István Bozsó

I remember very clearly the Saturday of the 19th of August 1972, when I was just 12 years old and I caught a sight of the Olympic flame in Szeged at Széchenyi square, just on his way from Yugoslavia to Munich. At the arrival of the relay race, Tompáné Berta Anna, world champion bowler was holding the Flame. By reaching the podium in front of the City Hall, she lit the cauldron and thousands of people applauded with excitement. Some years later, I became a handicapped athlete under Halmai Emil's and Antal Andor's leadership. It was not by accident ? both of them were running with the Flame that day. I remember, as an adult, that in Barcelona the Flame was lit on the top of the stadium by shooting an arrow and in Athens, life stopped for a while when the Flame went by me in the square Omonia. In Peking, at the Paralympic Games, we watched with tightened throats as a handicapped athlete in a wheelchair climbed on a rope with the Flame into the air. Sports and the Olympic Games make an important part of my life; a few steps with the Flame would be a miracle for me. CR