Storied Hungarian coach György Turi has come under fire as accusations of swimmer abuse have been circulating from both past and current athletes. Turi currently serves as Vice President of the Hungarian Swimming Association and was the primary coach of Olympic icon and recently-retired medalist Laszlo Cseh.
35-year-old Cseh was the first to publicly reveal details of training under Turi at the Kőbánya Swim Club, with the butterfly and IM specialist stating that swimmers would be hit with a wooden stick if goals weren’t met during practice.
Cseh used words such as ‘spiritual terror’, ‘nervousness’ and ‘fighting for survival’ when originally describing allegedly unhealthy training conditions in an interview late last month. (24 H)
Cseh said Turi’s goal was “to break his athletes, which meant that not a single training session went by without someone crying. Then came the yelling, the punishments.”
Since Cseh’s breaking the silence, additional athletes having trained under Turi have also spoken out about his questionable training methods. Dominik Kozma, who trained under Tori until 2014, said that ‘it quite often happened that Turi dragged someone out of the pool by the hair.
Another multi-international medalist, Peter Bernek, stated that Turi had been shouting at him ‘in an unacceptable manner ever since he was 14.’
“He has two faces,” Bernek said of Turi. “The one outside the swimming pool and the one when he enters the pool area. There’s no better word for it: he transforms.”
In a separate interview with 24.HU which was published after the accusations, Turi defended himself by pointing that that different coaching styles and approaches were the norm decades ago. He reportedly did admit to having a stick, ‘but only to show where the athlete made a mistake or to fix their technique.’ (Hungary Today)
Currently, a 5-member committee appointed by the President of the Hungarian Swimming Federation is investigating the charges against Turi, with teh coach saying he would cooperate fully.
I was considering coaching as a profession at one point
I remember deciding I wasn’t interested while at a low level age group meet and noticing that a lot of the most successful coaches seemed to generally treat their 12 year olds like sh*t
Sounds similar to what the athletes suffered under the “coaching” Richard Shoulberg when he was at Germantown Academy. Thank God GA got rid of him. Too bad he wasn’t banned by Safesport and USA Swimming!
USA Safesport is a complete joke!!
“it quite often happened that Turi dragged someone out of the pool by the hair.”
come on, mister, go to jail now ok? 🙂
a lot more people have accused him since Cseh, 4 girls, including inappropriate contact and regular beatings and physical abuse
Without Cseh this kind of big names bringing up the accusation, I guess “small” and “unknown” victims who suffered from this kind of treatment daily will never get to let people hear their voice, which by thinking of it, makes me feel repulsed.
there are 100s commenting on it on facebook and online media in Hungary right now – his past swimmers. Extremely divided, some defend him and the practice, some completely repulsed.
He also gave two interviews, and is completely delusional about what he did.
Like, people manage to divide on un debatable topics.
I wonder why he waited until he retired to open up about it.
And how a grown up man subjected himself to such behavior.
how? Because coaches can do pretty much whatever they want, which is the issue, to end it, in Hungary.
That’s not to say it’s the norm. 96% of coaches are decent human beings
At the beginning I heard they (the captain, swimming association president wanted to cover it up by saying these were traditional training methods used by the older generations. OK there must be some truth but this should not be an excuse to help him espace from the critism and punishment he will need to face. It’s an individual problem, not just about the older generations.
it’s both: individuals AND what was accepted, “normal” in the past, and ALSO: should they admit their mistakes. Szechy was extremely tough, the creator of the modern Hungarian swimming world. Remember Szabo Joe and Darnyi? They were treated completely differently, based on their personalities, it should and probably would not happen today.
Being tough and strict is different from being an abuser though
where is the line?
wow…. victim blaming out in the open.
Turi was in a high position in the association. And the fact he had “double facettes” proved he must be a very competent manipulator. Must be a lot of struggle to go through before being able to speak out.
3 girls – Olympians – also accused him, one with se-xual abuse
3 girls – Olympians – also accused him, one with se-xual abuse
3 girls – Olympians – also accused him, one with sexual abuse