Sarolta Kovács Bags Bronze Medal for Hungary in Women’s Modern Pentathlon

Sarolta Kovács finished third in women’s modern pentathlon at the Tokyo Olympics, winning Hungary’s first medal in the sport in the women’s division since 2004 when Zsuzsanna Vörös claimed the gold.

Kovács’s past few months preceding the Olympics were nightmarish. She underwent a routine surgery in March, but some weeks after her knee operation she could not use her left leg. The doctors discovered that she had thrombosis. It turned out that she was supposed to be on blood thinners, but the doctors didn’t prescribe them for her. The athlete’s condition was so serious that it looked like she would miss the Olympics. But Dr. Béla Merkely and his team managed to fix her leg in time for her to participate in the Olympics.

In Tokyo, the first event of the competition- fencing (one-touch épée)- went very well for Kovács, as well as for the other Hungarian individual competitor, Michelle Gulyás. On Thursday, they finished in a tie for sixth place. The other events took place on Friday.

The second day also looked quite promising for the Hungarians as Sarolta Kovács swam the fourth best time and Michelle Gulyás the second best in 200m freestyle swimming. The bonus fencing round was less successful, but the two Hungarian competitors were still in 6th and 7th place. Then came the equestrian show jumping event. For Michelle Gulyás, it ended disappointingly due to mistakes made by her horse, but Sarolta Kovács came in third overall.

In the final event, the combined event of pistol shooting and cross country running (3200 m), the shooting went very well for Kovács, but she was overtaken in the run by Laura Asadauskaite from Lithuania. Ultimately, Sarolta Kovács finished third.

I’m still shivering. I don’t know what to say, it feels really good. In the last lap the others came very fast, but I managed to keep third place. The shooting went well, which is the result of mental training. A lot of bad things happened to me this year, but I managed to prepare well,”

she told M4 sports channel after the race.

The other Hungarian competitor, Michelle Gulyás, finished in 12th place.

Featured photo by Zsolt Czeglédi/MTI