World Champion Katinka Hosszu and 18 year old Ben Gratz were awarded with the Hungarian Fair Play Awards.
Hosszu’s performances during the 2013 season were of course extremely impressive; winning gold in the 200 and 400 IM as well as bronze in the 200 butterfly at the World Championships in Barcelona, setting new short course world records in the 100, 200 and 400 IM, destroying the field in the 2013 World Cup Series and collecting gold in the 200 IM as well silver in both the 100 and 400 IM at the European Short Course Championships.
She has been recognized for those accomplishments in the past, but what impressed the committee that decided on the Fair Play Awards was her willingness to help her nation win the right to host the 2021 World Championships.
Hosszu was willing to interrupt her preparation for the World Championships in Barcelona to join the bidding to team to present to the FINA Bureau the merits of Hungary hosting the 2021 championships.
Ultimately Hungary won the bidding process and the 2021 championships will be held in Budapest while Hosszu went on to her successful campaign in Barcelona.
Gratz earned the men’s award for his selfless actions at the 2013 Hungarian National Championships. Gratz and Daniel Dudas tied for eighth in the prelims of the 50 butterfly, both posting a time of 25.63. The two were set to have a swim-off with the winner earning a spot in the final when Dudas’ googles broke. Seeing that his competitor did not have a second pair Gratz gave Dudas his.
Dudas ultimately went on to beat Gratz in the swim-off by 18 one-hundredths of a second.
Acttually Gratz and Dudas had tied twice! So they swam swim-off twice, and at the last (3rd), swim-off Dudas’ googles broke.