2024 MARE NOSTRUM – BARCELONA
- May 29-30, 2024
- Prelims/Finals: 9 am / 5 pm local, 3 am / 11 am ET
- Barcelona, Spain
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifying Event
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream
- Day 1 Finals Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
At the second stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour in Barcelona, Spain, world record holder Kristof Milak suffered just his second long-course meter (LCM) 200 butterfly defeat as an adult with a runner-up finish in 1:55.67 behind Korea’s Kim Minseop (1:55.47).
The 24-year-old Hungarian was slower than his season-best 1:54.90 from the Hungarian Championships in April. Milak’s only other loss in the LCM 200 fly came while recovering from COVID-19 at a domestic competition in December of 2020, when he placed 2nd (1:54.98) behind Tamas Kenderesi (1:54.64). He had never lost his signature event on the senior international stage before Thursday.
But it wasn’t all bad news this week as he also clocked a season-best 50.95 100 fly on Wednesday, tying his own Mare Nostrum record from 2021. The 2024 Mare Nostrum Tour marks Milak’s first time racing internationally since the 2022 European Championships to “step back” and “recharge the batteries.”
On Thursday, Milak’s coach, Balazs Virth, offered an outlook that wasn’t exactly promising given recent reports in Hungarian media about missed training sessions.
“I can say the same thing I said after the national championship: Kristóf is strong and fast, but his endurance is far from what it used to be,” Virth reportedly said, translated from Hungarian. “This is a direct consequence of the training work he has done so far.
“Maybe outsiders think he is capable of a miracle, but today’s swimming has shown that there are laws in this sport that are difficult to override,” Virth continued. “Although Paris is the goal, it has to be said that what has happened so far contains traces of Olympic preparation.
“The shorter distances at the (Hungarian Championships) went relatively well, because he had pushed hard in training camp before, and now also because he pushed hard in Turkey, but his two-and-a-half week layoff after the (Hungarian Championships) came back to haunt him today,” Virth added. “That said, he swam the 200 smartly, with a good schedule, but the second 50 was definitely slow. I asked him to try to keep his concentration for the next stage in Monte-Carlo, and then the final will be better.”
Milak set the 200 fly world record of 1:50.34 in front of an electric home crowd at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest. He has appeared unbeatable in his signature event since setting a world record of 1:50.73 at the 2019 World Championships. Milak followed up with an Olympic record of 1:51.25 in Tokyo a few years ago.
This year’s Mare Nostrum Tour concludes Saturday and Sunday in Monaco.
How are the Koreans (Kim and Hwang) dropping so much time 3 days apart?lol
Come back to this comment when he goes 1:48.8 in the final. He’s playing with strategies. His endurance is fine (59 on the second 100)
Honestly that’s delusional. He’s playing with strategies? He’s 5/6 seconds off his best. I understand he’s surprised everybody with his performances at the Nationals but apparently he’s done little or no training since. His coach is trying to gently explain that there is no magic, unless you can suspend reality you won’t deliver better and better performances from reducing and finally stopping any training. He has nothing to taper from, he’s on a constant taper. The only way your outcome is delivered is by filling him with juice and tying a rocket to his ass. It will make a Chinese training cap look like a children’s tea party
I was told this dude was the next Phelps…. What a surprise and waste of record. I hope Marchand isn’t a one hit wonder as well
This “one hit wonder” is a 2x world champ, olympic gold and silver medalist and broke the wr twice.
Who told you that? “A dumb person told me something dumb” therefore this guy’s a bum.
Phelps also had a few pretty butt years there – with drug suspensions interspersed, ofc – so like, that’s maybe not the best comparison to where Milak currently is.
Why are SwimSwam commentors so harsh on Virth? He was very supportive of Milak. It was he who suggested Milak to take time off and skip Fukuoka Worlds if he wasn’t in the mental state to do it. He didn’t speak to media about any details of Milak’s training for a long time before this. I think he finally opened up just because of all the false reports on Milak’s training. I believe this is the most honest version. He said Milak pushed hard in training camp and his speed recovers well, but the endurance is still not there. This is not bashing. This is probably just truth. We can tell from Milak’s results that his 100 is on par… Read more »
Downvote if you like, but I’m speaking of the fact. Nobody who knows Virth could say he’s not a supportive coach. If you ask any of his swimmer, Bogi Kapas, Ricsi Marton or Adam Telegdy, they will tell you how supportive he is. He always gets along very well with all his swimmers. Even Milak himself said Virth is much better for him than his former coach.
Stop blaming everything on the coach. He’s not the one who should take all the blame.
There’s only one person responsible for this. It’s not Virth, it’s not the federation, its not the press and it’s surely not the gunman on the grassy knoll unless they’ve managed to put up a powerful force field blocking Milak from the training pool.
Yup.
I wrote that a swimmer with huge talent like Milak can fake 100 fly, but the true test is 200 fly to see if he’s done enough work. And based on the result and what the coach told us, there’s still problem with the endurance.
There might be some truth in the Hungarian media reports, but I feel the way Virth are talking about it is not constructive.
By Paris he’ll be only able to fake the 50 fly, which won’t be much good. So how should Virth talk about it? Say everything is fine, Milak is special, he can do it his way and then you’ll rip him a new one in August because he didn’t call it as it is and someone should have told Milak that it doesn’t work this way etc etc. I expect they’ve thrown everything at this to get the guy to buckle down and do some work to give himself a chance and now they know it’s not going to happen so they’re covering their asses
Smokescreen! I’m choking haha.
Imo this is just an acting. He has clearly improved his speed and will win both 100 & 200 fly, unless Marchand throws something special in the 200, which he is capable of.
Keep in mind Milak only had to go 1:57 high to set up that final. After two swims at or under 1:55 in Paris, it’ll be a dogfight among any swimmers who can get close to 1:51. I take that to include Marchand.
He will not win 100
Why do you think he’s such a shoe in for the 1 fly victory when nothing he has done this season indicates that?
He almost catch Dressel in Tokyo and I think he is a faster swimmer now. He’ll just peak in Paris, whereas Dressel will have to peak for trials and double taper is not easy.
Dressel has work to taper from. Milak is fully tapered and swimming 51’s in the 100 and 1:55’s or above in the 200. He’s not a faster swimmer now clearly. He’s slower, has no stamina and is fully tapered. Honestly I can’t believe there’s a drug out there that can help either you or him
Acting?
Take off your tim foil hat.
You’re embarrassing yourself. He doesn’t need to act. He needs to train like everyone else. He clearly hasn’t been. And more importantly he’s showing the world he’s no longer invincible, beaten by a little known 20year old, and giving all his opponents confidence.
Sometimes a certain kind of athlete responds really well to being called out/doubted. Think of the athlete that likes to manifest or reference having a chip on their shoulder. Is Milak just this kind of athlete, and his coach knows it?
There’s only 2 months before Paris. Not sure how this is providing motivation.
I think Milak will be fine in the Olympics but I don’t think he’s ready to do pb or get close to his world record. Let’s assume he’s at a good level, but not at his best level. I propose a maximum of 1:52 for the 200, 100 If it can be closer to its pb given that it is speed, perhaps around 50.1