After assuaging some concerns over inconsistent training at the recent Hungarian Championships with a 50.99 in the 100 fly and 1:54.90 in the 200 fly, Hungarian superstar swimmer Kristof Milak has apparently fallen off-track again.
Under headlines like “Kristof Milak has disappeared again,” Hungarian media is reporting that the 24-year-old World Record holder and Olympic champion has missed 32 out of 38 training sessions in the 27 days since those championships. The reports say that the absences have happened “without justification”.
In December, Hungarian National Team coach Csaba Sos said that he was “worried” about Milak, who at the time he said hadn’t done any meaningful work in months.
Milak’s coach Balazs Virth said that he began training again in the new year, but refuted reports that Milak had been secretly training in Australia.
Milak was one of 33 swimmers named to the Hungarian team for the European Championships in June. He is the three-time defending European Champion in the 200 fly in long course and two-time defending European Champion in the 100 fly in long course.
Milak is also the 2019 and 2022 World Champion and 2021 Olympic Games Champion in the 200 fly.
Prior to the 2024 National Championships, it had been almost a full year since Milak last raced – dating back to the April 2023 National Championship meet.
This is the kind of drop-off that may well show up during the 2fly final in Paris, should he make it that far. I can see him working too hard to go 1:53 in semis and hitting a wall in the final 25m of the final.
Do famous swimmers in Hungary have groupies? He might be spending a lot of time in bed working on his abs.
Leon: “… so do I swim this or not?”
Let the man tan
This is what happens to someone pushed to swim hyper intensive at young age chasing Wowww and Wowws for his/her performance. That happened to Popovici. That happened to Milak. That happened to Caleb Dressel and many more….physical overtraining will lead to mental crisis.
No he definitely has a broken heart, he has no contact with the swimmers at all
Weird how they talk about him like an employee. Whoever sets the expectation of 38 practices maybe should check with Milak if that’s what he wants to do?
Hey Kristof, come train in the USA! I’m sure you can find a coach who will support whatever kind of training you WANT to do.
Well… You don’t know how Hungarian swimming is structured. He very well might be an ’employee’ and maybe those practices were agreed upon in order for him to get his salary.
However, I absolutely do not understand why this is constantly in the news. What’s the point of calling him out like that? He clearly seems to have the upper hand or they’d just fire/ban him for not following whatever rules they’ve set on this matter. So, I have to assume they want him to swim and want him to swim well. But why then are they trying to distract him and discredit him in public like that?
President of Hungarian Olympic Committee spoke:
“It’s not good for anyone that we deal with Kristóff Milák so much – MOB president Zsolt Gyulay said on InfoRádio. – The fact that he didn’t train is obviously not true, thank God, he trained, his stamina is obviously not where he wants to be yet. About the giant champion we’re talking about a great sportsman. He has his own habits. By the way, Tamás Darnyi and others also had their own quirks and superstitions, because we’re talking about great personalities.”
Although it’s hard to tell how much information he actually has.
source: https://infostart.hu/sport/2024/05/10/a-mob-elnoke-fontos-uzenetet-mondott-a-milak-ugyben
man can they just let him be?