Hungarian veteran swimmer Laszlo Cseh pulled off the upset over South African defending 200m butterfly world champion Chad Le Clos on day 4 in Kazan, but not without some pain to go with it.
As Cseh describes in the video, he started to really feel the effects of taking the race out in 54.21 as a 29-year old, saying he “couldn’t feel his arms” in the last 20m of the race. “I died” is how he narrates the last portion of the race where Cseh was able to hold off a charging Le Clos and win the gold by just two tenths of a second.
With the win, Cseh became the oldest male winner of the 200m butterfly ever at a world championships and the victory also signified the dynamo’s 11th swimming medal at a world championships – the most ever by a Hungarian.
As a nod to Cseh’s incredible longevity as an elite athlete, it is worth noting this 200m butterfly gold is his second world championship title and it comes 10 years and 5 days after he won his first. Cseh was the 400m IM gold medalist at the 2005 Montreal World Championships.
Big congratulations to Laszlo! Ten years of dedication paid off for him this week!