Hubert Kos clinched Hungary’s first swimming gold at the Paris Olympics by winning the men’s 200 meters backstroke on Thursday. The 2023 world champion surged from behind to finish with a time of one minute 54.26 seconds, 0.56 seconds ahead of Greek silver medalist Apostolos Christou, at the La Defense Arena. Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov took the bronze.
Christou led the race for the first 150 meters, with Kos moving into second place at that mark before accelerating to victory. Kos has been training with Bob Bowman, former coach of Michael Phelps, who is also coaching France’s triple gold winner Leon Marchand.
“I just kept swimming and swimming and, you know, I was just happy to get my hand on the wall first,” said Kos. “It was a different race strategy today. I knew I had to do something like that to win. It doesn’t really matter how I got there. The point is that I got there, and I’m just really happy.”
The last Greek swimmer to win an Olympic medal was Spyridon Gianniotis, who finished second in the 10km open water marathon in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Greece has not won a men’s swimming medal since the Athens Games of 1896.