Hungarian Wrestlers Steal the Show at European Championships

Levente Lévai (blue shirt) at the training camp preparing for the European Championship

Viktor Lőrincz, head coach of Hungary’s Greco-Roman wrestling team, said that his athletes delivered an outstanding performance at the European Wrestling Championships in Šamorín, Slovakia, which concluded on Sunday. The Hungarian team placed third in the team competition for the Greco-Roman discipline.

For Lőrincz — himself a former European champion, world silver medalist, and Olympic silver medalist — the event held special significance, as it was his first major international competition in the role of head coach. His debut may have exceeded expectations: out of six Hungarian Greco-Roman wrestlers, five reached the podium.

Dávid Losonczi (87 kg) and Levente Lévai (72 kg) won gold, Erik Szilvássy (82 kg) took silver, and Alex Szőke (97 kg) and Dárius Vitek (130 kg) earned bronze.

“They performed fantastically. I am very proud of them,” Lőrincz said, adding that their success is the result of dedicated work. “All three days went excellently. I believe our wrestlers are on a very good path. I am especially pleased that we were able to start the new Olympic cycle with such strong results. That is important, because it gives the guys momentum for what lies ahead — and I think it is some very good momentum.”

When asked, Lőrincz specifically praised Levente Lévai, who won gold at just 19 years old in his first senior international competition.

“Levente is beginning to show his claws more and more often. Achieving such a major result at 19 is an incredible feat. We can be proud of him,” said the coach, adding that the emergence of young athletes is vital, and that having competition across weight classes for national team spots will push everyone to perform better. “Not to mention that those who eventually qualify for the Olympics could be serious contenders at the Games.”

Lőrincz was quick to emphasize, however, that he does not want to get ahead of himself. He believes in taking things step by step — and for now, it is time to celebrate and rest.

At just 19 years old, Lévai won gold in the 72 kg Greco-Roman category at the European Wrestling Championships in Šamorín, following a dramatic and highly unusual final which he ultimately won on points against his French opponent, Ibrahim Ghanem — a wrestler he had previously beaten. He is the youngest of the Lévai brothers and has made a spectacular European Championship debut on Saturday morning.

First, he staged a last-second comeback against defending champion and world titleholder Ulvi Ganizade, then defeated two-time U23 European champion Alen Mirzoyan of Russia.

In the evening semifinal, he once again put in an outstanding performance, confidently beating Belarusian Aliaksandr Liavonchyk 5-1. However, when up against Ibrahim Ghanem, the scoreboard read 4–4, which favored Lévai due to scoring the last point. Initially, the French team accepted the score, but after the match ended, they protested the awarded point, with Ghanem even staging a sit-in protest on the mat. The referees and jury chief held a lengthy review, examining the footage and official scoring sheet. Eventually, they upheld the result.

The French delegation did not back down, and before the medal ceremony, officials from the international wrestling federation acknowledged that the referees had indeed made a mistake and upheld the French protest.

In a rare decision, they awarded gold medals to both wrestlers, and instead of their national anthems, the anthem of the international wrestling federation was played during the ceremony.

Following the unbelievable turn of events, Lévai was finally able to celebrate the biggest achievement of his young career. His gold was Hungary’s fifth medal at the European Championships. “I could not always follow how the score was changing, but I think they could have given me points several times — for the arm throw or the lead-out — but whatever, the important thing is I won,” Lévai said in a post-match interview with the Hungarian Wrestling Federation.

“I am the first in the family to win a senior-level international gold medal — we often tease each other about things like that, but the main thing is that I can see how happy my brothers are,” Levente added.

On the final day, Erik Szilvássy also made it to a final, but just like at last year’s World Championships, he was unable to win the gold in the 82 kg category.

Second place again… Just like at Worlds. Somehow, I can’t get my head in the game on the second day — we will work on that going forward,”

Szilvássy told the Hungarian federation. “The weight cut went well, the preparation too, and I knew exactly what the Azerbaijani wrestler was going to do because I have trained with him a lot. Still, I could not solve it. But never mind, I will be ready for the World Championships later this year!”

The Csepel-based wrestler, who took silver at last year’s World Championships, had a mixed but ultimately successful Saturday. He first defeated Ukraine’s Ruslan Abdiev with a modest performance, then overcame Sweden’s Alexander Johansson with a nice move, and in the semifinals, he wrestled excellently to beat Turkey’s Burhan Akbudak 5–3.

Heading into Sunday evening’s final, Szilvássy had every reason to feel confident — not only because of his steadily improving performance the day before, but also because he had defeated his final opponent, Gurban Gurbanov, at last year’s World Championships.

The match was expected to be evenly balanced overall, but the Azerbaijani wrestler clearly surprised Szilvássy with the pace he set early on.

There was hope that Szilvássy could turn things around in the second period, but he was unable to impose himself — Gurbanov remained in control throughout and even managed to get behind him once more, ultimately securing a comfortable 6–0 victory.

This silver marks the second European Championship medal of Szilvássy’s career (the first was a bronze in the 87 kg category in 2019). It also represented the sixth podium finish for the Hungarian team at the continental tournament in Slovakia.

Hungary’s third medal of the day came from Alex Szőke, who claimed bronze in the 97 kg Greco-Roman category.

He defeated Czech wrestler Artur Omarov in the repechage with ease, and did not have to wrestle for bronze, as his opponent, Armenia’s Artur Aleksanyan, withdrew due to injury.

The 26-year-old athlete from ESMTK thus secured the first senior European Championship medal of his career.

Via MTI; Featured picture: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt