Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu Thrilled With Worlds Decision

Photo Courtesy: Gian Mattia Dalberto/Lapresse

Swimming World spoke with Hungarian world champion Katinka Hosszu shortly after FINA announced the decision to stage the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and she couldn’t be happier.

The announcement happened while Hosszu was in the pool training in Miami, which including a star-sighting which we’ll get to in a bit. Swimming World was lucky enough to be the first to inform Hosszu and coach-husband Shane Tusup of FINA’s announcement.

“It’s crazy, I haven’t really realized it is happening yet,” Hosszu told Swimming World. “I was already excited about Budapest hosting in 2021, but 2017 is much closer. I’m really going to be ready for the meet! It is super exciting for me!”

Hosszu had already publicly stated that she was going to swim through until 2021 no matter what, guaranteeing her two Olympics and several more World Cup tours for the next six years.

“I was already going for 2020 Olympics for sure, and have always been thinking about 2021. I just want to feel what it is like to swim at home in front of my own crowd. Now, it’s 2017, so I get to enjoy that much sooner. I still can’t see myself stopping anytime soon, though.”

Hosszu also gave Swimming World a hint about what she’s going to continue focusing on.

“I’m really focusing on the medleys, so you have to train a lot,” Hosszu said. “But, [as a multi-event swimmer] I’m always in a position where if I feel like I get to the point where I’m doing too much, I can focus in on one or two events. I don’t see myself getting burned out or stopping anytime soon.”

Hosszu’s particularly happy about Worlds being moved to 2017 since she was part of the 2021 bid committee. She even had to go to Barcelona a few days earlier to participate in the bid process. That didn’t seem to impact her too much, since she still went on to win the 200 and 400 IMs in Barcelona.

“The Hungarian Swimming Federation was really ready to host for 2021, but now we just get to start developing everything a lot faster to be ready for Worlds and Junior Worlds in 2017.”

Now, back to the celebrity tease. Hosszu and Tusup ran into the second longest reigning boxing heavyweight champion of all time Wladimir Klitschko at the pool. According to Hosszu, Klitschko has replaced the usual long-distance running that most boxers use to keep in shape with swimming.

Klitschko, who has a three-month old child with his actress fiance Hayden Panettiere of Heroes and Nashville fame, had a long conversation with Hosszu and Tusup about swim training methods and the types of training equipment a competitive swimmer uses. There’s little doubt that Tusup will now be providing some consultation to the Klitschko camp when it comes to the swimming part of his training.

Look for some pictures on Hosszu’s Instagram account @hosszukatinka in the next day or so.

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Bill Bell

9 years ago

More power to you, Kat, but proclaiming now you’re going to continue through Tokyo and beyond…well best of luck. You’ll be in your early 30s by then and unlike Dara Torres you go for the long stuff. Won’t be easy but if anyone besides the GOAT can do it it’ll be you.