Antal Bolvári


Antal Bolvári was a Hungarian water polo player who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics and in the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Early life

He was born in Kaposvár.
Bolvári was part of the Hungarian team that won the gold medal in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. He played in six matches and scored one goal.
Four years later, at the Melbourne Olympics, he was again a member of the Hungarian team that won the gold medal. He played in four matches and scored two goals, including one in the infamous Blood in the Water match against the USSR in the championship round, held a few weeks after the Soviets had crushed the 1956 Hungarian uprising.
Bolvári was one of several Hungarian athletes who defected to the West in the aftermath of the Melbourne games. He later returned to Hungary, where he continued to play and, later, coach at the club and national levels. He died in Budapest on January 8, 2019, as a result of what his family described as "a long, undisclosed illness".