The Hungarian Olympic team currently has three medals. Continue reading
Hubert Kós won the men’s 200m backstroke at the 2024 Paris Olympics, securing Hungary’s first gold medal in the French capital.
The 21-year-old triumphed in Thursday’s final with a time of 1:54.26.
The Hungarian athlete could look forward to the final with confidence because he was the only one to finish the semi-final in under 1:56 (1:55.96). After an excellent start, Kós started slower than in the semi-final, and Greek swimmer Apostolos Christou, swimming in lane 2, pulled away from the field and turned in the last 50 meters with a body length lead.
However, thanks to the Hungarian’s impressive turn and subsequent underwater work, he was confidently in the lead with 15 meters to go.
Photo: MTI/Kovács Tamás
Kós, who is the second Hungarian male swimmer after the current president of the Hungarian Swimming Association, Sándor Wladár, to win in this event at the Olympic Games, secured the 30th Olympic gold in the history of Hungarian swimming.
Hubert Kós won the fourth medal for the Hungarian delegation in Paris. Last Saturday, duathlete Eszter Muhari finished third, while on Wednesday the men’s sabre team and swimmer Kristóf Milák reached second place.
Results:
Gold medal winner Hubert Kós (C), silver medal winner Apostolos Christou of Greece (L) and third place winner Roman Mityukov of Switzerland (R). Photo: MTI/Kovács Tamás
“It is an incredible feeling, I have not been able to process it yet,” said the 21-year-old Hungarian. Kós, who trained in the United States under the former coach of the legendary Michael Phelps and the current coach of French superstar Léon Marchand, noted that he had hardly felt anything of the competition and was not aware that the Greek Apostolos Christou was setting a tremendous pace and had pulled away from the field. “I knew that if I did what I could do, I could do it,” he emphasized. The Olympic champion stressed that he tried to stay as calm as possible. “I did not think about it being an Olympic final, a last chance or anything like that, because it can kill you, it can grind you down. I tried to enjoy it and think of it as just another race (…), therefore I just focused on myself and I am glad I did it,” he pointed out.
Kós has been training in the United States under the guidance of the legendary Bob Bowman since the start of last year,
and their work together resulted in a gold medal at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka.
“I sacrificed a lot to make this happen, I am happy,” concluded the athlete, who will compete in the 100m butterfly on Friday.
Via MTI; Featured image via MTI/Kovács Tamás