Paddling in one boat

The athletes of Hungary have always played an important part in the history of the modern Olympic Games, which is shown by our place on the medal tables. As other countries, we have several sports that are mainly responsible for the Olympic medal winnings. One of these sports is canoeing, which is a permanent discipline since the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. If we think about what the connection of Olympics and canoeing means to us Hungarians, we might remember that we can sit down to watch the TV broadcasts from the second week of competition with a feeling that "our" discipline has arrived, the one that will deliver the medals and help us get a better position on the country ranking list. At least this was the choreography at the 3 latest Summer Olympics, since more than one third of the Hungarian medals were collected by the competitors in canoeing. At the same time, another fact regarding canoeing can be stated - the judgment of the competitors might be too much focused on the Olympics, even though there are results achieved also at other international competitions - the athletes must go through an equally hard preparation: typically 315 days out of 365 days/year.

Everyday life with lots of work
I always wondered how the grey everyday life of these ladies and gentlemen could be, living in the world of canoeing - characterized by tenacity, tactics, an awful lot of work, humility and incredible power. The opportunity came to find it out, and I took it. Out of the leading personalities of the sport, I was allowed a short glance into the life of two most sympathetic young ladies, Tímea Paksy and Dalma Benedek. I would like to add that these ladies have already experienced the euphoric situation of being on top of the World or Europe, both individually and in a team. It was obvious already at the introduction that this duo has a long history together. They have mostly paddled together in one boat since the age of ten. As they say, they have spent more time with each other than with their families. Naturally, they also got into separate boats during their career, but the hope of success always brought them together, again and again. Neither of them is more dominant, they challenge and motivate each other.
The essence of top competitive sport is that each year is spent within the same strict system. Depending on the number of events, there is 1 1/2 months available for rest at most, when they don't have to deal with "their job". This is the time to make up for all the time they have to revoke from themselves and their families. Dalma and Tímea train 11 times in an average week, in a morning/afternoon system. The winter season is for strength building, and in early spring, it is followed by the first "warm water" training camp in some warm place on the globe. After coming home, the competition season starts, which lasts until early autumn. The strained pace can be increased even more by the obligation to report their expected daily program to doping controllers. Dalma mentioned that during the year of the Beijing Olympics, she was controlled 11 times. The controllers can even appear at the residence of the athlete, who must report in within 3 hours if not found at home. Neglecting this is considered as a doping offence.

Life outside the boat 
In canoeing, an average athlete is active and suitably fit until the age of 35. In the meantime, everybody is thinking about what to do next. Like the conscious preparation in their sport, the girls are also preparing their future by both taking a college diploma beside their daily tasks. This is no surprise, since educated athletes are typical of this sport. Tímea has graduated from the foreign economy faculty of the Szolnok college and is presently a student of the Fitness academy. Dalma has graduated as sports manager at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences of the Semmelweis University and is now attending the Biology course at the Szeged University. Their future plans are however very different. Dalma would like to try herself and use her acquired knowledge away from canoeing. Although she hasn't made a final decision yet, she would like to be involved in something similar to her present life, hectic and full of challenges, dominated by personal contacts. Apart from being able to perform also in a civilian environment, Tímea is also interested in the possibility of raising the new generations in canoeing.
Beside doing the daily chores, another condition to be a successful athlete is emotional security which must be mentioned. Their emotional balance is helped by that they live in happy relationships. However, they have postponed family planning after ending their professional careers, which is quiet understandable.

Naturally, elite sport is is not working without proper sacrifice and humility. The girls have fulfilled these conditions, and the result is that they have become multiple World champions. But the work is not done yet - everything continued in the same strained way after Beijing than before. At the same time there is another goal slowly beginning to take shape, but there are many challenges on the way. That goal (today still just a fragment in their thoughts) is London 2012, where the dreams of the girls can become real. Let us wish them that they will!

Tímea Paksy
Born on January 22nd, 1983 in Budapest. Presently competes for the MTK club, her coach is Katalin Fábiánné Rozsnyói. Her personal sponsor is Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt.

Best results at World Championships:
K-1 200 m 1. (2006), K-2 1000 m 1. (2003), K-4 1000 m 1. (2005, 2006), K-2 200 m 1. (2003), K-4 200 m 1. (2002, 2006),
K-4 1000 m 1. (2006), K-4 500 m 3. (2005),
K-4 1000 m 3. (2002), K-1 200 m 3. (2003).

Best results at European Championships:
K-2 500 m 1. (2004), K-4 500 m 1. (2006),
K-4 200 m 1. (2006), K-4 1000 m 1.
(2003, 2006), K-1 200 m 2. (2006),
K-2 200 m 2. (2004), K-4 200 m 2. (2005),
K-1 200 m 3. (2004).

Dalma Benedek
Born on February 21st, 1982 in Budapest. Presently competes for the MTK club, her coach is Katalin Fábiánné Rozsnyói. Her personal sponsor is Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt.

Best results at World Championships:
K-1 500 m 1. (2006), K-1 1000 m 1. (2006),
K-2 1000 m 1. (2003), K-4 500 m 3. (2005),
K-1 1000 m 3. (2005).

Best results at European Championships:
K-2 500 m 1. (2004), K-1 500 m 1. (2006),
K1 1000 m 1. (2006), K-4 500 m 2. (2005).

Kayak-canoe
In the history of the Olympic games, Hungary has collected 71 medals in total in canoeing, making it the third most successful country in this sport. Canoeing is thus our second most successful sport in terms of medals after fencing (82 medals) but before swimming (64 medals). The number of our medals in total is 5 more than Germany on first place and 21 more than the Soviet Union on second place. The ranking place is decided by the number of gold medals, of which Hungary has won 19 in total, 5 of these were won by women and 14 by men. Of course it is important to point out that women only compete in the kayak discipline. Another interesting part of the sports statistics is that we have even better total ranking in several other sports than this excellent third place: we are on first place in water polo, pentathlon and football.

Source: Pont magazine
Text: Hunor Szász
Photos: Róbert Karádi, MTI