In 1956, twenty-two-year-old Ervin Zador was the leader of the Hungarian water polo team as it headed to the Olympic games in Australia. Water polo is one of the most popular sports in Hungary, and the nation has won a record nine Olympic Gold medals in the sport, a matter of pride for a country often conquered and occupied by foreign governments.
In 1944 as World War II drew to an end, the Russians occupied Hungary and never left. Russia exploited Hungary and other Eastern European nations like Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. The Russians kidnapped hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, forcing them into slave labor camps in Russia, and imposed a puppet government on the country. The hatred the Hungarian people had toward Russia boiled over on October 23rd, 1956, when the Hungarians overthrew the Russian-controlled government, the first war of independence against Soviet occupation.
Briefly liberated, the revolution was quashed by November 10th when 200,000 Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion. More than 2,500 Hungarians were killed and a quarter-million people fled the nation.
That year for the first time in history, the Olympic Games were held in the Southern Hemisphere, in Melbourne, Australia. The games began less than two weeks after the rebellion was squashed, and emotions in the Olympic Village between the Russians and the Hungarians were raw. The Soviet invasion outraged many in the world, and the Netherlands, Cambodia, Spain, and Switzerland boycotted the Games. In a show of sympathy for the beleaguered nation, Australian crowds cheered the Hungarian athletes, especially when competing against the Russians. The biggest showdown came when the two countries faced off in the swimming pool for the water polo gold medal. "The game meant so much to us. We had to win the gold medal. We were playing for ourselves, our families back home, and our country," Zador said. Five thousand fans ringed the pool, cheering wildly for the Hungarians. From the opening whistle, the game turned into a brawl. "We were yelling at them, 'you dirty bastards. You come over and bomb our country,'" Zador said. "They were calling us traitors. There was fighting above the water and fighting beneath the water." The Hungarian defense smothered the Russian attack.
Zador scored two goals, and Hungary led 4-0 with one minute left to play in the game when a Russian player slugged Zador in his eye, drawing blood. The sight of blood agitated the heated spectators who screamed at the Russians. Officials ended the game with less than a minute to go and tensions close to breaking point. Hungary, leading 4-0, was awarded the victory, and Australian police escorted the Russian water polo team to safety. Blood streamed down from his wound. A news photographer was able to snap a picture as Zador walked to the locker room. The picture was printed in newspapers worldwide, and he became the face of millions of people oppressed by Soviet tyranny. It became known as the "blood in the water" game in Olympic lore. After the Olympics, Zador left the Hungarian team and defected to the U.S. He became a swimming coach in California, where he trained many great swimmers, including Mark Spitz, winner of seven gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Zador died in California in 2012 at the age of 76.
I don’t know how I could remember that game, but I seem to. Dawn Frasier also stands out, but I really don’t know if she swam in those games.