Hungary's legendary water polo player and coach Tibor Benedek dies at the age of 47

"Can't you see I want to be a water polo player?"

Tibor Benedek was born on 12 July 1972 into a family of actors. His father, Miklós Benedek is a renowned actor (Kossuth Prize, Mari Jászai Prize) who followed in the footsteps of his father, Tibor Benedek who committed suicide two days after his 52nd birthday. He had a brother, Albert, who works as an assistant director.

Tibor started swimming on medical advice when he was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of five. He did not like swimming, he loved the ball, though. He was not a naturally gifted player, but his diligence and determination knew no boundaries.

Olympic and European champion Gábor Csapó (who was a loveable bearlike rascal everyone knew and still knows as “Dudi”) played cards with Tibor’s father and jokingly teased him saying how thin Tibor was. Actress Anna Báró interjected that he should take the kid to the swimming pool so he would grow as burly as he was. Csapó took heed of the advice and shortly after introduced Tibor to György Kőnigh, who was considered the best youth coach in the sport. About eight months later, when Tibor already signed with the Central Sport School (KSI), Kőnigh raved to Csapó:

Dudi, this is the most fantastically assiduous kid I’ve ever seen!

When they kept asking Tibor if he would also become an actor like his father and grandfather before him, he always replied:

But can’t you see I want to be a water polo player?

When Tibor choreographed the water polo scenes in Children of Glory (Szabadság, szerelem) he suddenly felt the urge to have a brief stint as an actor, just to play a tiny role in the movie, but directress Krisztina Goda said he should rather not.

Tibor once reminisced that, growing up, Sunday was his favourite day. His father often worked even on that day and he himself spent a lot of time in the swimming pool. “That was when they drained the Komjádi swimming pool and I remained there until the water was only up to my ankle. A lot of times it was only me, I was the last one out of the gate,” he told 24.hu.

Sports journalist Gergely Csuka (whose actor father László Csurka (84) died a few hours before Benedek) wrote in a wonderful and uplifting column after Tibor’s resignation in May:

Will there be another one who is told by his coach at an evening youth training to swim four thousand meters and then the coach leaves, so half of the team bails after 300 meters, the rest gives up gradually and at half distance there’s only one left in the pool, him, who swims the whole four thousand metres?

He was not even 17 when he won the youth championship with KSI. In a junior European Championship he scored seven goals in a game Hungary won 8-7 against Russia.

He was 16 when he first played in the adult championship, 18 when his two goals in the national team helped turn the game in the fourth quarter against the two time Olympic and world champion Yugoslav team, and retired as a player 23 years later.

In the summer of 1989 he and his teammate Zsolt Varga – another lefty – signed with Újpesti Dózsa. They won the national championship in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995, plus the LEN Super Cup (Champions League) in 1994.

Tibor was 19 when he helped the national team win bronze at the World Championship in 1991. He jumped into the pool in his first Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona. He was the top scorer there, but the Hungarian team finished only 6th. Tibor subordinated himself more to the team and success followed. Hungary won the World Cup in 1995 and European Championship in 1997. Members of this team later became the core of the three-time Olympic gold medallist national team.

In 1999, Hungary’s national team wins the European Championship in Florence, Italy. Tibor is not in the pool with them. He is sitting in the audience, spending his eight-month suspension due to his doctor’s bad choice of an antifungal cream. Despite the atrocious “doping” ruling, he remains composed and quietly leaves the swimming pool when his teammates loudly and proudly throw they hands in the air and chant his name from the pool in protest against his suspension and as an appreciation for his work for the team.

He fought himself back into the national team after this eight-month suspension, and it took him less than three months to achieve this feat. He struggled throughout the Olympics in 2000, but in the final he scored four goals and as the best player on the team helped win the first Olympic gold in water polo for Hungary since 1976. (Hungary's water polo teams won nine Olympics, way more than the runners-up UK (4), Italy (3) and Yugoslavia (3).)

