Just a few months after giving birth to her first child in August, three-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu has reportedly returned to training with the goal of competing at her sixth Olympics next summer in Paris.
The 34-year-old Hungarian star is only training a few hours per day right now, but she’s aiming to attend a training camp in January before hopefully returning to competition around April or May. In an interview with Index last month where she discussed how motherhood has changed her approach to training, Hosszu said she sees a pathway to Olympic qualification in the individual medley events.
“After Kamilia’s birth, it was medically expected that I should not move at all for six weeks, but towards the end, even though I was careful, I cheated a little,” Hosszu said. “Since then, I can train for a fixed two or three hours a day, which is significantly less than the eight or nine hours of the old days, but still much more than nothing.
“The fundamental challenge is that, as an elite athlete, my time was allocated exactly to the minute, I knew in advance when what was waiting for me, and it was completely overturned,” she reflected. “Now I’m not the one who plans what kind of day I’ll have, what will fit into the program, when I can train or if I’ll sleep at all, and if so, how much. I admit, it wasn’t easy at all at first, but I’m also learning a lot by becoming flexible. It’s a big adventure, but with all that, I experience my little girl’s growth as an amazing happiness.”
Hosszu last competed at the 2022 European Championships, where she went 2:14.37 in the 200 IM and 4:45.07 in the 400 IM. Her lifetime bests in the 200 IM and 400 IM are 2:06.12 (current world record) and 4:26.36 (former world record, broken by Summer McIntosh in April), respectively, and the 2024 Olympic ‘A’ cuts are 2:11.47 and 4:38.53.
Hosszu said that “a significant part” of her added pregnancy weight has already vanished and she is “already in shape,” but not quite “back to a level where I can compete.” Her love of the sport still burns strong as she called the swimming pool her “second home” and said she thinks “this feeling will accompany me for the rest of my life.”
“The competition calendar of the International Swimming Federation is authoritative — from March to June there will be several opportunities for qualification,” Hosszu said. “In other words, the national championship is far from the only option.”
In January of 2022, Hosszu pushed back against rumors of retirement and stated her goal of becoming the first swimmer with 100 international championship medals. But by June of 2022, she said she would likely bypass the Paris 2024 Olympics because of her plans to have a baby with her now-husband, Mate Gelencser. Gelencser was supported by the Hungarian Swimming Association’s Special Coaching Program (KEP) with a monthly stipend until the federation voted to revoke his allowance at its most recent board meeting.
- Related: Hungarian Coach Worried About Kristof Milak: ‘He Hasn’t Done Any Meaningful Work in Months’
Hosszu has been supportive of fellow Hungarian star Kristof Milak during his time away from regular training and critical of the media coverage surrounding his absence.
“Kristof does not belong to Hungary, and the sports management can be grateful for his achievements so far,” Hosszu said. “The statement that an Olympic champion and world record holder still owes the country is outrageous and primitive.”
Guess she’s got a lot of help that allows her to train during the day and sleep through the night. That’s rare, most of us changed our lifestyle completely as new moms (and still do 22 years later). I’m all for getting back into shape and feeling good. There’s a point though that it’s not about you anymore, it’s about spending time with your kids and not missing out on those special times that happen only once.
Most of us aren’t former Olympic champions though. It wouldn’t be my choice, but good on her for trying to qualify. She won’t be winning medals, but this is her last shot at an Olympics, so why not? A new baby is very portable, so bonding with her mum will not be impacted. I imagine Katinka has lots of help, and with luck, the baby is ‘easy’, enabling her to get lots of sleep and rest. I say good luck to her.
She’s training 2-3 hours a day. You know some women have to go straight back to working 8 hours a day not long after giving birth right?
Exactly. Maternity leave in the US is very poor, isn’t it?
No idea why this would be downvoted. 12 weeks of paid leave (which is my understanding of the situation in the US) is not good at all.
Yep, it’s pretty poor relative to EU. 3 months is probably the US average, varying by company. My company (massive, tens of thousands employees) gives mothers 3 months, but they have to apply for short term disability to get just part of the leave paid.
