Yesterday evening, Kattinka Hosszú won her second gold medal in the Rio Games with a powerful performance in her second swimming event – the 100m backstroke. She already holds the world record in the event, set last year when she won world championship gold.
Hungary’s "Iron Lady" is now the first double-gold athlete in Rio.
After last night’s win, Hosszú went on to shine in the semis for the 200m medley, raising hopes for a third gold tonight and proving that "nobody can argue right now that she’s not the most versatile swimmer in the world, male or female" (Rowdy Gaines, former US Olympian and swimming analyst for television networks ESPN and NBC).
Emese Szasz, ranked seventh in world fencing, set the precedent by winning Hungary’s first gold medal on Day One. Szasz rallied from a trailing position to beat Italy's twice world champion Rossella Fiamingo in the women’s individual epee.
"I believed in myself and my fencing, and I did it," Szasz said.
On Day Two Hosszú followed Szasz’s lead, smashing the previous world record in the 400m individual medley by 2 seconds, and coming in almost five seconds ahead of silver medalist Maya DiRado
of the US.
With three golds behind them, the Hungarian team is now ranked 6th on the medals table and is setting its sights on moving up even higher. Tamás Kenderesi and László Cseh came in first and second in the semifinals of the men’s 200m butterfly last night, adding to expectations of gold in tonight’s swimming finals.
It was a time of anticipation and jubilation last night at the House of Hungary where members of TeamHun, the Budapest 2024 Bid team and Hungarian sports fans from around the world came together. Zsolt Borkai, President of the National Olympic Committee was celebrating the evening’s highs alongside Balázs Fürjes, Chairman of Budapest 2024. "We are over the moon at Kattinka’s fantastic performances as well as Emese leading the way earlier in the week," said Borkai. "We are so very proud of their achievements and we hope that in 2024 they might be able tocompete in a Budapest Olympics in front of a home crowd."
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