Athletics 17-04-2007
Written by: Balázs Marik
Source: Magyar edző

The Hungarian king of the queen

It is known since Jim Thorpe that the actual decathlon champion was always considered to be the queen of sports, the „king” of the athletics. The history is lovely and contrary to legends, it is true: according to the contemporary reports the decathlon champion of the Stockholm Olympic Games of 1912, the performance of the Indian birth Jim Thorpe surpassed from his opponents that during the result announcement V. Gusztáv, the Swedish sovereign told: „Sir, you are the greatest athlete of the world”

The great American champion answered less diplomatically but with more classic brevity: „Thanks, king!” The saying that the best decathlete is the greatest king derives from it.
And in this event we have a great person, Attila Zsivoczky. His career is rich in success and among adults he lays siege to the highest stage of the podium in world competitions and he can always get out of the possible bad patches and injuries. Let’s follow the career of the second person of vote for the Athlete of Year 2006 from the beginning till today.

• The genes were given and one would think that together with genes burdens were also given. Your father is the hammer thrower champion of Mexico City, Gyula Zsivotzky, the former world record holder who was voted to be the athlete of the twentieth century, while your mother is Magdolna Komka who was an excellent high jumper, manifold national record holder.
• No one put quintal burdens on me, they did not force either me or my elder brother to do sports. They only wished us to learn to swim. This wish had a strong reason, as we had a week-end house on the shore of Lake Balaton. And when we both decided to try out ourselves, they asked us to do it with all-out effort if we begin it.
• Your father has followed your career with attention from your first steps.
• However I learnt the basis from Sándor Varga – the excellent discus thrower’s, Roland Varga’s father – on the track of TVE in the 3rd district. This was the closest to our flat. I had great luck with him, he was a prepared trainer of the new generation.

About his father:
„It is asked many times if I am distressed because of his results. Neither his personality, nor his results distress me since he entered in different time, against different opponents and in another event. The two can not be compared. I must prove with my own generation and in the event which I chose.”
And I am full with good feeling that I am known in the world not as the son of the former Olympic champion, and the best Hungarian athlete of the twentieth century, but I attained the highest regard in my own right. My father has really kept his eyes on me from my first steps. In the beginning he did not intervene in at all what and how I did. Later it changed a lot and some time ago he officially became one of my trainer. With Attila Vona his funny and looser style – the master does not know jokes in trainings – completes well his rigidity and intransigency.
It is sure that his presence rather helps me than not. He can struggle for me from different sides: in the track with his advice as a trainer and in the association putting his authority into the scale. For example, he managed for me to be transferred to Debrecen. Therefore I can train in a club where I get everything what a Hungarian athlete can get. I do not know and it will obviously never turn out what I could have reached without his help, but it is sure now that everything is in order around me.   

• In the beginning high jump was the great love.
• I was the best in it. Everyone likes those things the most in which he is the best. It is interesting that my right leg is stronger, but I jump high from my left leg. It may be the case because in …. high jump direction of turning is the same as the bend in the athletic track. If you see it, there are much more left-footed high jumpers than right-footed ones.
• Did results come easily?
• When I gained some competition routine, I won many age-group competitions.
• It is considered that big disappointments strengthen the character of the person.
• I could have had more luck with the first world competitions of my life. In the world championships of Lisbon in 1994, I just missed the podium whereas at best I may have won. But I did not live it as a huge failure. Next year in European Junior Championships in Nyíregyháza I had problems not with competing. I wanted to prove too much and I did not stand the huge work. And I could not get over it till the main competition of the year, thus I did not have a chance to win and in the end even the podium went up in flames. 
• Were these the reasons why you settled on decathlon?
• No, it was simply mathematics, because my trainer – correctly of him – sent me to competitions in every event when I was young, therefore I attended regularly age-group decathlon competitions. At the end of 1995 with knowledge of my results up to that time we counted that I could have the greatest chance in it in the junior world championships.    
• The achieved result, the win was proof to everything.
• Well, it was not so simple there. I did a lot of mistakes in Sidney during the two-day-long competition, I was very inexperienced. My luck was that even my opponents did a lot of mistakes. But all of these are needed to be able to do your work well later.
• Next years were a little bit bumpy, weren’t they?
• I lived it differently. I trained at Uncle Zoli Fejes who managed my preparations till 2003. In addition to it, I could train together with Dezső Szabó, Sanyi Munkácsi and Zsolt Kürtös. On the one hand it was an excellent society and the other hand there was everyone who had results over 8000 points. It was a huge motivation and challenge for me. All of our trainings were hard competitions and there was great wish to win in all of us. And Uncle Zoli knew the ins and outs of decathlon, he was a genial trainer. And a year later I attended university in the United States where I also had to get used to the new system.  
• You studied marketing in Kansas. Did you make use of it?
• Not too much up to now, but I hope that when I finish doing sports actively, I can also help the Hungarian athletics. I received so much good that I should give something back from it. Kansas had one big advantage: it was a terribly boring place, so I could not concentrate on anything else, only on my studies and trainings. 
• There was someone to look up to there. Steve Fritz, the fourth one of Atlanta Olympic Games and Athens World Championships trained there.
• Unfortunately I did not study anything from Steve contrary to the Hungarian decathletes. Because he was a very unsociable person, he trained alone almost every time and he did not share his knowledge with his environment. Contrary to it, Dezső Szabó and his fellows were always helpful, they always answered to me when I asked them. I can state it courageously that their knowledge and experience also contributed to my results. Without them and without their help, I could never reach so high. In America the new, and ideal environment for preparation was extremely motivating, while at the end of the academic year, the fact was motivating that I could come home to train with the others. This period of my career was a very productive period. Though I did not have big and spectacular wins and results, my scores increased. In the year of the European Championships of Budapest, I achieved in the European Cup the aimed 8000 scores and I got into the European Champions’ team with it. The world competition arranged at home was a sensational experience even if I still did not have serious business there.  

