Szabo is the eldest son of
Vilmos Szabó, bronze medallist at the
1984 Summer Olympics in men's team sabre, and
Réka Zsófia Lázár, bronze medallist at the
1992 Summer Olympics and silver medallist at the
1996 Summer Olympics in women's team foil, both from
Brașov and members of the
Hungarian minority in Romania. When he was two years old, his parents moved to Germany and became fencing coaches at TSV Bayer Dormagen. Szabo began fencing at the age of four because his parents' occupation had him practically live on the piste. He chose sabre, his father's weapon, because the only foilists at TSV Dormagen were girls. Under the German flag, Szabo won the team gold medal at the 2010 Junior European Championships in Lobnya and at the 2010 Junior World Championships in Baku. A year later he became Junior World champion both in the individual and team events at the Dead Sea. For this performance, he was named 2011 Junior Athlete of the Year by Deutsche Sporthilfe. Szabo climbed his first
World Cup podium in the
2012–13 season with a victory in the Challenge Chicago after overcoming in the final Olympic champion
Áron Szilágyi. At the
2013 European Championships, he was beaten in the second round by France's
Vincent Anstett. In the team event, Germany lost against Hungary in the first round and was ranked 5th. For his first participation in World Championships, Szabo was defeated in the second round by Italy's
Luigi Samele. In the
team event, Germany was edged out by Russia in the quarter-finals and ended up 5th. Szabo finished the season 17th in world rankings. In the
2012–13 season Szabo took a bronze medal in the Moscow World Cup. He ceded in the second round of the
European Championships in Strasbourg against Hungary's
András Szatmári. In the team event, Germany was defeated by a single hit by Italy in the semi-finals. They overcame Belarus in the small final to take the bronze medal. In the
World Championships in Kazan, Szabo was stopped again in the table of 32, this time by Romania's
Tiberiu Dolniceanu. In the
team event, No.4 seed Germany cruised past China and the United States. They overcame Russia 40–45 to meet Olympic champions South Korea in the final.
Max Hartung,
Nicolas Limbach,
Benedikt Wagner and Szabo prevailed 45–41 and won the World title in men's sabre for the first time in history. ==References==