With the European Championships just around the corner, there are several marquee-worthy names to spotlight, and near the top of that list are a pair of Hungarian talents and Olympic Champions: Hubert Kos and Kristof Milak.
Between the two, they make up, what could be argued as one of the best halves of a medley relay that you could produce with Kos’ backstroke and Milak’s butterfly, though despite the obvious talent between the two, we may not get to see them on the same relay, as Kos fears that Milak will take a step back, and not race on the Hungarian relays.
In an interview with M4 Sport in Hungary, Kos, who trains in Austin, Texas under Bob Bowman, outlines his desire to reach the podiums, and potentially snag gold in those with a full Hungarian relay.
“I’m looking forward to the relays, we want to be on the podium. If we have a Kristof Milák, who knows how much he’s trained and can still swim the world’s best time in the 100 butterfly, then we could be capable of anything. Together with Nándor Németh and Kristóf Milák, we could even solve the 4×100 medley relay with a mediocre breaststroker.” Kos said in the interview with M4 Sport. “I think if Kristóf started now and we added Zsombor (Petróczki) as the breaststroker, we could have a gold medal. One person is not enough for this, three or four would be needed, I’m sad about that. We’re trying to achieve a good result with the 4×100 relay. Someone will become a true legend if they can rally a team around them.”
Kos added that Milak, who currently holds the world record in the 200 fly in 1:50.34 and is the 3rd fastest performer ever in the 100 fly (49.68), is undeniable on a talent level, though he does show there is a bit of selfishness that he possesses.
“We know that Kristóf thinks differently; he doesn’t take anything away from his talent, but this shows that he only thinks about himself, not the team.”
Back in April, Kos told M4 Sport that he would swim the breaststroke leg of the medley relay if necessary, though he would really like to race with Milak.
“I hope we will have a relay, and swimmers who have missed the relays in recent years will compete, I hope we will have a relay, and swimmers who have missed the relays in recent years will compete,” Kos said in the April interview with M4 Sport. “It [is yet to] be seen whether [Milak] will accept it, others will decide for me… I will also accept the breaststroke if necessary.
This season, Milak is the fastest 100 butterflyer in the world with his 50.22 from the Hungarian National Championships in April, while Kos is the top 200 IMer in the world this season with his 1:55.50 from the US Open Championships in Austin back in December. He is also ranked as the 6th fastest 100 back performer in the world this season with his 52.63 from the US Open Championships in December, though his career best of 52.20 makes him the 17th fastest performer in history.
Kos also outlined some of his goals for the European Championships and talked about how Bowman has him working every day to eventually break Aaron Piersol‘s 200 back World Record of 1:51.92 from 2009.
“Bob [Bowman] said he was yelling at me so much so that I could one day break the world record, and that’s why I’m working every day to break that record, but that’s still 1.3 seconds away, so it’s more relevant next year or in Los Angeles,” Kos said in the interview with M4 Sport.
