lit a candle 12h agoSaw this on my phone during my lunch break and had to put my sandwich down. My uncle went the same way, long illness, same quiet kind of ending. He was 83 too. Never knew the man or a thing about wrestling but that detail knocked the wind out of me a little.
Their story
Antal Steer was a Hungarian Greco-Roman wrestler who won silver at the 1967 World Championships and two European silver medals, and competed for Hungary at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games. His death, after a long illness and shortly after his 83rd birthday, was announced by the Hungarian Wrestling Federation…
Antal Steer was a Hungarian Greco-Roman wrestler who won silver at the 1967 World Championships and two European silver medals, and competed for Hungary at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games. His death, after a long illness and shortly after his 83rd birthday, was announced by the Hungarian Wrestling Federation and the Hungarian Olympic Committee on 28 October 2026.
He was born on 10 October 1943 in Pozsony, now Bratislava. At the age of 14 he took up wrestling in Budapest at the railway sports club BVSC, even though, by his own account, his build was not ideal for the sport. His persistence paid off quickly, and in 1962, aged 19, he was called into the national team.
His first major international event brought an immediate medal: silver in the 70 kg Greco-Roman class at the 1966 European Championships in Essen. A year later he took silver again at the World Championships in Bucharest. He added a European bronze in Vasteras, Sweden, in 1968 and another European silver in Katowice in 1972, for four medals at world level in all.
Steer represented Hungary at two Olympic Games, finishing eighth in Mexico City in 1968 and sixth, a points scoring place, in Munich in 1972. At home he won seven Hungarian titles, the last in 1976 at the age of 33 without conceding a single penalty point. He tried to prepare for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but an injury ended those plans and he retired.
He then coached at Ferencvaros and Vasas. His best known pupil was Mihaly Toma, a world championship bronze medallist and Olympic sixth place finisher, and Ferencvaros recalled that Steer guided the preparation of its wrestlers for several years. He gave up coaching relatively early and went into civilian life, where he opened a bakery that prospered.
His family told the federation that he always remained a wrestler at heart and liked to remember the good old days. His funeral, with the burial of his urn, was held on 30 October 2026 at the Catholic cemetery in Ecser. The Hungarian Olympic Committee expressed its sympathy to his family and to the wrestling community.
Biography adapted from Hungarian Olympic Committee (olimpia.hu), Hungarian Wrestling Federation, Nemzeti Sport/MTI, Sportime, Origo, Wikipedia. Wikipedia ↗
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1Antal Steer
by People Forever
Sorry about your uncle. That age really does jump out.