Hubert Kos is a Hungarian Record holder and World Champion. A strong junior swimmer, he broke out by setting the World Junior Record in the 200 IM in 2021. In 2022, Kos announced he would join Bob Bowman and swim for ASU collegiately. For the Sun Devils, he broke an NCAA record in the 200 back and helped them win an NCAA team title in 2024. After Bob Bowman took up the men’s head coaching job at the University of Texas, Kos followed him there. A versatile swimmer, Kos thrives in fly, back, and IM while he has also slotted in on some freestyle on relays.
Junior Swimming
2019 European Youth Olympic Festival (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Kos’ first international medal was a silver in the 100 back. He posted a 56.36 for runner-up behind Aleksei Tkachev. He also took silver in the 200 back with a 2:02.60. He wrangled another silver in the 100 fly with a 53.54 and wrapped things up with a final silver in the 400 IM with a 4:20.90.
2020 “4 Nations” Swimming Meet (Budapest, Hungary)
Kos came out of COVID better than ever, ripping a massive 4:16.86 400 IM in prelims. He was a second faster in the final, posting a 4:15.77. Two days later, Kos was in the water again with another monster performance. After establishing himself as the top-seeded 200m IM swimmer of the morning with a time of 2:02.78, the teen crushed a sub-2:00 outing of 1:59.06. His time obliterated his own previous lifetime best of 2:01.50. Both IMs were Hungarian age group records. In the longer one, he overtook the previous record of 4:17.72 which David Verraszto put on the books in 2005. In the shorter, he became Hungary’s first teen to break 2:00.
2020 Hungarian Championships (Kaposvár, Hungary)
In November, Kos continued his breakout. Splitting 54.55/1:03.76, Kos scorched a heats swim of 1:58.31 to stake his claim on the meet title. That stunner qualified Kos for the 2020 Olympic Games, easily clearing the 1:59.67 FINA ‘A’ cut. Although his July time also was under the cut, that meet was not a FINA-sanctioned Olympic qualifier. He was not quite as fast in the finals the next morning (the evening prelims/morning finals format was used to mimic the schedule for the 2020(1) Olympics) but he still won in a 1:59.01. He also finished 3rd in the 100 fly with a 52.70.
2021 Hungarian Spring Nationals (Budapest, Hungary)
The young Kos continued to be a major force, posting impressive times in the butterfly events. He placed 4th in the 200 distance with a 1:57.21 and 3rd in the 100 distance with a 51.52. His biggest swine came in the 200 IM. Kos dropped a 1:57.58 to easily clear Russian teenager Ilya Borodin‘s previous mark of 1:58.00.
College Swimming
Kos announced his verbal commitment to ASU at the end of August 2022. When he announced he indicated he would be coming to Tempe in January 2023.
2022-23 (ASU)
In his collegiate debut against Stanford on January 20, 2023, Kos posted respectable times of 1:41.50 in the 200 back, 1:43.41 in the 200 fly, and 1:44.53 in the 200 IM. The next day against Cal, Kos took runner-up in the 100 back (47.07), 200 back (1:41.48), and 400 IM 3:43.77. He improved both his 200 back (1:41.10) and 200 IM (1:43.10) against Arizona and won both events.
“I’m still getting used to the short-course yards pool,” Kos told SwimSwam. “It’s very new to me. I still need to get better at the underwaters because that’s where I’m still inexperienced compared to the field. If I can improve in those, my times will get significantly better. Coming off Bob’s winter training, it was a solid performance.”
With more SCY training under his belt, Kos showed up at PAC-12s. He clocked PBs in every event. He took 2nd in the “B” final of the 200 IM with a 1:42.37 on night 2. Night 3 saw Kos post a personal best of 3:37.68 in the 400 IM for 3rd, lowering the mark he set in prelims at 3:40.47. He rounded out his meet with a 1:39.21 200 back for 4th.
