Olga Orban-Szabo

Olga Orban-Szabo
Born	(1938-10-09) 9 October 1938 Cluj, Romania
Weapon(s)	Foil
Hand	right-handed
National coach(es)	Andrei Vâlcea
Club	CSA Steaua
Medal record Women's Foil Representing Romania Olympic Games 1956 Melbourne Individual 1968 Mexico Team 1972 Munich Team World Championships 1962 Buenos Aires Individual 1969 Havana Team 1965 Paris Individual 1965 Paris Team 1970 Ankara Team 1961 Turin Team 1967 Montreal Team 1970 Ankara Individual

Olga Orban-Szabo (born 9 October 1938) is a former Romanian foil fencer, world champion in 1962 and team world champion in 1969. A five-time Olympian, she won a silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as well as two team bronze medals at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics.

Career

Orban was born in Cluj-Napoca, a member of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. She took up fencing at the relatively late age of 14 after her French teacher, Ecaterina Bartoș, led the whole class to the fencing hall where her husband Tibor was a coach. Her talent became rapidly apparent and she was placed under the responsibility of coach Ludovic Ozoray at club Progresul Cluj. She won in 1954 her first national championship in the junior category, followed in 1955 by a title in the senior category.

At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, her first Olympic participation, she earned a silver medal, the first Olympic medal obtained by Romania in fencing. The gold medal went to Great Britain's Gillian Sheen, whom Orban had beaten twice during the event. In 1961 Orban won with Maria Vicol, Ana Pascu and Ecaterina Orb-Lazăr Romania's first medal in senior World Fencing Championships with a team bronze medal, followed in 1962 by an individual gold medal.

After her retirement as a fencer Orban became a fencing coach at her club, CSA Steaua. In 1990 she moved to Hungary with her husband, water polo player Alexandru Szabo, and took up teaching at Budapest Honvéd.