Karoly Takacs lost his right hand and later won 4 Olympic Golds

This is an incredible story of a person who had set an example of strong mentality and became an international hero. His name is Karoly Takacs, from the Hungarian army who was the top pistol shooter of the country.

He joined the army at the age of 28 and he had a strong dream to win a gold medal in the Olympics. When he became the top pistol shooter of the world in 1938 and expected to participate in the 1940 Olympic games scheduled in Tokyo, a terrible incident occurred during his army training. A hand grenade exploded in Karoly’s right hand and he lost his right arm on the spot. His expectation, aspiration and mental stability were blown off. He spent one month in hospital with losing all his hope and aspiration to become an Olympic medalist.

At this stage, most of the people would feel sorry for life and definitely lose mental stability, but Karoly was a fighter and he didn’t give up. In-spite of thinking about his great loss, he started thinking about how he could fulfil his dream with his left hand. He dusted himself off and started practising shooting with the left hand. For several months he kept himself aloof from the society and just concentrated on his practice.

In 1939 when he showed up in Hungarian National Sports meet, all shooters approached him to give him condolence and encouragement, however, Karoly told them that

“I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete”.

They were amazed when he won the national championship. Now Karoly was confident on his Olympic dream, however, 1940 and even 1944 Olympic games were cancelled due to second world war. Now it was extremely tough for Karoly to realize the Olympic medal. But again he didn’t lose hope and kept practising.

In 1948 at the London Olympics he achieved his dream by winning the gold medal in 25 meters pistol shooting and at that time he was 38. Even during the Olympics in 1952 he won the gold medal at Helsinki and created the world record. It certainly proves, the special trend of winners is that they can bounce back quickly. They never look back and they are always focused towards their dream irrespective of the physical condition. That’s why they can create history.

If you recover quickly and bounce back swiftly, it’s easy to hold your momentum and that will help you to achieve your dream. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, be a DOER!!