At NCAAs, Kos was even faster, taking on the same schedule as PAC-12s and resetting PBs at least once in each event. He started off in his weakest event, the 200 IM, with a 1:41.83 for 13th in prelims. He shaved .22 seconds off for 11th in the finals with a 1:41.61. In the 400 IM, Kos crushed a 3:36.68 in prelims for 4th seed. The race featured well balanced splits. In the final, Kos was just off that prelims mark with a 3:37.00, swimming a similar race for 4th. He wrapped things up in the 200 back. Kos set a lifetime best of 1:38.25 to advance in 3rd. In the final, Kos dropped a little more to a 1:37.96 for third place behind Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez (1:36.72) and Destin Lasco (1:35.87).
2023-24 (ASU)
Kos started off his season against UGA in LCM, clocking a 54.29 100 back leading off a relay and a 1:26.55 150 back. The next morning in a SCY meet also against UGA, Kos clocked a 1:41.38 200 back and a 46.82 100 back. The latter was a PB. Versus UNLV, Kos lowered his 100 back PB to a 46.09 on a relay and rocked a 3:45.38 400 IM. He continued to roll in later October against NC State, posting a 1:40.11 200 back to edge JT Ewing by .1 of a second in a tight battle. Kos also took the 200 IM title in 1:42.97. Both times were #2 in the NCAA behind teammate Leon Marchand.
In his mast meet before mid-seasons against USC in early November, he re-lowered his #2 time in the 200 IM to a 1:42.71. He also cracked 46 seconds for the first time in the 100 back with a 45.99. He was a second off his 200 back season-best with a 1:41.47. Kos also showed some speed with a 21.24 50 back relay leadoff.
At the NC State Invite, Kos took on a loaded schedule, swimming the 100/200 back, 200/400 IM, and relays. Kos took 2.4 seconds off his previous best time to win the 200 IM with 1:39.26. In the process, he broke teammate Léon Marchand’s meet record from last year (1:40.80) and Caio Pumputis’ pool record (1:41.28). Then, he leadoff on the ASU “B” 400 medley relay, clocking a huge 44.58 100 back. That was nearly a 1.5 second drop.
Day 2 saw kos take on the 400 IM and 100 back. In the former, Kos led the way in prelims in a time of 3:42.96, with an ill Marchand close behind in 3:43.12. He managed his morning double well, matching his PB in the 100 back with a 44.58. In the finals, he excelled, winning the 400 IM in 3:35.82. That time tied him with Josh Prenot as the #6 performer all-time in the history of the event. In the 100 back, he moved past Olympic gold medalist Matt Grevers to become the 16th-best performer in history with a 44.37. He was just .23 seconds behind Zach Poti’s school record from 2020. He wrapped the night up with a 1:34.31 200 free relay leadoff.
Kos continued his heck of a meet on the final night, winning the 200 back in a massive 1:36.54. That was a 1.42 seconds PB and broke his own ASU record. He also popped a solid 42.02 100 free relay split.
Kos took no time off, swimming against Utah 2 days after the NC State invite. There, he set a 100 fly PB of 45.69. He also led off the 200 medley relay with a 21.09, his fastest 50 back ever.
Coming out of winter training, Kos posted PBs in the 200 free and 50 back against Grand Canyon in early January. In the former, he undercut his PB by nearly a second with a 1:33.59 while in the latter, leading off in the 200 medley relay, he finally cracked 21 seconds with a 20.91.
Later in January, Kos and the Sun Devils traveled to the Bay Area for duals against Stanford and Cal. Against Stanford, Kos was solid, especially for an in season meet. He won the 100/200 back with times of 45.28 and 1:38.96 respectively. He also posted a 1:42.22 200 IM and a 21.13 50 back relay leadoff. The next day against Cal, he was faster leading off in the 200 medley relay with a 21.01 and also had a little more speed in the 100 back with a 44.97 but lost to Destin Lasco in that race by .17 seconds. Kos struck back against his backstroke/IM rival in the 200 back. The 2 were practically even at the 175 mark. Lasco had the better turn but Kos used an increased tempo to out touch Lasco with a 1:39.07/ Lasco got his revenge, beating Kos by a slim margin in the 200 IM. Both were obliterated by Leon Marchand; Kos clocked a 1:41.97.
