By Sarah Berman on SwimSwam
In an interview with Hungarian media, Katinka Hosszu pushed back on rumors of her pending retirement, saying that she has no plans to step away from the sport. Instead, the five-time Olympian has revised her goals and wants to be the first swimmer with 100 international championship medals.
Between Olympic games, World Championships, Short Course World Championships, European Championships, and European Short Course Championships, Hosszu already owns 96 medals, more than anybody in history: 64 gold, 20 silver, and 12 bronze.
In an interview with Nemzeti Sports, Hosszu was asked if she was retiring. “I’ll retire one day, and there’s a lot less time in front of me than there is behind me in swimming. I’m turning 33 in May, and I feel a little sad about that because I still enjoy swimming,” she says. While Hosszu claims that she’s done racing backstroke in international competition, she’s excited to challenge herself to reach 100 international medals. with this new goal.
Hosszu commented on her Tokyo performances, “I’ve been in elite sports for a long time. I felt the pressure in Tokyo exponentially. After the competition, I could have told everyone, ‘Do you think I didn’t want to win?’ ‘Do you think it didn’t hurt me that I didn’t win?’ I didn’t say that. Instead, I kept my head up and said that my performance was all I could do at the time…You always have to look at the big picture–I’ve won the Olympics before. Three times.”
Post-Olympics, Hosszu took a break from swimming. “After a while, I started to miss swimming. It’s not the feeling of me winning, the award ceremonies, or the fact that after winning, people write about me a lot. I missed the work, how adrenaline surges in me during competitions, my body being in good shape, and feeling like I can do almost everything.”
The Iron Lady also used this break to reflect on her legendary career. In spite of the challenge that Hosszu only has four international medals from relays, she leads the international count ahead of swimmers Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Sarah Sjostrom.
“Even though I’m leading this special ranking. I am very motivated to have a Hungarian swimmer, namely me, reach 100 medals first,” says Hosszu.
While 100 medals is Hosszu’s goal, “I didn’t say I’ll retire after my 100th medal. It’s possible that when I reach 100, I feel like I’ve had enough, but I’m not thinking about that yet. I really don’t have any plans in my head when it comes to retiring,” she says.
At European Championships in 2021, Hosszu swam the 400 and 200 IM and the 200 butterfly. It’s likely that Hosszu will medal in the 200 and 400 IM races at the 2022 European Aquatic Championships that are scheduled to take place in Rome in August. It’s possible that she reaches the podium in the 200 butterfly, but within Europe, she ranked fifth in the event last year (though she did medal at a watered-down pre-Olympic European Championships).
The magic 100th medal will probably have to wait until the 2022 Short Course World Championships, which will take place in Kazan. In short course, Hosszu will have four good chances at individual medley medals since she’ll likely add the 100 IM to her program, in addition to the 200 butterfly. The order of Hosszu’s events in Kazan will be 400 IM, 200 butterfly, 100 IM, followed by the 200 IM. So, lucky medal 100 will likely fall somewhere in that lineup. At the Short Course World Championships in 2018, Hosszu won gold in all four of these races. Most notably at these championships, Hosszu won the 400 IM 4.44 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, Melanie Margalis.
According to Hosszu’s Instagram, she is currently training at Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Hosszu is a five-time Olympian (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) three-time Olympic champion, and nine-time world champion. She’s the current world record holder in the 100-meter individual medley (SCM), 200-meter individual medley (LCM/SCM), 400 individual medley (LC), and 200-meter backstroke (SCM). Hosszu was the first swimmer to hold world records in all five individual medley races at the same time. She also serves as team captain for Team Iron, a founding member club of the International Swimming League–which she didn’t participate in last season, though she attended many of the meets.
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