Two-time Olympic champion Kristof Milak will not compete at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore.
Milak’s coach, Almos Szabo, revealed the superstar’s absence at the upcoming championships on Hungarian National Sports Radio, multiple local outlets have reported.
Szabo, who only began coaching Milak in late 2024, added that he didn’t believe Milak’s decision to opt out of Worlds was a bad one, given his lack of training and “motivation” this year.
“We discussed this. Kristof has indicated this intention, and I support him in this,” Szabo said, according to M4 Sport.
“Everyone should put their hand on their heart, there have been times when things didn’t go as planned, and this isn’t even the case here, because we didn’t start the year with 100% confidence that we would be competing in the World Championship.
“I don’t find anything wrong with Kristof not being there at the World Championships, many top athletes, especially those who are as successful as him, have already chosen this path.”
This marks the third consecutive World Championships (LC) that Milak won’t contest, as he withdrew from the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka citing mental and physical fatigue.
Then, like many of the world’s top swimmers, he did not compete at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, which, in a unique circumstance, were held just five months before the Olympics.
“No one disputes his abilities, Kristof has a unique talent, the mental part is the hardest for him,” Szabo continued. “He needs rest, and only he will know when that certain flame will flare up. When it does, he will start at the world competitions and will probably be outstanding there.”
Szabo believes taking time off now gives Milak a chance to rekindle his passion for the sport leading up to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“If he can’t find motivation in a world championship, he won’t stand up to the slap machine to come in third, for example, because if he starts, he’s fighting for the highest goals,” Szabo said. “According to our shared ideas, he still has a chance to break the world record in the two butterfly events, he has the knowledge to do so. We all feel the year after the Olympics on our skin, and it’s terribly difficult to find motivation at this time.”
Despite questions about his commitment to training surrounding him in the lead-up to the Olympics in Paris, Milak won gold in the men’s 100 butterfly in a time of 49.90, the second-fastest performance of his career, and he also claimed silver in the 200 fly. That performance flipped his results from the Tokyo Games in 2021, when he topped the 200 fly podium and earned silver in the 100 fly in a close battle with Caeleb Dressel.
At the 2025 Hungarian Nationals in early April, Milak showed solid form, winning the 100 free (48.76) and 200 fly (1:56.13) and finishing as the runner-up in the 50 fly (23.43) and 100 fly (50.67) to qualify for the World Championships. That swim in the 100 fly still ranks him 6th in the world this season.
He was committed to compete on the Mare Nostrum Tour last month before withdrawing.
This past February, Milak spoke openly on the MOL Pályán áját podcast, mentioning that he had considered quitting the sport.
In his last World Championship appearance in 2022, Milak won gold and broke the world record in the 200 fly racing on home soil in Budapest, and he completed the fly double by topping the 100 fly field in dominant fashion.
In Milak’s absence, the men’s 100 fly is looking relatively wide open at next month’s World Championships, with nine men (not including Milak) having broken 51 seconds this season, led by Switzerland’s Noe Ponti (50.27).
In the 200 fly, Leon Marchand, who topped Milak for Olympic gold last summer, remains the favorite despite having yet to race the event in long course this season, while American Luca Urlando leads the world rankings by over a second in 1:52.37.
Without Milak, Marchand figures to be the lone Olympic or world champion to race the 200 fly in Singapore (and his entry isn’t even confirmed), with 2024 world champion Tomoru Honda missing the Japanese team and two-time world champion and 2012 Olympic champion Chad Le Clos pulling out of the meet earlier this year.
Kristof Milak is from the Goulash Dimension, and hails from Magyar University of Goulash and Sausage. Magyar Gulyás és Kolbász Egyetem. Vad békák! Go Wild Frogs!
He is here to provide yummy yummy goolash, just like mister Jordan cooks provides yummy gumbo
Cooks , Jordan is now back to the turtle dimension where he surfs the eastern Australian current with his clownfish friend Deepo
Ilya sweep incoming
Nope!
50 FL – Grousset or Korstanje or Ponti
100 FL – Liendo or Ponti
200 FL – Urlando
This makes with 200 fly gonna be a close battle between Urlando and Kharun while 100 and 50 is wide open
I don’t understand why he keeps repeating the same pattern.
Some elite swimmers announced they are taking a sabbatical soon after the big event, for example Ariarne Titmus after Tokyo and Paris.
Cam McEvoy did it for one year after Tokyo. Kaylee McKeown took a short break for her mental health after attempting to swim in World Cup last year. And it worked wonder for them.
In this site, I have been saying since 2022 that Milak should have taken one year complete rest from swimming soon after 2022 Budapest, do anything he’s fancy to do: travel the world, rock climbing, brick laying (Kyle Chalmers did it) etc anything but swimming and come back refreshed.
I also said the… Read more »
He does. But he couldn’t care less about his supporters.
From my outside perspective, it doesn’t seem he has anyone close to him (family members, coach, psychiatrist) who is supportive and can say to him:
“It’s ok, you take a break and when you feel better, you can return to training”
It seems to me everyone in Hungary wants him to push through, to keep training intensively and participate in all big meets
That to me is not the definition of “caring for his long term well-being”
The Hungarian press was spoiled by Katinka Hosszu. Show me a meet she didn’t attend.
I suspect that there is also significant sponsor and federation money in play that can make it hard to taker a firm sabbatical, even if that’s what he seems to want.
Maybe he’s joining the Enhanced Games
Already has
Transfer portal to Texas / Bowman / Longhorns. Probably.
I feel bad for the guy, if swimming is ever going to be considered a real professional sport by the masses athletes need to be treated better and given a real reason to stay and compete all the time and not just every four years, and yes, while being pushed to be the best swimmer you can be is a good thing it shouldn’t come at the cost of happiness
It’s a bit cart before horse to blame the masses when swimming fans and athletes prioritise Olympics so highly. Fixing that is first step.
he is treated like a king in Hungary
Maybe if got paid some real money in appearance fees + placings incentives, he would participate more, who knows?
This
I think he is all set financially, couldn’t care less about incentives. In Hungary each olympic medal comes with giant bonuses and a monthly pension around 10K a month in his case from age 35. He may need motivation to do anything.
Realistically how long did people expect him to keep going knowing he was already struggling with motivation and the sport over the last 2-3 years. Hes been going for 7 years now. That’s a healthy run.
A few years ago Milák mentioned his asthma and limited breathing capacity. I can’t remember the exact percentage he gave, but it was shockingly less than that of a healthy person, let alone top athlete. He was planning on having lung surgery, which possibly was not done bc of covid.
I am reading now about his lack of perfect health being mentioned (https://hunswim.com/milak-kristof-nem-indul-a-szingapuri-vb-n/) and can’t help but wonder how serious it might be. It’s amazing that he was able to pull of WRs and ORs, etc with his condition.
Also true, some Hungarian journalists wrote demeaning articles about him, and Milák not tolerating well the lime light does not bring clarity to… Read more »
70% lung capacity he said and a heart condition. Isn’t it “amazing” that not alone could he get out of bed but he could beat Phelps longstanding world record. Does that not strike anyone as odd?
no, the opposite