Kos cemented himself as a SCY great at PAC-12s. First, he won the 200 IM with a 1:38.77 PB. He led the 100 back prelims field by just over a second with a championship record time of 44.03. That also marked a PB and ASU record. He reset all of those marks in the final. Flipping in 21.06, not far from his 50 back PB (which is to the hands, not the feet), Kos crushed a 22.69 back half to touch in 43.75. He was just off that with a 44.04 in the 100 back on the ASU 400 medley relay that was just off the NCAA record as the #2 time ever but broke the conference and meet record.
The final day of competition saw Kos in his signature 200 back. Without Lasco, Kos was fairly unchallenged in the final, pushing himself to an incredible 1:35.69. That broke Ryan Murphy’s NCAA record of 1:35.73. Kos and Murphy’s splits were dead even at the 50 with a 22.2. Murphy had a faster 2nd 50 ( 24.16 to 24.46) but Kos outsplit him on the back 100 with splits of 24.46 and 25.57. The biggest difference was the final 50 as Kos was 0.30 seconds faster than Murphy. He wrapped up his night with an impressive 41.20 100 free relay split on the ASU “B” 400 free relay. Notably, ASU’s ‘B’ team actually posted the 2nd-fastest time in the field and if either Kos or Patrick Sammon (41.10) were swapped from with Ilya Kharun on the “A” squad, ASU would have broken more than the PAC-12 meet record, they would have broken the NCAA record.
The Kos/Lasco rivalry was taken up another notch at NCAAs, with both entered in the 100/200 back and 200 IM. The 2 faced off first in the 800 free relay, with both serving as the 2nd leg of the relay. Kos was handed an early lead by Marchand’s NCAA-record 1:28.97 leadoff. Lasco managed to gain the lead for the Golden Bears as he split 1:29.60 to Kos’s 1:32.29. ASU ended up 2nd to Cal with a 6:04.95.
The next morning, Kos was 2nd through prelims with a 1:40.40. In the final, Lasco dominated with a 1:37.91 while Kos ended up 3rd with a 1:39.66 behind teammate Owen McDonald. Kos was off-form again in the 100 back, placing 4th in a 44.13, beating Lasco by 1 place. Brendan Burns won the event from an outside lane with a 43.86. He then led off the 400 medley relay with a 44.61. While not close to his PB, it was good enough to help ASU take a second off the NCAA record with a 2:57.32.
Kos wrapped his meet in the 200 back. In prelims he was a 1:37.03 behind Lasco’s 1:36.05, the fastest prelims swim in history. In the final, Kos was 2nd at the 50 with a 22.5, while Lasco sat back in 5th. Lasco stayed in 5th at the 100 while Kos fell back to 4th with a 24.86 split. Kos moved into 3rd with a 24.36 split while Lasco passed him with a 23.89 split. Down the stretch, Kos crushed a 24.18 split to pass early leader Jonny Marshall and touch 2nd behind Lasco (1:35.37) with a 1:35.90. That was his 2nd fastest swim.
Kos’s 48 points, the 2nd most from an ASU swimmer, helped propel ASU to their first NCAA team title.
2024-25 (Texas)
Soon after the 2024 NCAA Championships, ASU Head Coach Bob Bowman was announced as the new Director of Swimming and men’s team head coach. Kos was soon confirmed to be following Bowman to Austin. Kos told Hungarian media that would be training under Bowman through Paris. “There is no change, I will train with Bob until the Olympics, that’s for sure,” Kos said.
Kos then entered the transfer portal and later announced his transfer to Texas. He was the first ASU swimmer to officially jump ships to Texas.
