American coach Bob Bowman continues to produce Olympic gold-medal winners, training swimmers who represent various countries.
French swimmer Léon Marchand, a hero at the Paris Olympics, has already secured three gold medals this week under Bowman’s guidance. He is expected to be a top contender for a fourth gold on Friday in the 200 individual medley.
Michael Phelps, who won 23 Olympic gold medals, was the first to make Bowman renowned in the swimming world.
Now, Hungarian swimmer Hubert Kós has joined Bowman’s list of successful athletes.
Kós won the 200-meter backstroke on Thursday night with a time of 1 minute 54.26 seconds, coming from behind in the final 50 meters to surpass Greece’s Apostolos Christou (1:54.82) who won silver. Swiss swimmer Roman Mityukov took bronze with a time of 1:54.85.
What’s behind Bowman’s success? “His magic touch is the work,” said Kós, who trained with Bowman at Arizona State University and has followed him to the University of Texas at Austin, where Bowman starts this season. Kós still has two more years of eligibility at Texas.
“He doesn’t really let us be second best,” Kós explained. “He doesn’t let us drop to a level he doesn’t expect.”
Arizona State won the NCAA swim championship with Marchand, Kós, and Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Ilya Kharun, who finished third behind Marchand in the 200 fly.
“I’m just happy to be part of a team like that,” Kós said.
Kós has a Hungarian mother and an Irish-Hungarian father. He attended an American school, speaks with an American accent, and decided to train with Bowman in the U.S. to advance his career.
“I’m technically 75% Hungarian,” he joked. Kós mentioned that he saved some energy early in the race to ensure a strong finish.
“I knew I had to do something like that to win,” he said. “The important thing is that I made it and I’m really happy.” When asked about his feelings after winning, Kós was straightforward.
“I was just happy to get my hand on the wall,” he said. “But I feel really sick right now.”
