Sándor Wladár, president of the Hungarian Swimming Association, said this personally.

Our open water swimmers performed the best at the almost two and a half week WC. Kristóf Rasovszky won a gold medal in the 10 km, the value of his success is increased by the fact that he became the world champion in the Olympic distance, and the mixed relay won a bronze medal in the 4×1500 meters. The women's water polo team did not perform badly either, they qualified for the Paris Olympics and will return home with a silver medal. Another positive for the summer games is that they managed to defeat the Dutch champions in the eight and then the Greeks in the four. Attila Mihók's team lost to the United States in the final, but that's the reality, and let's be happy for the second place. According to the national team captain, the team reached the level he had hoped for by February.

"The field is tight, that's why the most important thing is how they seize the moment and the chance, which can decide matches. And we used them at the World Cup. It was difficult for me how deep and then how high we were before. For the World Cup, the girls realized that "just" playing water polo is not enough, something more is needed"

Mihók said after the tournament.

The seventh place of the men's team was a disappointment

We couldn't be more proud of the boys. The men's national team, which won a gold medal at last year's World Championship, only finished in a disappointing seventh place, after losing to France in the quarter-finals and then to the Serbians in the division.

The president of the Hungarian Water Polo Association called the performance of our national teams at the World Cup in Qatar impressive.

"Before the match, I would have said that I expected a better result from the boys, and with that I also said that I was extremely happy with the performance of the women's national team, and that the men were disappointing. And we already knew exactly before the World Cup in Doha that both the men's and women's fields were extremely balanced, so the formation of the numerical final result also depends on nuances"

said Norbert Madaras.

The national team went to the tournament without its aces

In Doha, our open water swimmers performed the best, winning half of the medals: Kristóf Rasovszky became the world champion in 10 km, and the mixed relay won bronze in the 4×1500. Usually, pool swimmers win the most Hungarian medals at major tournaments, but this was not the case this time, the 100-meter freestyle bronze medalist Nándor Németh was the only one to stand on the podium at this year's WC. Our performance was as expected, and it is true that the Hungarian national team went to Doha without its aces: backstroker Benedek Kovács, Hubert Kós and Kristóf Milák did not start at the WC, even though they would have started as clear medal contenders.

The Hungarian Swimming Association has not yet evaluated the tournament, but will do so within a few days, Sándor Wladár revealed. According to the president, this World Cup did not go as well as they would have liked.

"I can't say I'm satisfied, because a president can never be. But you also have to see that we had fifteen finalists, while before in Fukuoka there were only eight, and we scored a lot of points.

The World Cup was organized in the middle of the Olympic preparations, but we still got a world champion and two bronze medals. Personally, I'm sad about the men's 4x200 relay and medley. We calculated that we would have five or six relays out of the week in Paris, but in the end there were only three of them. It also hurts that we don't have a serious breaststroker, we haven't been able to raise any over the years," said Sándor Wladár.

We can expect several medals from our swimmers in Paris

However, regardless of the results achieved at the World Cup, the head of MÚSZ is optimistic before the Summer Olympics.

"I am optimistic about Paris. Hubert Kós will bring a lot of joy to Hungary, Kristóf Milák will be there in Paris and we will celebrate. He will finish on one of the steps of the podium, he will probably win a gold medal. And certainly Kristóf Rasovszky will also be on the podium"

- the president was confident, adding that he was very pleased that Viktor Orbán included Rasovszky's World Cup success in this year's evaluation.

"»The ongoing diplomatic struggle for investments is most similar to open water swimming competitions, where you have to fight or at least push each other while swimming. We are not bad at this, in fact: Kristóf Rasovszky has just won the world championship title at a distance of 10 kilometers. Bravo! We want to imitate him," said the Prime Minister. I admit, these sentences caressed my soul, my heart"

Wladár revealed.

It is a big question whether Katinka Hosszú will make it to Paris, as she did not train with the national team in Dubai, but prepared separately with high-altitude training in Italy in order to make it to the Olympic level by June. The president did not want to compromise his chances.

"Our three-time Olympic champion swimmer receives the same support from us as anyone else. I don't have any expectations about him, and I can't have them. I wish for him what he would wish for himself"

- added the former Olympic swimming champion sports manager.

Featured image: fina-budapest2022