István PELLE

Dr. István Pelle, who competed for BBTE and later for BTC, participated in his first Olympics in 1928 at the age of 21, but did not place highly. His first international success came when he won the gold medal on horizontal bar at the 1930 World Championships. At the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, where not all of the best gymnasts were able to compete, Pelle won two gold and two silver medals. Pelle also competed in the next World Championships held in his hometown of Budapest in 1934 and at the 1936 Olympics, but was not able to repeat his performance at either event.

Pelle won his first national titles in 1925 (parallel bars, rings, and with the team) and his first all-around national title in 1927, which he defended up to 1932 and won again in 1936. In total he won 41 Hungarian titles on all apparatuses. In the 1930s he also finished his study with a doctor's degree in law. After World War II he emigrated and toured around successfully as artist, standing on a ladder singing Hungarian songs and playing violin. He settled in Argentina, where he died aged almost 80, and never returned to Hungary.