Milak, Kos, and Kesely Share Hungarian Pool Swimmers of the Year Awards

Earlier in the year, Milák clinched his fourth consecutive European title in the 200 fly at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade. That made him the first swimmer since Michael Gross in the 1980s to win this event at four straight European Championships. He also won the 100 fly.

Milak skipped the World Short Course Championships in his home country in December after initially being named to the team, though television cameras did spot him in the stands watching the racing.

He shares the award with American-trained Hubert Kos, who won an Olympic gold medal as well in the 100 back. Unlike Milak, he did race at the World Short Course Championships, winning gold in the 200 back and silver in the 100 back. He also won European Championship gold medals in the 200 IM and 400 free relay among five total medals in Belgrade.

The Hungarian women struggled in the pool at the Olympics, with none individually advancing to an Olympic final in Paris. Kesely finished 13th in the 400 free and the 800 free at that meet; she supplemented her resume with European Championships in each of those events in June.

Other candidates for the award included Petra Senanszky, who won the European Championship in the 50 free and broke the Hungarian Record in the process (24.56); and Henrietta Fangli, who broke Hungarian Records in the 100 breast in both short course and long course.

The open water awards were fairly uncontroversial after Hungary claimed two of the three medals in the men’s open water 10km race. That was led by the Open Water Swimmer of the Year Rasovsky, who won gold 27 seconds ahead of his teammate David Betlehem‘s bronze.

Rasovsky also won the World Championship in the spring against an open water field that was better than their pool counterparts and took a team relay gold at the European Championships.

The women’s open water honoree is Bettina Fabian, who finished 5th in the women’s open water 10k at only 19 years old. She was hospitalized shortly after the race in the questionable water quality of the Seine with vomiting and a fever.

She also earned World Championship bronze in the team relay, European Championship gold in the team relay, and European Championship bronze in the 5km race.

Fabian was at the center of a recent controversy between the Hungarian Federation and her American university NC State, with the federation publicly accusing her college coaches of not allowing her proper open water preparations and her college coaches disputing those claims. Ultimately, the decision was made for her and Betlehem to return home after the semester and resume training in Hungary.