Lajoš Vermeš launched the first Palić Olympics in 1880, 16 years before the French baron Pierre de Coubertin officially renewed the Olympic Games in Athens. The idea of the Palić Olympics was born in 1876.
Everything that Vermeš owned he started investing in his dream of Palić Olympics, which eventually took place on August 26, 1880. For the needs of the first Palić Sports Games, as their official name was, Vermeš gave his own orchard. With the aim to popularize sports, in 1900 he went to Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Serbia, and won the race at 1,025 meters.
King Aleksandar Obrenović personally handed the medal to him. The King was so enthusiastic about Vermeš’s intention to popularize the sport in Serbia, that he had appointed him as a court master and a fencing teacher.
The Palić Olympics torch was extinguished forever with the start of I World War. The monument of his figure made in bronze was established at the lake shore which is also named by him in 2004.
Obala Lajoša Vermeša, Palić