• The gained experience ripened soon.
• I hope that it is still ripening till next summer. But it is true that I won a big competition, the European U23 Championships, again in 1990. It was great to listen to the Hungarian national anthem standing on the top of the podium. I felt sorry only because just four weeks passed between the competition of Goteborg and the World Adult Championships of Sevilla. This time was not enough for regeneration and gaining another top form. 

• But in the year of Sydney Olympic Games you surprised us in Götzis with a sensational result, the national record which has been valid since that time, 8554 points.
• The Austrian competition is an event similar to a world championship. The atmosphere is splendid, the local population love decathlon, they know to whom, in which event and why they have to pay attention. This is the Mecca of the event and that was my first competition there. I surprised myself too, but besides I was in a good form, the sensational atmosphere seemed to be contributed to it so much. The 8500 points were a great dream for me and I have already been over it when I was 23 years old. Recalling it, the result came too early. I calmed down from it very much and then, when I wanted, I could not hot up and I injured. I could not recover from a persistent femoral flexor muscle injury. There was still a three-week-long very hard training camp and I thought I could stand it. But it seemed to be too much. Zsolt Kürtösi was there only for two weeks and his competition was much better. This was also a case from which I studied. Afterwards before the Olympic Games I had to go to the second stage of decathlon Challenge, into Talence, because of the money. It was not necessary to see it from professional aspect, I was good at the point competition and I did not want to be deprived of a considerable amount of money only because I did not enter for the three competitions which were in the announcement. In the Olympic Games at the end of September I have already gone downward so it was no wonder that I finished only in the eighth place.        
• One year later it seemed that you reach a safe haven in adults.
• If I were my own enemy, I would say to my fourth place reached in Edmonton WCh that I was a lucky beggar. Sooner it was not really possible to get near the podium with such low points (8371 – the editor). But many of the opponents fell out, Sebrle, who set the world record that year, competed having been injured and I did my work and I think I did the utmost both in points and in place.
• Your career is really exciting from this point.
• Well, it did not seem to me. I had continuous problems with my Achilles tendon. It ached sometimes less, but most time stronger. I tried every kind of treatment, but finally I admitted that only operation can help. In the WCh of Paris I entered for in the hope of the Olympic qualification, but after the first day it seemed to be gone up in flames so I gave up the struggle which looked to be hopeless.   
• If it had been told to you that time that a year later you would be the sixth one in the Olympic Games……?
• I would have signed it without a word. I prepared continuously under the pressure of time. I had to take care of the rehabilitation, not to overburden my operated leg. And on the other hand I prepared for the most important competition of my life. I think I did the utmost as far as possible in the preparation and during the two days in Athens. I was lucky that I could get into the best six places. In Hungary it is one Olympic point, the seventh place is not registered. It seemed to be decisive regarding the continuation.
• It is known that you prepare together with world record holder Roman Sebrle too. How did you get together into one „team”?
• Two years ago in the indoor European Championships of Madrid I went to him led by a stray idea and I asked him what he thought of preparing together. That time I did not really have a training fellow at home. Zsolt Kürtösi was the last one, but he has already finished it. The Czech boy said that he had to talk to his trainer and he would answer. Some days later he called me that it was right, but he had only one condition: when I train with them I can train only what they do. It may have influenced his decision that he remembered when he improved his world record; I dictated the speed for him during the last event, the 1500 m. As results of the last two years prove, I did not come to grief.  
• What did Attila Vona and your father say when you told them that there is someone else in your trainings?
• They were surprised, they thought of it for a while, afterwards they admitted that it is such a chance that it would be a pity to miss it. As it turned out, the two systems go with each other. It is true that my trainers at home have to show self-moderation.

