Not even winning an Olympic gold medal could get Kristóf Milák to talk.
Despite his victory on Saturday night in the 100-meter butterfly at the Paris Olympics, it was expected that he would remain silent. Milák hasn’t spoken to reporters in Hungary for over a year, so the dozen reporters waiting for him knew they wouldn’t get any comments.
“He’s a bit more than special,” said his Hungarian team coach Csaba Sos. “Very special.”
“I don’t have any idea why he doesn’t speak because he’s doing the same with the Hungarian media,” Sos added with a shrug. “I was a swimmer, and when I competed, I liked to talk.”
Hungarian reporters describe Milák as serious, temperamental, or detached and difficult to understand. He took a break from training over the past year, and it was unclear how he would perform.
Milák isn’t just any swimmer. He holds the world record in the 200 fly, a race he lost earlier in the week to superstar Léon Marchand, who has won four individual gold medals in France. Milák ended up with silver and left the pool deck after that race looking dejected, with his head down.
He won gold in the 200 fly in Tokyo three years ago and also earned a silver in the 100. On Saturday, he found some redemption by winning the 100 fly in 49.90 seconds. Canadian Josh Liendo took silver with 49.99, and fellow Canadian Ilya Kharun won bronze with 50.45.
Hungarian reporters mentioned that Milák skipped local television interviews and the press conference after his win.
Since Milák didn’t speak, Kharun was asked to describe him.
“I thought he was going to be like — really mean at first,” Kharun said. “All these rumors and stuff, but he was actually — he was really nice, you know, he was very supportive.”
“I can tell you he is really good at what he does even though he had that big break, Powerful, powerful stroke.”
