Áron Szilágyi (31) once again defended his Olympic championship in the finals of the individual competition for men's swordsmen at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics at the Makuhari Event Center on July 24, 2021, postponed due to the worldwide coronavirus epidemic. Szilágyi won against the Italian Luigi Samele. MTI / Illyés Tibor: He is a Hungarian right-handed sabre fencer, 2018 team European champion, 2015 individual European champion, 2007 team world champion, four-time Olympian, and three-time individual Olympic champion. In 2012, he was admitted to the psychology department of the Károli Gáspár Reformed University in Budapest.
No athlete can win a prize unless he has kept the rules (2 Timothy 2:5).
The Word of the Apostle is still valid today for the spirit of the Olympic Games
In the time of the Apostle Paul, the Olympic Games were already held on Greek soil. Since then, athletes from all over the world have come together from time to time to assess their strengths, fighting skills, regular, that is sporty, competitive spirits and the virtues of their sportiness. We do not know whether the apostle went on a mission during the Olympics, but he must have been aware of the noble competition that brought peace during the struggles. This is shown by his letters to the regular struggle, especially to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Timothy. Now, on the first day of the Tokyo Olympics, Áron Szilágyi fought his elegant and hard sword fights in a big fight, finally winning the third after two Olympic gold medals, so he wrote not only a sporting event, creating the most worthy one: The apostle Paul was a missionary of the nations, a great warrior, a racer of soul and faith. In the words of the apostle, the athletes crowned by God were certainly the best. The Word is still valid today.
All the more so because as soon as Áron Szilágyi told Hungarian TV a few minutes after his Olympic victory, after the last blade change, he said at least five or six times in his words, “I am grateful, I owe a debt of gratitude”. And in his coach’s statement twice sounded: “Thank God”. I believe that this expression of gratitude connects the hearts of many millions of Hungarians today from the mouths and even the souls of both of them at least as much as the joy and pride above the gold of Tokyo. It was good to see what came through despite the mask: when the first line of the Hungarian national anthem sounded: God bless the Hungarian…, Aron sang the national prayer with his lips covered. Without tears. Aware about his regular fight and as the holder of the third Olympic gold, which seemed almost unbelievable, he was almost delighted, articulating in sacred ecstasy his words. Surely years, plans, rock-hard daily workouts, images upon images, tempers, words, swirled in his soul.
Bible values in the post-modern world and sport illustrated by Áron Szilágyi
We thank Áron Szilágyi for the great example he drew in front of an entire nation with his world championship and Olympic gold medals about the regular fighting. And he also gave a beautiful lesson from it, whether he was aware of it or not, of what Paul wrote, "Do you not know that at the sports all the runners run the race, though only one wins the prize. Like them, run to win! But every athlete goes into strict training. They do it to win a fading wreath. We, a wreath that never fades. For my part, I run with a clear goal before me" (1 Corinthians 9: 24-26). Just the most important one from the Word, because it is absolutely timely and occasional, Olympic-like and Áron Szilágyi-like.
He ran, trained, determined during and before Covid-19 as if he had put his life up for the race prize. Purposefulness. This required self-restraint, according to the Latin translation, abstinence. And the third word in particular sends a message: A wreath that never fades. The gold medal does not wither. Neither in the medal collection of Áron Szilágyi nor in the memory of the nation. But not in the history of the sport either. The word withering-indestructible wreath in the original Latin context: Unbroken. Free from corruption. That is, a straight path instead of cuts under the man. With the moral power that shapes the character. On the face of Áron Szilágyi, honesty and the hard and clean feature of decent work showed. And it sets an example for today's generations!
Gold medal in the soul of an entire nation
Áron Szilágyi is the implementer of the gospel message. About regular life, struggle, purposefulness, humility, and self-restraint. These are postmodern virtues that also proclaim the modernity of fair, corruption-free sport. Which is worthy of Olympic gold. And this is generally true as a battle road to victory with athletically defeated opponents. Thank you for all this, Áron Szilágyi. And the words of gratitude with which he addressed his family, his coaches, his supporters, his entire nation. This gold has been placed in an even more compulsively worthy place - on his neck and in our souls - in an entire nation.
(The article was originally published in Felvidék.ma, 24.07.2021, the first Hungarian-language online newspaper Bratislava/Slovakia.)