• Two years ago I seriously worried about you and I did not know what you were exactly doing, you competed extraordinarily lot.
• At the end of May in Götzis I entered in turn. Benefit of the time spent with Sebrle could be seen there since I reached the second best place of my life. You are right that it is not usual to enter in another decathlon competition a week later. I wondered. As I did not have any special problems, I did the two days in Arles and I left behind only with one hundred and sixty points from my result of one week sooner. Due to it, I got into a very distinguished place in Challenge, in the money-prized series of decathlon. Because I can thank a lot to my sponsors – adidas has already helped me for eleven years and recently also E-on supports me – this series is also important for me. The main goal was certainly the world championship and we subordinated to it the Dectahlon European Cup at the beginning of July, to which I did not relax but in the medium of big burden I was able to do eight thousand and one hundred points. 
• If I were your enemy, I would say that in Helsinki, similarly to Edmonton, you became a medallist with „little”points.   
• It can not be forgotten what weather conditions were when I gained 8385 points. It was brutal cold; it rained cats and dogs, most time very unpleasent wind blew. I did well in six events from ten and I did not have big failure. My discus throwing individual record has been the 49.58 metres what I reached there. I was able to do such an extra, which was needed to this place. 
• But it was not enough for you, after the wch you still did two other decathlon competitions.
• The one-hundred-minute-long in Wolfsberg is the odd one out. That was a crazy flurry where I did not collect even seven thousand and three hundred points. It is a great challenge for decathletes; everyone likes to try out himself in it and in the one-hour decathlon. It is typical that world record is registered in both of them, so this is not a fun. It would be nonsense to say it to a 100 m hurdle race some minutes after four hundred metres which was run almost maximally. Not mentioning the last one thousand and five hundred… But I survived it; moreover I did eight thousand points in the competition of Talence closing the season. Afterwards it was time to have a little rest.
• Last year you did not have so many programs…
• We can not always go too far. It was only just enough for me to enter for the competition of Götzis, the European Cup and the European Championships of Goteborg.
• It can be stated that you are a real Scandinavian specialist.
• Yes, but the two competitions resembled to each other only in the weather, which was not ideal. But while in Helsinki it was awful during the whole competition, in Goteborg I had to live through almost the four seasons during the two days. It was harder.
• And even in the first day you could not do so good.  
• Moreover, it is true for the whole competition. But I struggled good, I did the height or the best result of the event with the last trial, which is said to be my strength. But I felt it my weak point because if I am able to do a performance, a height or a distance why do I wait till the last trial? The previous ones mean wasted time and energy, which accumulate. Though, I had luck again at the end – I beat Drozdov with six points – but if I had not had these uncertainities, I may not have had to count out the end. 
• You had a big throw here too, which is worthy of even the classical big scenes of last acts of the great king dramas.
• Do you think of the javelin throwing? Drozdov was before me in the competition before the ninth event and preliminarily he had a two-meter better javelin throwing result. But I came first and I reached a big individual record. Though, his preliminary result was even better than this one, he could not approach it with his three trials. It is worth knowing to whom you should pay attention in a competition. I always kept my eyes on him – though basically I concentrated on myself till the end. His results motivated me too. Of course the last event was still very close, but fortunately I finished better in the running. 
• Now you are recovering again from another Achilles operation. Was it necessary?
• It was inevitable. I knew it well in advance that I have to go through an operation. This is the case, it seems that it goes wrong in me the soonest – my other leg had to be operated now. But now I do not have to be in flurry as I had to be before the Athens Olympic Games. I have more than one and a half year to prepare for the competition of my life, the Peking Olympic Games. This preparation will not certainly mean only this one and a half year, a decathlete prepares for a given competition in all of his life in order that he can do the best in those two days. Those two days have to include everything from the running steps in the first athletics track. It is clear for me that everyone thinks it, everyone would like to attain the best of his life in all of the ten events what is certainly impossible. But I have to do everything – over the perfect physical state – that I can line up for the start with the best techniques of my life and mentally the most prepared. Therefore we subordinate the world championships of this year to the Olympic preparation. The only important thing from now is how I will perform in Peking.

Zsivoczky Attila világversenyeken elért tízpróba-eredményei >>

Name card:
Name: Attila Zsivoczky
Date and place of birth: 29 April, 1977, Budapest
Height (cm) / Weight (kg): 194 / 92
Sports: athletics
Events: decathlon, heptathlon
Trainers: Gyula Zsivotzky, Attila Vona
Educational trainers: Sándor Varga, Zoltán Fejes
Club: Debrecen Athletics Club
His best results: Olympic 6th – Athén, 2004, Olympic 8th – Sydney, 2000, wch 3rd – Helsinki, 2005, wch4th – Edmonton, 2001, ECh 2nd – Göteborg, 2006, indoor ECh 4th - Gent, 2000, 2x indoor ECh 5th – Bécs, 2002, Madrid, 2005, junior world champion – Sydney, 1996, new generation(U-23) European-champion – Göteborg, youth wch 4th – Lisszabon, 1994, 1x Hungarian champion (high) - Budapest, 1998
Individual records:
Decathlon:8554 points (national record) Götzis, 2000
Heptathlon: 6033 points Gent, 2000