My Paternity leave has been 12 weeks unpaid, but worth it for bonding time, to not miss out. Not every dad can save to pull that off though.
That is terrible! My daughter did her research before she moved jobs a few years ago. (Checked out the maternity leave policy before she accepted the job offered). She chose well. Childcare costs here in England are high, but she had 12 months off work. 6 months was on full pay, 3 months was statutory pay (paid by the state) of £172.48 per week, and the final 3 months unpaid.
Great you were able to have that time off. 🙂
Why can’t the Dad look after the baby for 2-3 hours? One of my kids it would have worked perfectly. The other one not so much. But she probably has some extra help too.
Exactly. In some countries women are back at work full-time by this stage, so it could be perfectly manageable to be training a lot.
She could be apart of a remarkable 2 sets of women who represent the past 3 Olympic Champions in one single event, should they all qualify:
200 IM 2012 Shiwen Ye, 2016 Katinka, 2021 Yui Ohashi
100 Breast 2012 Ruta, 2016 Lilly, 2021 Lydia
Any other male or female event with this possibility?
Ledecky x3 is the only other one I can think of (obviously doesn’t count as she’s one swimmer)
400IM. Literally the same 3 women in the 200IM. Last time there wasn’t a 200/400IM double for women was 1992.
The men could do it in the 1500 if Sun Yang qualifies. Plus Paltrinieri and Finke.
That’s it I think
sun dropped the 1500, which leaves the m400 free as the only other event with 3 active olympic champions. but horton won’t qualify ahead of short or winnington.
although that is true about the 200 IM, there most likely won’t be a double next year. summer is the heavy favourite in the 400, but douglass, walsh and mckeown are all within 0.3 of her pb. then yu is 2:07.75 and will still be 18 in paris, and we’ve seen what chinese teenagers have done before
Sun Yang can’t qualify.
Making the National team and representing Hungry would be an impressive accomplishment given the timeline she’s given herself after giving birth. The story ends there though. In 2022 she was 7th in the 200 IM and 5th in the 400 IM at Worlds. At 2022 European Champs she finished 8th in the 200 IM. Not to take anything away from her amazing accomplishments but I think a roster spot is as far as this story goes. I wish her luck.
Honestly, kinda surprised no one’s brought up the uh, semi-obvious reason someone could train for 9 hours day. (The recovery might be the bigger thing, too.)
Comments from back in the day sure did tho, lol.
Man , I’m so glad the times of baselessly accusing her of doping are over.
I ran into Katinka training at the Hall of Fame pool in March 2023, so she was training through her pregnancy. I would love to see her achieve her goals.
Come on Shane Tusup! Time to coach her back to the top! Hat on sideways and get after it!
I’m intrigued as to why she would have been expected to not move for 6 weeks post partum!
C-section restrictions are no joke and if they opened her abdominal wall, I’m shocked its ONLY six weeks of rest.
Sorry, I didn’t know she had had a c-section. However, she would certainly need to do a fair bit of moving afterwards! I am a former midwife, and my daughter had a c-section a year ago. Early mobilisation is actually essential, within hours of surgery. Yes, Katinka, would need to take things slowly, but ‘not moving’ is something of an exaggeration.
I assume it’s more “moving” in a strenuous exercise sense. (Could also be a translation thing? Idk I didn’t go to the primary source.)
I didn’t say she had one, was just pointing out a possibility. Other issues that require surgical intervention could also come with restrictions – but you are a mid wife so you that! Also, I didn’t take it as literally “no moving” but there is a big gap between mobilization and vigorous training.
Suspect it’s a translation thing, along the lines of not exerting herself, rather than remaining static. From her social media, it looked like she was up and about fairly swiftly.
I was wondering when the news was gonna reach Swimswam… but, yeah, no, she isn’t gonna make it (even though I would really like her to!!).
I was also really impressed she defended Milak, because her voice (aside from maybe Laszlo Cseh’s) is the only one that carries any weight when it comes to swimming in Hungary. I wasn’t impressed with Wladár for doubling down with his idiotic statement about Milak, but what can you do.
I hope katinka and emily seebohm make it now
That would be awesome!