He came in 6th at the foil competition, but took home a silver medal in sabre,[3] his teammate Antonio Conte taking the gold.

He later coached George Worth, born György Woittitz, the Hungarian-born American Olympic medalist fencer, in Budapest.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, Kovács, a Hungarian judge, made a controversial call in a fencing match, siding with France over Italy.

An Italian fencer, Aldo Boni, verbally attacked the judge for the ruling and refused to apologize when asked.

Once in Italy, Adolfo Cotronei, a writer and journalist from Naples, who worked for Italian papers such as Paese, Pungolo, Don Marzio, Mattino, Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport accused Italo Santelli of speaking out against Boni to remove him from the competition, supposedly fearing they would eliminate his adopted nation of Hungary, who would go on to take the bronze at the 1924 Games.