Hungarian Katinka Hosszu has made history, surpassing Slovakian Martina Moravcova for the most World Cup event victories of all-time.
Moravcova retired with 105 wins on her list, including the overall series titles in the 2001-2002 season and 2003-2004 season.
The Hungarian had 103 wins on her resume coming into the Beijing stop of this meet on Friday. First she won the 800 free to move to 104, then tied Moravcova in the 200 free: number 105.
The record-breaker was in the 200 IM, which appropriate as she is the World Record holder from earlier this year. Now Hosszu (who has at least two more years of World Cups on which to build her record) is the greatest World Cup winner of all-time at just 25 years old.
Moravcova, like Hosszu, spent her collegiate years training in the United States, perhaps owing in part to her success in short course. Moravcova swam at SMU and was the 1999 NCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year. Both swimmers were also very versatile, though Moravcova tended toward the sprint events where Hosszu’s biggest strength lies in the longer events.
All-told, Hosszu will leave Beijing with 110 victories. While the Beijing stop wasn’t her best of this season, she won another 7 events: the same number that she won in Moscow. There’s still two more stops in this year’s series, meaning her win total should wind up somewhere around 225 if her pace continues.
Is there an age limit or a limit to the number of years an athlete can participate in World Cup events? I ask because the article states Hosszu has, “…at leat two more years of World Cups on which to build her record.”
the 2 year comment probably refers the ramp up time to Rio.
DanJohnRob – yeah, it was more of speculation that Hosszu would probably be good for at least two more rounds of World Cups before hanging ’em up.