Katinka Hosszu Takes Out 24-Year Old Krisztina Egerszegi Record

At long last, it has been done. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu has broken the Hungarian National Record in the 200 meter backstroke, one of the few National Records she didn’t hold in long course, and thus erased the legendary Krisztina Egerszegi entirely from the country’s senior national records.

Hosszu swam a 2:06.18 in the women’s 200 backstroke semi-finals to qualify as the top swimmer through to finals ahead of Emily Seebohm and Missy Franklin. That was about half-a-second faster than the 2:06.62 that Egerszegi did at the 1991 European Championships. That time stood as the World Record for an astonishing 17 years before being broken in Februrary of 2008, and has had as much longevity as almost any swim in history.

And now, while that swim, while maintaining its place in the history books, will no longer be a part of any major current record lists, nor will Egerszegi, who in the 1990’s held a status similar to Hosszu’s among the most elite of the elite swimmers in the world.

Comparative Splits

The comparative splits show where Hosszu had the big advantage over Egerszegi: on the first 50. While her historical counterpart had faster second, third, and fourth 50’s, Hosszu put almost a second between herself and the record line on the first length alone. That can be owed both to strategy, as well as improvements in starting wedges, blocks, walls, and underwaters making backstroke first 50’s faster in general.

This is a stunning turn for Hosszu, who when she finished college was primarily a butterflier/IM’er, and has now developed into one of the best, if not the best, backstroker in the world.

Hosszu now has 10 of the 17 Hungarian individual National Records in long course, to go with 16 of 18 in short course meters.