Paris Olympics, Day 6: Hubert Kos Outduels Apostolos Christou to 200 Back Gold

Hubert Kos of Hungary shows the gold medal after competing in the 200m Backstroke Men Final during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 28th, 2023.

Hubert Kos at the 2023 World Championships; Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Paris Olympics, Day 6: Hubert Kos Outduels Apostolos Christou to 200 Back Gold

Much attention this week has been on a certain Bob Bowman pupil who swims for a European nation. There’s another one of those that is worthy of some ink, too.

Hubert Kos authored a finish reminiscent of mate Leon Marchand in the 200 butterfly a night early, charging home to overtake Apostolos Christou and win the gold medal in the men’s 200 backstroke at Paris’ La Defense Arena.

Kos clocked in at 1:54.26. He was .56 ahead of Christou, who led at every wall until the last. Bronze went to Roman Mityukov of Switzerland in 1:54.85.

World record: Aaron Peirsol, U.S., 1:51.92 (2009)
Olympic record: Evgeny Rylov, Russia, 1:53.27 (2021)
Tokyo Olympic winner: Evgeny Rylov, ROC, 1:53.27

Kos burst onto the scene at the 2023 World Championships when he took home a gold medal in this event. His time in the United States swimming for Bowman at Arizona State has been useful if not to the all-conquering heights that teammate Marchand has ascended, but the speed work and constant diet of racing has sharpened his speed and his mental toughness for races like in Fukuoka in 2023.

“I wouldn’t be here with a gold medal around my neck today if I didn’t go to train in the U.S. with Bob Bowman,” Kos said. “I probably still wouldn’t even be swimming backstroke if it wasn’t for him. The main thing he added to me and that I wasn’t really good at when I went out to him was my confidence and my mental strategies, my mental strength going through races and competitions, knowing what to do and when to do it, trusting the process and just my work, things like that.”

He delivered the kind of composed swim that would’ve made his ASU mate proud. Knowing Christou would take it out, Kos bided his time. He was third at the 100-meter wall and turned for home third. He charged back in 28.88 to Christou’s 30.46 to knock him down a step on the podium.

“That’s kind of what I wanted going into it,” Kos said. “I knew I had to pace myself a little bit and take this thing out of the final and just make sure I was thinking of it as another race, another swim. I’m really happy I was able to do this. This year, I talked with Bob before and eh saw I was a little too slow in the prelims in the first 100. I feel like I did execute the plan that I needed to do, and I am really happy that I was able to win.”

Christou’s medal is nonethless historic. The last Greek swimming medal in swimming came from Spyridon Gianniotis in the marathon swim at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Before that, you have to go back to the 1896 Athens Olympics and Ionnis Malokinis’ medal in the men’s sailors 100-meter freestyle.

“It’s special for me,” Christou said. “It is my dream to achieve this for all those years I’ve been working.”

Mityukov’s medal was just the fourth for Switzerland in the pool, all bronze. He joins Jeremy Desplanches’ medal from Tokyo in the 200 IM and Noe Ponti in the 100 fly. The other is Etienne Dagon in 1984.

“Unbelievable,” Mityukov said. “It was my goal to get on the podium in this race. I trained very hard this season, and I loved to finish on the podium. It was a tough race, a tough two days really. I’m very glad to be able to finish it with a medal.”

Befitting its wide-open nature, this race had shocks galore. From Tokyo bronze medalist Luke Greenbank’s disqualification in prelims to 2016 gold medalist and 2021 silver medalist Ryan Murphy not making it out of prelims, there are no holdovers from the Olympic final in Tokyo.

Without Murphy, it was left to Keaton Jones to try to extend the U.S.’s medal streak in this event. Since 1996, the U.S. had won gold at six straight games before Murphy took silver in Tokyo. Over the last seven games, they’ve claimed 11 medals (six goals, four silver, one bronze) in the event. Jones was fifth with a solid swim in 1:55.39.

Frenchman Mewen Tomac nearly snuck a medal from Lane 1 with a time of 1:55.39. Hugo Gonzalez, one of the few swimmers to have been in the 1:54s, was strong in an outside lane but only sixth in 1:55.47. Pieter Coetzee of South Africa set a continental record by going 1:55.60 to get seventh.

Hubert Kos

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