to write a book about Tábori who had chosen the United States as his new home following his defection from Hungary at the Melbourne Olympics of 1956. The fate of this successful and gifted runner was typically Hungarian irrespective of his status as an athlete. He could just as easily have been an engineer, a doctor or a lawyer like so many of his fellow countrymen who, back in 1956, gave up a Hungary that they knew and that knew them in exchange for a life of freedom in an unknown land.
The months immediately following the Australian Olympics were ones of exciting competition for as long as Sports Illustrated sponsored Tábori’s participation in the sport. Sadly this ended towards the close of 1957 and by early 1958 he was alone. This began a period of uncertainty and concern for his future, so familiar to many of his fellow émigrés. He didn’t start to compete again until 1959 and won one race after another. He was back at the peak of his fitness by 1960 but the fact that he had still not been granted US citizenship disqualified him, according to the regulations in place at the time, from competition in the 1960 Rome Olympics. A number of prominent sports journalists tried to lobby on his behalf to no avail. His participation was limited to advising Rózsavölgyi and watching the battle for the gold from the stands. First the disappointment of Melbourne and now another great opportunity had been missed.
His performance in 1956 had been adversely affected by the revolution in Hungary – Hungarian athletes hadn’t been able to train as well as they otherwise might have been able to and the general turbulence surrounding the revolution also had a negative impact. It is a tribute to Tábori’s strength of will and faith in himself that he was able to come back to the sport after 1958 when with the formation of the Los Angeles T rac k Cl u b , Tá b or i wa s a b l e t o agai n r e gai n to p for m an d b r e a k th e worl d record in the Distance Medley Relay before eventually taking his leave from competition.
Tábori found himself suitable employment and later, in 1968, was approached to work as a track and field coach. He had never received formal training to work in this area however, offered the opportunity, he welcomed it with open arms. He trained World Record holders, University champions, sub four-minute milers, Olympians, and winners of the Boston, New York and Western Hemisphere Marathons. In addition to having his own sporting goods store, ‘László Tábori Sports’ and coaching his own track club, ‘Th e S a n F e rnand o V all ey T rac k Cl ub’ fo r 38 y e ar s, Tá b or i wo r k ed a s a rac e director organizing and managing road races around the Los Angeles area.
After the death of his wife several years ago, he invited me to go out and spend a few days with him at his home in Los Angeles where I would be able to collect material on his life. A few days turned into a month. I spent a month living with the man whose life story you are about to read. During this time, I was with him continually, whether that meant getting up at dawn to attend training sessions, going with him to wash his car or just walk the dog around the block. A writer is rarely granted such total access to his subject. Of course, we talked the whole time from the breakfast table to the track and then back again to eat dinner in the evening. We talked about running and his great achievements in the sport. I grew very fond of his honest, upright, and often frank personality. I was impressed by the way he always seemed to have a solution to every problem. I went out to see him in January 2006 and again in the spring of 2008 just prior to publishing the Hungarian version of this book, Tábori és a Többiek. He was seventy-five years old when we started working together, celebrated his eightieth birthday in the summer of 2011, and was honored to attend the London Olympic Games in 2012 as a special guest of the IAAF. Although the years have crept up on him, Tábori refuses to give in to retirement. Just recently, he left his position coaching the middle-distance runners at the renowned University of Southern California in Los Angeles, however, with more than 47 years of coaching experience, Tabori continues to coach privately.
Tabori still had his running store, ‘László Tábori Sports’ where I had met all kinds of people when I first came out in 2006. It was more of a museum than a typical store because the walls were covered with sporting memorabilia – a little corner of Europe in Burbank. Shelves of shoes jostled for space with a seemingly endless collection of certificates, photographs and newspaper clippings. I can still hear his voice greeting me for the first time with a hearty: “Hello there, young man!” – the same greeting he has used ever since. The greeting is always accompanied by a broad smile – he is always smiling. I was sad to hear when he closed the store at the end of 2007. It had become too difficult to handle all the bending down, measuring and fussing with other people’s feet.
The month that I spent with him definitively convinced me that everything I had thought I knew about Iharos, Rózsavölgyi and Tábori was very different from what we had previously heard, read or think today. They didn’t achieve sainthood despite the fact that they had received so much attention with the records they had broken and the results they had achieved in the mid-1950s. They remained mere mortals like the rest of us with much the same human weaknesses and faults but nevertheless they left their mark. They set out to be the best at something and succeeded and that is why we should bow our heads before their achievements. I tried to get a better understanding of the three of them with László Tábori’s help because they were always inseparable. I was searching for the secret that built upon Mihály Iglói’s interval-training method but behind all the work, they were still simple human beings – human beings with all their complications, troubles, hopes and fears. And there too was destiny – the destiny of all Hungarians of the `56 generation. And even knowing ones destiny does not make it any easier to avoid.
It has been said that Hungary will never produce three comparable world-famous runners. It is, at any rate, a far from promising sign that their names are no longer recognized by young people even in Hungary even though the sports pages were full of their achievements at the time. Could it be that forgetfulness is a way of the brain protecting itself? László Felleki writes: “To expect gratitude from the next generation would be like expecting the audience to applaud beside the grave of a famous actor.”
No one should think that I have written a book about László Tábori for merely sentimental reasons. It is intended as an example for the present generation in the hope that their love of sports may also help to teach them lessons about life. I have written it out of my own curiosity. By a strange coincidence when Tábori arrived at the Melbourne airport after his defection he ran into another new immigrant; the great coach and the man who had had so much to do with Tábori’s success, Mihály Iglói. It is another coincidence that this book was first published in Hungary on the 100th anniversary of Mihály Iglói’s birth. And now the American version of