Miklós Sárkány

Miklós Sárkány (15 August 1908 – 20 December 1998) was a Hungarian water polo player and Olympic gold medalist.

Career
He competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was born in Budapest.

In 1932 he was part of the Hungarian team that won the gold medal, though he played only one match.

Four years later he again won the gold medal with the Hungarian team, playing three matches at the historic 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, sponsored by the Nazi government. Sárkány was Jewish and was one of around thirteen Jewish athletes who won medals. Many Hungarian Jews shared their fellow citizens' passion for sport and viewed participation as a means of assimilation. In the 1930s, however, the antisemitism of the fascist, pro-Nazi Hungarian government pervaded some fields of sport. In September 1935, Nazi Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws, having boycotted Jewish businesses forcing many to close, the laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, barred them from many professions such as theatre, law, and medicine, removed their right to vote or hold office, greatly limited their ability to attend public schools, Universities or obtain doctorates, and prevented them from being treated at Municipal hospitals.

He died on 20 December 1998 in Vienna, Austria. He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering, where his ashes are buried. His 1932 Olympic team member Sándor Ivády died one day later.