When Left became Right for Karoly

Siddharth Uppal
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

In 1938, Karoly Takacs, member of Hungarian army, was a member of his country’s world championship pistol shooting team. He was expected to win the gold for his country in 1940 Olympics. During an exercise in his training camp, a hand grenade blew of his right and his shooting hand. The 28-year old was left only with his single hand.

He spent a month in hospital in depression of loosing his hand and a dream to win gold in Olympics. Most of the people might have quit at that moment and spent rest of their life in grief and depression, feeling sorry for themselves all the time and be dependent on others for everything. But Takacs had planned something else in his mind. He was not a looser, but a Winner. Winners are those people who get up even after the worst situation. They don’t let life beat them down easily and they challenge to their life each day. Successful is the one who asks for more challenges and who is not afraid of the problems.

Karoly picked himself up again with a dream of gold and started his training with his left hand. A simple reasoning he had, “Why not try with the other hand ?”

In 1939, during the national level shooting games when he walked in, the other players came and thanked him for coming to support and cheer them up. But he smiled and said, “ I’m not here to cheer you, I’m here to compete you.” Everyone was present at the game with their best hand but he was there with his only hand. Guess who won ? It was Karoly Takacs.

He started his training for 1940 Olympics, but they got cancelled due to world war. He then started for 1944 Olymics, but they got cancelled too due to world war at that time. He didn’t step back and again prepared for 1948 Olympics. He was 38-years old then and was competing with young and more active players. Karoly won the gold in 1948 games in 25m rapid pistol shooting.

He didn’t stop yet. He appeared in 1952 Olympic games and won a gold again. He became first player in history to get gold twice, in the same category in Olympics.

We bend down after a little problems we get in our life. We make excuses, we stop competing in the race to our dreams, we just sit. Life doesn’t stop until we are breathing. It’s our choice, if we wanna sit back and quit or get up and give ourselves a second chance. A chance to live again, a chance to achieve again and never stop dreaming. No dream is big if we are determined to achieve it. Winners don’t quit and quitters never win.

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Siddharth Uppal

Part time Engineer. Part time Hustler.

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