National/International Swimming
2020(1) European swimming Championships (Budapest, Hungary)
If Kos was not a big name already, he certainly was after the European Championships. In the 200 IM semis, he ripped a massive 1:56.99 PB. That overtook the previous WJR of 1:57.06 set by China’s Qin Haiyang from the 2017 FINA World Championships. Compared to his previous PB he stormed home on the back half. After leading the semis, he settled for 5th in the final with a 1:58.12.
2020(1) Olympic Games (Tokyo, Japan)
Kos was 19th in the 200 IM with a 1:58.47.
2021 SC European Championships (Kazan, Russia)
Kos set PBs in the 200 and 400 IM. IN the former he set PBs in the semis (1:54.47) and the final (1:52.87). He was 4th in the final. In the longer IM, Kos found his way onto the podium with a 4:03.16 for bronze.
2022 Hungarian National Championships (Debrecen, Hungary)
Kos topped his nation in the 200 IM (1:57.64) and took silver in the 400 IM with a 2 second PB of 4:13.50. He also took 2nd in the 100 fly with a 51.88.
2022 FINA World Championships (budapest Hungary)
Competing in front of a home crowd, Kos progressed well through the prelims of the 200 IM with a 1:58.47. He posted a season-best 1:57.23 for 5th in the semis before adding .03 seconds and placing 6th in the final with a 1:56.26.
2022 European Championships (Rome, Italy)
A little under a month after Worlds, Kos rolled into European championships and posted some impressive times. He started by nearing his PB in the 400 IM with a 4:13.77 for 4th. Managing a tough 100 fly semis/200 back final, he placed 8th in the latter with a 1:57.84, off his 1:57.68 for semis but qualified 8th in the former with a 51.69. Kos ended up 4th in the final of the 100 fly the next day with a 51.33. He wrapped up his meet in the 200 IM where he finally grabbed a medal, in golden fashion nonetheless. Kos had the early lead through the opening 100 meters, and then on the breast leg, Portugal’s Gabriel Jose Lopes took over a small lead. Coming down the stretch on freestyle, there were four men in the fight. Kos pulled ahead of Lopes, and although Razzetti was clearly moving quicker than anyone else, he ran out of pool and Kos got to the wall with a margin of one-tenth of a second with a 1:57.72.
2022 Hungarian SC Nationals (Kaposvár, Hungary)
Kos notched his first Hungarian National record. On day 2, Kos opened in 23.75 and logged a back half of 29.07 to get the job done with a 52.82 200 IM, exacting revenge on Adam Telegdy who topped Kos in the 200m IM on day one. In that 200 IM Kos led until the final meter when Telegdy untouched him by .02 seconds: 1:54.17 to 1:54.19.
2023 PSS Westmont
After training under Bob Bowman for just about 4 months, Kos showed impressive improvements in the LC pool. He started off with a 4:14.08, not a PB but still a good time. The next day, Kos crushed it in the 100 back, clocking PBs in prelims (54.09) and finals (53.83). His biggest swims came in the 200 back. In prelims, Kos posted the #2 time in the world that season with a new PB of 1:56.28. In the final, he lowered that to a 1:55.95. In one day, Kos jumped from 125th to 45th to 33rd in the all-time rankings.
2023 World Aquatics Championships (Fukuoka, Japan)
Kos was clearly firing on all cylinders. On day 2, Kos had a great swim in the 200 back, clocking a new personal best time of 53.12 for the 2nd-fastest time of the morning. That reset Laslo Cseh‘s Hungarian record of 53.40. Cseh swam that time leading off Hungary’s medley relay at the 2012 Olympics. He was just off his mark in the semis with a 53.17 for 6th. In the final, he shaved the slimmest possible margin off his national record with a 53.11 for 7th.
