- Henrietta Ónodi started gymnastics at the age of 5.
- At the age of 18, he became an Olympic champion.
- Today, Henrietta Ónodi lives in the United States with her family.
Henrietta Ónodi was born on May 22, 1974 in Békéscsaba. She started gymnastics extremely early, at the age of five, and at the age of just 12, in 1986, she made it to the Junior European Championships, where she placed fourth on beam. Thanks to his extraordinary talent, in 1988 he became the Hungarian master’s champion in four events, and a year later he won a gold medal in the half-barrier at the European Championships. Henrietta Ónodi, still only 15 years old, made history with her wonderful results: she became the first European champion of Hungarian women’s gymnastics. The career of Henrietta Ónodi, who is only 146 cm tall, went straight up from here.
But how did she get to the top, and what does former Olympic champion Henrietta Ónodi do these days?
Henrietta Ónodi, star of the 1992 Olympics
The best year of Henrietta Ónodi’s career was undoubtedly 1992: she won gold first at the World Championships in Paris and then at the Olympics in Barcelona. At the 1992 Olympics, he earned the gold medal in vaulting with 9.925 points. All this while no Hungarian female gymnast had won an Olympic gold medal for 36 years before that. After that came the so-called iconic floor exercise, where she missed the first place by only 5 hundredths of a point, so she won a silver medal in it.
Henrietta Ónodi at the 1992 Olympics
After Henrietta Ónodi returned home from the Barcelona Olympics – at the time she was only 18 years old – she immediately topped the list of Hungarian celebrities. It was at that moment that he truly understood what a huge achievement he had achieved.
The early retirement of Henrietta Ónodi
In 1993, he did not start at the World Championships, and because he suffered an injury at the Masters Championship, he had to miss the Universiade. Meanwhile, Henrietta Ónodi also left Hungary, moved to the United States, and continued her studies there. Although he increasingly turned his back on sports, he once more became a member of the Hungarian team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but by then he “only” finished in ninth place. The last time he showed his amazing talent was at the Universiade in 1997, and then he turned his back on the tournament for good. Old Henrietta he finished his career as a 38-time Hungarian champion.
Henrietta Ónodi at the 1991 World Championship
Henrietta Ónodi: what’s up with her these days?
The 1992 Olympics did not only bring global success Old Henrietta for her – two years later she met her husband, James Haley, a former pentathlete who now works as a doctor. The couple had three children together: Annabella was born in 2006, Sebastian in 2007 and Christian in 2010. Although he had planned to return home following graduating and establish a training center in Békéscsaba, this did not take place due to the unexpected death of his father. Old Henrietta today she lives with her husband and three children in a small town in Florida.
Read more
