Katinka Hosszu Calls On Hungarian Leadership To Resign
Katinka Hosszu has put the Hungarian Swimming Federation on full blast and called for the leadership’s resignation following Paris 2024.
Hungary won three medals at La Defense Arena with Kristof Milak and Hubert Kos taking gold in the 100 fly and 200 back respectively with the former also taking 200 fly silver.
Milak has spent a lot of time away from the water since withdrawing in June 2023 from the World Championships in Fukuoka to focus on his physical and mental wellbeing.
After 11 weeks away, Milak returned to training in September and committed to Paris and beyond as he sought to retain the 200 fly title he claimed in Tokyo.
The 200 world record-holder was slated to appear at the 2023 World Cup tour which took in Berlin and Athens before concluding in Budapest.
However, Milak didn’t appear and Swimming World learned the swimmer was training once a week at most prompting national team head coach Csaba Sos to demand a change in approach.
The following months featured absences from training although he did a lot of dryland training and it wasn’t until April that he returned to competition at the Hungarian Championships.
Despite all this, the 24-year-old headed the Paris 200 semis in 1:52.72 and after 150m of the final, Milak appeared on course to retain his Tokyo title.
Leon Marchand, however, drew alongside the Hungarian before accelerating into the wall in an Olympic record of 1:51.21 with Milak 0.54 adrift in 1:51.75.
He roared back to win the 100 fly as he upgraded his Tokyo silver to gold.
For Hosszu, who won three golds and a silver at Rio 2016, Milak was let down, his lack of endurance at the end of the race leading to defeat by Marchand and a direct consequence of his lack of preparation.
She released an open letter to the Hungarian federation (MUSZ) on social media with Milak’s coach Balázs Virth, MUSZ president Sándor Wladár and team coach Csaba Sos in her crosshairs.
Her letter read:
“After reading the Hungarian public, I don’t understand why journalists are being attacked, they only did their jobs and communicated the words of the president of MUSZ, the captain of MUSZ and the coach of Kristóf Milák.
“There has never been a MUSZ leadership who has damaged the preparation of its best contender so much.
“Bob Bowman (coach of Leon Marchand) knew months before the Olympics that his student had to prepare for the last 50 meters of the 200-meter butterfly, physically, but mostly mentally. In Paris, Bowman had to say only one thing to Marchand: “You trained the hardest in the world, you will catch up with Milák in the last 50, who trained hardly this year, you deserve the gold medal”
“Unfortunately, this is not the first Olympic Medal which is not realized due to the leadership of MUSZ, but we hope it will be the last.
“Milák is just the tip of the iceberg, let’s think about it if they do this with the world record-holder and Olympic champion, what will the other competitors do?
“The leadership of MUSZ did the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do. They didn’t complete the “job” and even got it cancelled.
“After such insidious and spineless behaviour, the only decent step would be the resignation of the entire leadership. They need to move back from the battle field.”
She added: “Already in my time there was a disagreement between the 80s generation and the leadership of MUSZ, this only became more effective with the next generation.
“They should not be allowed to further damage Hungarian sport.”
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