All of that was just a teaser for his main event, the 100 back. He progressed easily through prelims in 3rd with a 1:57.27. Kos improved to a 1:55.99 in the semis. The top 6 swimmers were separated by just .31 seconds making for a compelling final. There, he turned 3rd at the 50n with a 27.04. He kept close to the leader Ryan Murphy with a 28.78 split on the 2nd 50, passing Mewen Tomac. Then, Kos made his move, crushing a 29.05 split to move into the lead. Down the stretch, he only widened his margin over Murphy with a 29.27 split to become world champion. That 1:54.14 broke the old Hungarian record of 1:55.58, which was set back in 2017 by Peter Bernek.
“It is incredible,” Kos said post-race. “A year ago I was only swimming 200m IM at the World Championships. Honestly I never thought I would swim backstroke, and now here I am, a world champion. I think it’s just the ‘Bob Bowman effect’ — that’s as simple as it is. I have been training with him for half a year now. We have a really, really good training group, and Bob knows a thing or two about swimming.”
2023 US Open Championships (Greensboro, North Carolina)
Kos returned to the Greensboro Aquatic Center just days after the NC State Invite to crush some big deal times in LCM. His first night of competition saw him contest the 200 IM. He led the front half of the race with splits of 24.61/28.88 but a weak breast split of 35.48 saw training partner Chase Kalisz shoot past him and ultimately win, with Kos taking runner-up with a 1:57.88. The next night, he crushed a 51.59 100 fly for 4th while also later topping the 100 back with a 53.19. Both swims were close to his PBs. The final night saw him take on the 200 back, where he won by nearly 2 seconds with a 1:55.95, his 2nd fastest swim behind his World Championship winning PB.
2024 PSS San Antonio
Kos tried out the 100 freestyle to start his meet. He dropped a total of 1.18 seconds over the course of prelims and finals, ultimately ending up in 9th with a final time 48.87. The next day, Kos opted out of the 200 back in favor of the 100 fly. There, he led prelims with a 51.23, a .10 second PB. Kos duked it out with Caeleb Dressel in the final. Kos was first at the 50 with a 23.70 while Dressel was .67 seconds back in 5th. Dressell pushed hard on the back half, closing the gap on Kos as they came to the wall and touched in a tie (50.81). That was another PB for Kos. He wrapped his meet up with one more PB. In the 100 back, Kos led prelims with a 53.55 before crushing a 53.08 in the finals to win by 1.28 seconds. That was a few hundredths faster than his Hungarian National Record.
2024 European Championships (Belgrade, Serbia)
Despite being the 2023 World Champion in the 200 backstroke, Kos was not entered in the event in Serbia. He also scratched the 100 backstroke, instead opting for the 200 IM that took place in all three of the same sessions as the 100 backstroke. Even without the 200 backstroke, Kos’s lineup still featured a busy schedule with 17 total swims.
Kos’s first medal came in the 4×200 free relay. He was given a small lead coming into his anchor leg. Kos split a solid 1:47.76 but was passed by Danas Rapsys’s monster 1:44.90 anchor, leaving Hungary with a silver. He also helped Hungary to relay medals in the mixed 400 medley (bronze, 53.71 back leadoff) and free (gold, 49.39 leadoff) relays
Individually, Kos swam excellently in the 100 fly. He advanced out of prelims in 3rd with a 51.50. He was the top seed out of the semis with a 51.31. In the final. He duked it out with countryman Kristof Milak. The two turned 2nd (Milak) and 3rd (Kos) at the 50. As Luca Armbruster faded, the two, along with Jakub Majerski, pulled into a tight pack at the front. Down the stretch, Kos had the fastest 2nd 50 of the three but was only .01 faster than the other two. Milak touched first in a 50.82 while Kos just outtouch Majerski by .02 second with a 50.96 for silver.
Kos also excelled in the 200 IM. In the final, he was out well, turning in splits of 25.01 on fly and 29.22 on back. A weak breast split of 35.16 saw him fade to 4th but he surged home with a 27.82 to touch first.
