Hungary’s Newest 400 IM Wunderkind Pushes Her Country Past GDR

2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

While competing day 1 of the 2021 European Championships in her home nation of Hungary, 17-year-old Viktoria Mihalyvari made her presence known in a big way en route to the women’s 400m IM podium.

The teen already knocked out big-time players Boglarka Kapas and Zsuzsanna Jakabos in the heats of this event, as only the top two swimmers from each nation advance from the heats. Mihalyvari paired with Hosszu to make a run for a possible 1-2 Hungarian medal situation in tonight’s final.

And they indeed accomplished the feat, with Hosszu grabbing gold in 4:34.76 while Mihalyvari actually tied British Olympian Aimee Willmott for silver with a time of 4:36.81.

For Mihalyvari, tonight’s outing represents a monster personal best. This morning was her career-quickest in 4:38.07, a time which represented her first outing ever under the 4:40 threshold. Her personal best entering this elite competition had rested at the 4:40.65 she notched in November 2020.

However, tonight in Budapest, Mihalyvari introduced herself to the world, reaping silver in her mighty 4:36.18, just .01 outside of Hungary’s national record holder for 17-year-olds Eva Risztov’s 4:36.17.

Hosszu now ranks as #2 in the world only behind Australia’s Kaylee McKeown while Mihalyvari ranks 8th in the world this season.

2020-2021 LCM Women 400 IM

YuiJPN
Ohashi
07/24
4:32.08
2Kaylee
McKeown
AUS4:32.7312/13
3Emma
Weyant
USA4:32.7607/24
4Hali
Flickinger
USA4:33.9606/13
5Melanie
Margalis
USA4:34.0806/13
6Leah
Smith
USA4:34.5506/13
7Katinka
Hosszu
HUN4:34.7605/17
8Mireia
Belmonte
ESP4:35.1307/24
9Aimee
Willmott
GBR4:35.2807/24
10Yu
Yiting
CHN4:35.9401/02
View Top 26»

Hosszu and Mihalyvari now make it 17 total medals the nation of Hungary has won in this event since 1962, overtaking GDR as holding the most medals for a nation ever in this event.

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Yozhik
2 years ago

Hosszu looked very happy to finish this race first. It looked like not much energy left. Her last 50 was slower by more than 1sec than Mihalyvary had. It was actually the fourth in this race.

Attis76
2 years ago

“WunderkiNd” haha

brianmiles
2 years ago

However, tonight in Budapest, Mihalyvari introduced herself to the world, reaping silver in her mighty 4:36.18, just .01 outside of Hungary’s national record holder for 17-year-olds Eva Risztov’s 4:36.17.

its 81 not 18

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Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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