In a Hungarian interview, Kristof Milak talks about changing coaches, racing and politics in sport

Earlier this week, 200 fly Olympic champions and world record holders Kristof Milak conducted an interview with Hungarian centre-right news magazine Mandiner, in which he spoke about issues ranging from his career and lifestyle to controversial issues such as banning Russian and Belarusian athletes, transgender women in women’s sports and kneeling in front of a national anthem was enough.

Coaching change and training

Milak was asked about his coaching change in October 2021 when he left Attila Selmeci, his then 8-year-old coach, to train under Balasz Virth. Regarding the move, Milak said he made it because he wanted to be more actively involved in the decisions he made for his career.

“With my new coach, I have a lot more room to comment on the training schedule and feel more involved in the day-to-day work,” said Milak. “I think I needed that change. I didn’t make the decision out of ego, not out of defiance, not out of self-esteem.”

Milak also mentioned that he trained alone for a year and had no one to motivate him but himself. He says the experience hasn’t gone well and that it’s “great” that he’s now training with the likes of Richard Marton, who won 200 fly silver behind Milak at the 2022 European Championships.

“It’s great that we’re training with Márton, because even with the best training plan and the best trainer you can’t really get into the water without competition,” said Milak.

“Even at Selmecci, I wasn’t the quantitative swimmer who thoughtlessly accumulated the kilometers from wall to wall, but now the focus is on quality training work, exclusively with a professional eye.” he added.

The 200 Fly, 100 Free and Relays

When asked if times like a sub-1:50 200 fly motivates him, Milak said yes, adding that he’s “a performance-oriented man, a perfectionist enough to care about the fastest, the biggest and the best.” Things.”

“I’m going to set world records because I know what’s behind me and what I’ve got in the bag,” said Milak. “I also have a healthy selfishness that is typical of top athletes. And I know what I’m capable of.”

Last summer, at the 2022 World Championships, Milak approached the 1:50 mark when he broke the 200-fly world record in a time of 1:50.37. It was his second time breaking the world record at the event, lowering his 1:50.79 mark from 2019. Milak is also 1.12 seconds faster than all-time No. 2 Michael Phelps, who holds a personal best of 1:51.51.

Milak also addressed the competitiveness of the 100 Free, an event he only started racing in earnest last year. He says the event is “often a bloodbath,” but he keeps swimming because it stimulates his imagination and makes him the “multifunctional swimmer” he wants to be.

“It stimulates my imagination, but I still have to work a lot on my head and my movement culture,” said Milak about the 100 free. At the 2022 European Championships, he set a personal best of 47.44 and finished second David Popovichwho broke the world record in the same race.

Milak was also asked about his country’s pursuits in the 4×200 free relay, but he said that for Hungary, individual competitions took precedence because it was too risky to sacrifice individual medals for “uncertain” relays.

Trans athletes, Russia-Ukraine and politics in sport

Milak also shared his thoughts on the issue of transgender athletes as World Aquatics made the decision to ban trans women from women’s swimming competitions during the 2022 World Championships in Budapest. He said he had little knowledge of the subject and wasn’t “particularly passionate,” but he believes trans women have “no place” in women’s swimming, whether they’re on estrogen-based hormone therapy or not.

Additionally, Milak says he believes a separate category would be the “best solution,” similar to World Aquatics’ proposed solution of an “open” competitive category that trans women would be allowed to compete in.

“Estrogen and testosterone levels cannot be manipulated artificially in a way that allows for fair competition,” Milak said. “If gender reassignment is about self-expression, self-expression, equality and freedom, then so be it, but why would anyone want to compete in the opposite sex when there are already rules? In other words, such a shift should not be about striving for results, but about inner values, and yet the former emerges.”

“Also, I would find it extremely dangerous if prepubescent teenagers were operated on so that they could compete in the opposite sex,” he added.

Milak also said he was upset that “sport has become so occupied by politics” and described kneeling during a national anthem as a protest. He concedes that he doesn’t understand the perspective of a kneeling athlete because his native Hungary “was never a colonial state,” but that taking part in political action “wasn’t the athlete’s job, mainly because it’s alien to sports culture.”

In addition, Milak mentioned the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. While he condemns the violence and loss of innocent lives in war, he says “international athletes corner athletes”.

“Baning Russian and Belarusian athletes from the sports arena seriously violates fair play,” Milak said. “Obviously it’s a thorny question whether a Russian or a Ukrainian athlete can keep their temper out of a world competition, but we’re athletes and we’re the ones who can set an example that in situations like this it’s common sense that prevails.” Emotions wins.”

The perspective on allowing Russian athletes to continue competing is similar to that of most of the elite swimmers SwimSwam interviewed.

In March 2022, Russian and Belarusian swimmers were banned by World Aquatics from the 2022 World Championships due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Russian Swimming Federation responded by withdrawing their swimmers from all World Aquatics-sanctioned competitions for the year.