Uplifting Feelings in Her Soul
She was an exceptionally talented athlete, a living legend of taekwondo, who returned home from world and European championships with numerous medals. She always put a tremendous amount of energy into her training, but it wasn't just her successes that drove her, it was also her love of the sport. The shining star has now become an exemplary mother, who still retains the uplifting feelings she had on the playing field. Despite undergoing several knee operations in recent years, Andrea Rajkai has not turned her back on regular exercise.
"I never boasted about myself, I never advertized anywhere what triumphs I had been part of, I was simply, let's say, an everyday person, and I still am today."
She answers our question, "Are your friends, colleagues, or students aware of what you used to do for a living?!" Indeed, even those close to her did not really know that they could look up to her as one of the outstanding figures in the history of Veszprém sports, who won three gold, two silver, and six bronze medals at world championships, and ten silver and ten bronze medals at European championships. She was "on top of her game" in individual and team competitions, in form exercises, free fighting, and breaking. She was undefeated in domestic competitions for a decade, and at the national championships, she was only surpassed by Marianna Engrich, who died in tragic circumstances in 1987, and then began a career marked by countless successes, at the end of which she became a role model for young people choosing taekwondo.
Our protagonist was a gold medalist in middle- and long-distance running at former Kiss Lajos (now Simonyi Zsigmond) School , but also achieved good results as a track and field athlete. Later, her cousin persuaded her to attend a taekwondo training session held by Géza Gosztolai in the now demolished Pioneers' House. After that, Dr. János Somlai and Pál Sebestyén supervised her training, and over time she was able to work with such local talents as world-class Mónika Papirovnyik, then Zsófia Sisak, Petra Mucsy, and Zoltán Kandikó. She graduated from the then Vocational School of Commerce and Catering, and was then employed as an accountant by a cooperative farm. She later studied physical education and recreation at ELTE University, then graduated from the University of Physical Education after the turn of the millennium. She has been teaching at VSZC Jendrassik-Venesz Vocational High School and Technical High School for thirty-five years.
"As a physical education teacher, I don't have excessive expectations,"
stressed the a four Dan, black belt teacher with an amazing career.
"I know that the students attending our school will not pursue this profession, yet it is difficult to motivate them, as most of them lack a love of exercise. Today's generation—even the more receptive ones—want to see results quickly, but they don't have the fire that we had."
Andrea Rajkai was not the most talented active member of the Veszprém taekwondo community, but she achieved her successes mainly through her perseverance, awareness, and obsession. She did not strive to become a defining figure in the sport because it was her goal, but because it was her destiny: she loved to fight. During the holidays, she "trained" just as hard as she did at other times, and she trained more than anyone else. Thanks to this, she attended the high school of Far Eastern martial arts, where she showed the way to those much younger than herself in competitions. She focused solely on her matches, ignoring the outside world. I remember that she was very active: even when she was pregnant she didn't want to sit at home, so she was still cycling on an exercise bike at the gym the day before she gave birth to her first child. Even after the birth of her first child, 23-year-old Viktor, she remained hungry for success, as taekwondo had become her way of life. Even hip replacement surgery did not break her, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for her knee.
"I've been through it three times, and even though I completed rehabilitation with dignity all three times, the injured part is still not right. And the worst thing is that it will never be right again. The aforementioned operations were not as successful as the specialists had initially imagined, and as I later learned: it would be pointless to go back to the operating table, as my leg cannot be repaired, or more precisely, restored to the condition it was in during my active sporting years. I am unable to "bring" it into a horizontal position because it does not bend the way it should. I simply cannot run with it, and even climbing stairs is difficult for me. And if anyone loved running, it was me. I used to run two to three hours a day, but now I have trouble even getting off the bus."
Of course, anyone who knows her knows how big her heart is, so she works out on the elliptical trainer every day, but she also pays attention to her abdominal muscles and does resistance exercises, known as TRX exercises, using her own body weight. However, she modestly adds that these are no longer workouts, but rather "just exercises."
"In the evening, I don't always feel like doing strength training and stretching, but then I pull myself together and do the "required" exercises,"
she notes, as if to suggest that nothing can extinguish her fanaticism for sports. Even different weather fronts and climate changes can only make it slightly more difficult.
Today, she wants a life free of pain, and with that, without a car – walks several kilometers every day between educational and sports institutions, where her work duties take her, and when the weather permits,s he also likes to ride her bicycle. This is also why she can grab a few squares of her favorite chocolate or eat a slice or two of cake whenever she wants.
"I don't have any particular excess weight, and broadly speaking, I still fit into my former weight range of 58-63 kg. I can achieve this despite the fact that a few years ago I found out that I had become sensitive to flour, i.e., gluten, and that my body is unable to absorb calcium. Due to my autoimmune disease, I had to switch to a stricter diet, but that doesn't mean I can't eat my colleague's delicious cakes, for example. Marlenka is my favorite, but I admit that other delicacies can also sweep me off my feet,"
Although Andrea Rajkai is sometimes plagued by pain in her knee, her soul is filled with uplifting feelings. These feelings always give her the strength to carry on. As do her loved ones, of course. She lives in Kádárta with her husband and their youngest child, 18-year-old Virág, and whenever she can, she cycles to our county seat. She competed for two decades as an athlete for Veszprémi Volán SE and then its successor, Veszprémi Taekwondo Club. During her unparalleled career, she was voted Taekwondo Athlete of the Year five times in Hungary, and her sporting achievements were also rewarded with the Pro Meritis award. The 58-year-old mother was enriched by sport and a lot of exercise. So, among many other things, she has to fight with skill, humility, precision, discipline, willpower, respect for her opponents, and a desire to help others. As a winning athlete, she accepts the way things turn out in life, but if she could ask for anything, she wouldn't mind if her knee worked as well as it did in her glory days...
Author: Ferenc Király
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