He already had the water polo ‘Grand Slam’ under his belt (Olympic gold medal, World Champion, European Champion, World Cup gold, World League gold) in 2004 when he learned during the World League in Belgrade due to his injured rib he would not be able to play in the evening, but instead of returning to the hotel with his team, he stayed in the open Tasmajdan pool in a downpour and practiced shots and lob shots into an empty goal with a single ball for 90 minutes. Just like when he was a kid, only this time he had already achieved everything a water polo player can.

At the age of 36, he had two Olympic golds and was a World and a European champion when he called a swimming coach to fine-tune his technique at least twice a week, because he knew it wasn’t optimal and he was consuming too much energy while swimming.

In his 20’s, Tibor busted up his hand and wrists hitting heavy bags, and was able to play only with wrist protection, in pain but showing no signs of it.

In May 2005, he resigned from the national team due to cardiac arrhythmias, but in February 2007 he returned and won his third Olympic gold in 2008.

Career achievements

Tibor played water polo in Újpest (UTE), Racing Roma, Pro Recco, Honvéd, and in Sliema (in the summer Maltese league).

At a club level, he won five titles in the Champions League (with Újpest in 1994, and with Pro Recco in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012), LEN Cup Winners’ Cup (1993 with Újpest), five LEN Super Cups (1994 – with Újpest, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 – with Pro Recco), six titles of the national champion of Hungary (four in Újpest, two in Honvéd), seven titles in the Italian Serie A1 (one with AS Roma, six with Pro Recco).

Tibor retired from the national team in 2008, while he stopped playing water polo in 2012. He finished the career as Pro Recco’s player. From 2013 to 2016, Tibor was the head coach of Hungary (in the period 2010-2012, he was an assistant coach in Hungary’s staff led by Dénes Kemény).

Tibor’s most significant success in the coaching job was the gold medal at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona. That was Hungary’s first gold at the Worlds after ten years. He guided Hungary as a coach to two silver medals in the World League (2013, 2014), silver at the European Championships (2014), bronze at the European Championships (2016), and silver at the 2014 FINA World Cup.

He was elected the best Hungarian federal captain of the year once (2013). He also received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2000), the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2004) and the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary with the star (2008). In 2008 he became an honorary citizen of Budapest.

In 2015, he was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 2016, his palm print was placed on the Wall of Hungarian Sports Stars, one of the ten three-time Olympic champions in water polo.

From 2017, he worked as the professional director of UVSE and as the head coach from the 2018/19 season.

Besides three Olympic golds, he won 18 medals playing for the national team of Hungary.

• World Championships: gold in 2003, silver in 1998 and 2007, bronze in 1991.
• European Championships: gold in 1997, silver in 1993, 1995, bronze in 2001, 2003, 2008.
• World League: gold in 2003 and 2004, silver in 2007, bronze in 2002.
• FINA World Cup: gold in 1995, silver in 1993 and 2002, bronze in 1997.

"I was always the one that wanted it more. That’s my talent."

“I never had specifically great ball control skills; I was never good at soccer or basketball. I could never throw the ball real hard, and my throw is even shorter now. I’m not particularly strong, particularly smart; my swimming technique is not that great, my buoyancy is totally average.

“I’ve had tympanocentesis fourteen times when I was a kid, and the doctor banned me from the swimming pool every time. As for my height, I’m considered short among my teammates, while my weight reached 100 kilograms 15 years ago.

“I could never speak eloquently perhaps in my whole life. My middle-school grades were average, I had never thought that whatever I say can have any effect on others.

“I was declared unfit for military service due to a spinal disc herniation. Since then I got two herniated discs in my neck. I’ve been playing with a wrist wrap for 16 years, I cannot put weight on my hand. I first developed heart problems in 2005 and they came back in 2009.

“Still, if I finally had to sum up the the reason for my success, I’d only say that I always wanted it more. That’s my talent.”

The Hungarian Water Polo Federation wrote on its website:

“At dawn, Tibor Benedek, the three-time Olympic, world and European champion in water polo, closed his eyes forever. Leaving an irreplaceable space behind for his family, his teammates, the entire water polo society, and the fans.

"We appreciate your condolences on public surfaces. At the request of his family, we ask both the public and members of the press to respect the rules of the game during this difficult period.”, the Federation announced."