A day after Hungarian superstar swimmer Katinka Hosszu announced that she was splitting with her coach Árpád Petrov, the Swiss coach released a response statement.
As compared to Hosszu’s statement, which was critical of Petrov’s determination and commitment, Petrov took a more complimentary tone toward his former trainee.
Petrov says that he is grateful for every day he had “helping the world’s best swimmer,” and that he learned a lot from Hosszu – in the areas of “humility, work, respect,” among others. Petrov also expressed gratitude to the president of the Hungarian Swimming Federation, Sándor Wladár, and for others involved with the training.
Petrov concluded that even though he no longer conducts the training for Hosszu, that he will be her biggest fan. He also wished for all of her dreams to come true – be them professional or personal.
Hosszu said that she made the decision based on a “feeling” that she couldn’t shake since the World Championships that she didn’t feel that Petrov wanted to win as much as Hosszu did. “In the run-up to the Olympic Games, I can’t take the burden of carrying someone on my back again,” Hosszu remarked.
Hosszu says that she will now coach herself to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Neither has made comment about Petrov’s future as the head coach of the Iron squad in the International Swimming League. That team, which is partially-owned by Hosszu, completed its first season last weekend with a third-place finish in the European derby meet, which wasn’t enough to advance to December’s finale in Las Vegas. The next ISL season isn’t anticipated until after next summer’s Olympic Games.
Prior to working with Hosszu in the summer of 2018, Petrov was leading the training of the Swiss National Team. Among others, he coached 7-event Swiss National Record holder Sasha Touretski who is the daughter of famed Russian-born coach Gennadi Touretski.
Hosszu won 3 individual gold and 1 individual silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games while training under then-coach and husband Shane Tusup, before that pair ultimately split personally and professionally in 2018. This summer, at the World Championships, she won gold in both the 200 IM and 400 IM. She also scratched the 100 back, finished 17th in prelims of the 200 free to miss advancing, and finished 8th in the 200 backstroke.
I know Arpi Petrov well. He is a very solid coach and a very solid person. He has brought many swimmers – repeat, many swimmers – to great success. Of course he responded with class – because that’s who he is.
I don’t know Kathinka H. Obviously she is a great swimmer. Obviously she has had a turbulent personal life and has made poor personal decisions.
Katinka should do whatever is best for her.
Wishing Katinka much success in her swimming profession and personal life.
Katinka deserves the best!
Well, Thanksgiving with all its nice spirit is over and we can get beck to the business as usual 😀
…..
“IRON LADY!!! IRON LADY!!!” – throws megaphone into the crowd.
“Iron …. Iron… lady… lady” – echoes the crowd.
And only one guy from the back rows is silent.
“Why aren’t you shouting with US?” – asking crowd demandingly.
“I don’t actually know what it means” – responding timidly poor guy.
“Do you want US to explain?!” – (with the rising tension)
“Oh, no. No. Iron it is” – agrees guy quickly, being afraid that the arguments made of real iron are about to follow.
And then getting a safe… Read more »
When it comes to Katinka, Yozhik never disappoint
Maybe his real name is Laszlo Kiss?
He’s Petrov under an alias.
IronDramaLady.
What “Lady” does have to do with all that? Just call it as it is: “IronDrama”.
Coach herself? Probably not the best move.
u can ask Jeson lezak …..if that option was not worth
he earns money as a professional swimming coach so when a big famous swimmer says something negative about his work, he has no choice but to protect his reputation publically because his reputation is on the line…its like any other job where its bordering defamation
Seriously — re-read what she said. That’s “bordering defamation”? Get real. Ours is the only sport where we expect pros (especially women) to behave like angels. Check out the USWNT soccer, Serena, and I could go on. Better yet, read this https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/why-we-make-women-athletes-into-villains-92024/.
no one is expecting anything from anybody… but she should know in her position as a famous swimmer that her words are impressionable.. so when she posts something negative that would affect a person’s livelihood, she needs some accountability as it could have financial implications
Uhh … just a radical thought here — but maybe if he was getting paid and not delivering, his livelihood should be affected. I can’t think of any other profession where poor performance as judged by the employer doesn’t have a deserved downstream adverse financial effect. And maybe it’s a fair warning to other swimmers.
Yeah, this is a bit of a red herring argument. I think of the countless coaches that are fired every year in the NFL, NBA, NHL, etc. …. it’s a pretty rare occurrence when the team GM or President trashes the outgoing coach. She has every right – and responsibility to herself – to fire him, which certainly affects his financial livelihood, at least n the short term. It’s publicly blaming him for her performance that is off-putting.
Swimming fans love to clutch their pearls.
Yes, Katinka could have been more professional. But she wasn’t really unprofessional per se. She was open about the process, didn’t rip anyone particularly, but didn’t sugarcoat. Athletes in other sports criticize each other and their coaches far more often.
“Clutch their pearls” is dead on. Has been my complaint for years, but never articulated as well as that phrase.
instead of showing the other cheek, he could have said “whatever” but it’s a small world, and she has so much power, who knows what really was going on.
Arpi just showed a thing you call CLASS !!!
Just like her prior coach. What was his name?
I actually thought this was funny.