The first Hungarian gold medal arrived on the sixth day of the Paris Olympics. Hubert Kós travelled to the second Olympics of his life as the world champion of the 200m backstroke, and his performance was indeed worthy of a favourite.
He qualified for the final with the best time, and was accordingly awarded lane four. Swimming alongside him were world championship silver medallist Mityukov of Switzerland, and world championship bronze medallist Coetze of South Africa. When the camera showed them in the call room, the Hungarian did not at all seem confident.
Kós started well, was the fourth to turn at fifty meters and came up to third place at the halfway mark, but he was more than a second behind Greece's Christou.
He was second at 150 and it was clear that he would get going. He left his rivals behind in the final stretch to finish in first place. He afterwards splashed the water joyfully. He'd divided his strength perfectly.
His time was 1:54.26, Christou was second with 1:54.83, while Mityukov finished third with 1:54.85.
The 21-year-old Kós is studying and training in America, coached by the same Bob Bowman who coaches France's León Marchand. Ever since they started working together a year and a half ago, Kós has not lost a major race. This is the first time that Hungarian swimming has benefited from the American university swimming system at the Olympics.
Speaking after the race, Kós said that in the last round he reflected on how hard he had been training for the past year and how he simply had to win the final. He said he came out for the final just as he would for any other event, without looking out at the crowd or the five Olympic rings, and only focused on the pool.
This is the first time that Hungary has won a gold medal in the 200 backstroke race since 1980, when the current president of the Hungarian Swimming Federation, Sándor Wladár came out on top.
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