LES HODY

6 feet 4 inch (192cm) Forward/Guard

1964 Olympic Games

The Dutch shipping line MV “Johann van Oldenbarnevelt” weighed anchor on her voyage to Australia. It was November 1956, the Soviets had brutally put down the Hungarian Uprising and the ship’s passenger list was made up of over 600 Dutch migrants and 140 Hungarian refugees. Down in the bowels of the ship two very tall, healthy, physically strong young men were working their way to Australia by washing dishes. Les and John Hody were fleeing Hungary and leaving behind their parents, two brothers and a sister who they hoped would join them one day. The boys did have their girlfriends with them one of whom was Vera Neszmelyi (Les’s fiancée) who in 1954 as a sixteen year old had lost a 100 metres race in Warsaw to Shirley Strickland of Australia who ran a world record 11.3 seconds. The young Vera set a European record 11.5 that was to stand for ten years. It was not going to be an enjoyable journey for the Hody brothers Les and John but they were escaping to freedom in a new country. Laszlo “Les” Hody was born on July 10, 1934 in Szeged, Csongrad, Hungary. His parents owned a shoe manufacturing factory and the largest shoe and textile shop in Szeged. With the Soviet takeover of Hungary after World War Two Les describes his family as being seen as “enemies of the nation”… they were capitalists in a communist country. His parents were stripped of all their assets and his father was in and out of prison because of his past life.