The Hungarian team featured past Olympic champions, three of them defending (sprint kayakers Katalin Kovács and Nataša Dušev-Janić, and the men's national water polo team). Dusev-Janics, who won a total of three gold medals for Hungary, previously competed as part of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 2000. Six Hungarian athletes made their fifth Olympic appearance: sprint canoer and multiple-time Olympic champion Zoltán Kammerer, water polo player Tamás Kásás, table tennis player Krisztina Tóth, fencers Géza Imre and Aida Mohamed, and windsurfer Áron Gádorfalvi. Double trap shooter Richárd Bognár, at age 45, was the oldest athlete of the team, while butterfly swimmer Liliána Szilágyi was the youngest at age 15. Péter Biros, who led his water polo team by winning the gold medal in three consecutive Olympic Games, was the nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
