Hubi Kós

Olympic champion and European record holder Hubi Kós joins Katie Hoff Anderson in person in Austin, filmed at the University of Texas, to explain what it felt like to go for the 200 backstroke world record in a European Championships semifinal, why a relay gold for Hungary means more to him than his other two gold medals, and why the 2027 World Championships in Budapest feel like the meet his whole life has been building toward.

Hubi walks through that 200 back semifinal one length at a time. The goal was never just to qualify; it was to break the world record in the semifinal, something swimmers don't usually try. He went out faster than he expected, felt like he was cruising through the first 100, saw the field two body lengths behind him at the turn and held his rate through the third 50. Then he came off the final wall and everything hit at once. His stroke rate slowed, his legs were gone, and he was left without the little burst of energy he needed for the last 10 meters. He touched in 1:52.30, a European record, just outside Aaron Peirsol's 1:51.92 from 2009.

The deeper thread is what he does with that pain now. Hubi says a race that hurts can still mean you did something right, and that the answer is to bring that feeling into training on purpose. He describes a set with Bob Bowman of all out 50s on plenty of rest that looks easy on paper, and how around the sixth one he had to lock in and focus on the pain because it is the same thing he felt when he missed the record. In his words, "those are the moments that are gonna make you better."

The second big story is the relay. At 14, Hubi was in the stands at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest when Hungary took bronze in the 4x100 freestyle relay, a medal nobody expected, and the crowd got so loud he could not hear anything. Ever since, he has wanted to win one with a team. This summer Hungary won the 4x100 free relay at the European Championships, with his brother swimming it in the morning. He also talks about turning pro after his last NCAA championships with Texas, why he thinks NCAAs were a harder meet than Worlds, stepping into a team leader role when teammates were nervous before prelims, and why he took his time behind the blocks before his 100 back final. Worlds come back to Budapest in 2027, ten years after he was there as a fan. Before then he wants a lot more from his 100 free, starting with the 48.1 he swam leading off the relay.

There is plenty of fun in here too: meeting Gordon Ramsay at the F1 race in Las Vegas with Leon Marchand, Ramsay speaking French to Leon, the Eggs Benedict he would cook for him, and hating Chase Kalisz at 14 for beating the Hungarians in Budapest. Summer McIntosh also joins for a round of Who Is Most Likely To about the Texas pro group: who gets to practice first, who makes Bob's yell tally go up, and the Waymo that made Hubi late.

He closes with what the next year looks like: hard training, long days at the pool and a home World Championships he has been chasing since he was a kid. In his words, "we're just going to become better if we lean into the pain." This one is for anyone who has ever been told that a race that hurts was a bad race.

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