Good news for the fans and the entire Hungarian sport.
The silence was great, too great around Kristóf Milák. More precisely, almost everyone, grass-tree-flower, spoke about him, but he was not the only one. Even his immediate surroundings did not know where he was, what he was doing, whether he was training, whether he would be at this summer's Olympic Games, and if so, whether he would be in a condition to deliver medals, primarily gold, to Hungary.
We have now received an answer to an important question, as Mandiner has learned that Milák secretly started training in the swimming pool at his club, the Budapesti Honvéd, two weeks ago.
He usually practices between noon and two in the afternoon when no one is in the pool.
With this, he also wants to ensure that silence remains around him, and that he can prepare for the Olympics as calmly as possible, out of the spotlight. He already has his quota (100 and 200 meter butterfly) for Paris, so he no longer has to drive to participate in the Olympics. For the sake of getting in shape, but for the best possible time results, yes.
The national team is currently in Dubai preparing for the World Swimming Championships in Doha, which will begin on February 2. Of course, the Olympic, three-time world and six-time European champion is not a member of this team, but his coach will be in the United Arab Emirates and then in Qatar until the 18th.
If they return from the World Cup, then Balázs Virth will lead Milák's preparation. Four months of hard training awaits the world record holder in the 200-meter butterfly.
The 23-year-old Olympian missed the World Championships in Fukuoka last year, then reportedly stopped training altogether and disappeared from public view for a long time.
He appeared on social media on New Year's Eve, posing for a photo together with Ádám Schmidt, the state secretary responsible for sports, and Katalin Kovács, a former Olympic champion kayaker. From the accompanying text, it could be concluded that the Milák may return soon. However, they didn't see him in the swimming pool for a long time, and they didn't know anything about him professionally.
A few days ago, Zsolt Gyulay, the president of the MOB, made a statement about the swimming class, but he couldn't say anything encouraging either.
"What is going on with Kristóf is certainly not good for Hungarian sport. There are those who say this, there are those who say that Kristóf Milák alone is not making a statement here. Hopefully it will. It's his job, he's an elite athlete, he has to decide if he's preparing or not. Milák is a great champion, and we stand behind him. I don't think it's a good story to tell the press, I think it's not particularly fashionable in other countries. I understand that this has news value, but it does not help Hungarian sports that he jumped into the water or did not jump into the water. He is an individual athlete, he has already won the Olympics and the World Championships, he knows exactly what he needs to get there. If he won't, he won't," the head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, a former Olympic and world champion kayaker, told the M1 current channel. According to the news, the heads of the domestic professional association still do not know what their phenomenon is doing at the moment.
György Zala and Kristóf Milák's fitness coach spoke to SzPress News Service about the swimmer's physical condition at the beginning of January.
"The result of the quality work of the last two and a half months is clearly visible. For example, the fact that you are no longer overweight. Even without me, everyone knows that there is no swimming without working in the pool, it is true that high-level strength training is also necessary at the level Kristóf has reached. In addition, I can only say that we will hopefully be smarter at the end of January," said Zala.
In mid-December, swimming captain Csaba Sós said that Milák could be in a "catastrophic" condition, but at the beginning of January, the executive president of his club, Budapesti Honvéd, István Gergely, already said that the athlete had started physical training, but had not yet jumped into the pool.
Well, this already happened two weeks ago, so we can hope that he will be there in Paris and bring a lot of joy to the nation.
Cover image: Kristóf Milák in the pool
Source: fina-budapest 2022
