Boglárka Telegdy-Kapás, born on April 22, 1993, is an Olympic bronze medalist, world champion and seven-time European champion, short course European champion, two-time youth Olympic champion Hungarian swimmer. The athlete, who is usually full of smiles, ends his career, for which he consciously prepares. At the age of 15, he already participated in the Olympics, and since then he has become an epoch-making individual of Hungarian and international swimming. The epoch-making swimming phenomenon can frame his career in Paris at 31 years.
The sportsman, who will retire at the end of the year, passed the Olympic level A in the 200 butterfly at the national championship the other day, and can prepare for Paris - together with his partner.
The smiling, direct, deservedly popular "Bogi" is trying to live out his last period and is trying to process the change with the help of psychologists - Mandiner .
It is difficult for Boglárka Telegdy-Kapás to give up swimming
Boglárka Telegdy-Kapás said that she chased the Olympic level for a long time, she feels that it was the most difficult of the five.
"Even at the age of 15, I never felt that I had to fight for it as much as I do now. I appreciate it much more. I can experience how big a deal it really is that even one person can make it to the Olympics. By the way, the level times are quite difficult for Paris in all types of swimming, so that's probably why it took me a little longer to get through. But I'm very happy, because it's a huge thing for me now that I got out."
He added that he had always imagined that he would stop swimming, not wait for it to completely disappear, so to speak.
"I know I'm not at the top, even though it would have been my dream to finish there. As time went by, I felt that it was stupid: on the one hand, how do you know that you are at the top, and on the other hand, if you are there, then obviously you are in it, you love it, and you want to do it. I think I hit the timing just right, that I still have enough strength to be able to retire with dignity. But I feel that I certainly wouldn't be able to complete another four years well."
Boglárka Telegdy-Kapás has already started to evaluate her career:
"I started since last year, it's actually a grieving process that I have to part with swimming.
I don't know if it's like that for everyone, I don't see many examples of how to retreat. Two psychologists also help me in this, so that this whole period is as conscious as possible. To experience that I am participating in, for example, my last competition. Since I was five years old, I've been constantly imagining what my very first experience in the swimming pool was like, my very first Olympics, and the rest. So I'm reliving everything now a little bit," said the swimmer, who said that in the past 3-4 years, there were many times when she had difficulty jumping into the water, which she felt was very cold.
"I've dropped in many times and I already have a bit of heroin. But then I can always get over it in the end. Overall, I've always loved swimming."
Finally, the Hungarian swimmer also talked about how it was her dream to be able to go to Paris together with her husband, Ádám Telegdy - she swam a personal best in the 200 backstroke, with which her husband is also a team member - this would be their third Olympics together. , and you couldn't imagine a better scenario.
Click HERE for the full Mandiner interview
Life path
He started swimming competitively in 1999. At the 2007 European Youth Olympic Festival, he was second in the 800 meters. At the 2008 European Youth Championships in Belgrade, he was 11th in the 400 and seventh in the 800 meters. At the Beijing Olympics, he was the youngest member of the Hungarian Olympic team (15 years, 111 days). He was 29th in the 400 meter dash. He finished eleventh in the 800 meters and 14th in the 400 meters at the short track European Championships.
At the 2009 European Youth Championships, he was second in the 200 butterfly, fourth in the 800 freestyle, and fifth in the 4 × 200 meter relay. In the short-track ob, he became the champion in the 200 and 800 meter dash and in the 200 butterfly. At the short track European Championships, he was 11th in the 200 butterfly, ninth in the 800 IM and 24th in the 200 IM.
At the first Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010, Hungary won its first Youth Olympic gold medal by a large margin in the 200-meter butterfly, with a time of 2:08.72 - the 10th best time in the world rankings, a personal best. He won a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle. He also won the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:10.37, almost four seconds ahead of the silver medalist. He won his first championship gold at the ob. At the 2010 European Short Course Swimming Championships, he won a silver medal in the 800-meter freestyle. He finished fourth in the 400 breaststroke, 10th in the 200 butterfly, and 17th in the 200 breaststroke.
At the beginning of June 2011, he completed the Olympic mission A level in 800 m. At the World Cup, he finished fifth in the 800 m sprint with a national record. At the end of the year, he suffered a rib injury, which forced him to miss the European Short Course and the America-Europe Swimming Gala.
On May 24, 2012, in Debrecen, at the 31st European Swimming Championships, he won 1st place in the 800 meters with a time of 8:26.49 minutes. In the same place, he was fifth in the 400 m breaststroke and 26th in the 200 m backstroke.
At the Olympics, he finished 17th in the 400 meter dash. In the 800-meter sprint, he came sixth from the qualifiers to the finals, where he also finished in sixth place with a national record time of 8.23.89 minutes.
At the 2013 World Championships, he reached the final in the 400-meter dash with a national record, in seventh place, where he achieved fifth place. At 1,500 meters, he reached the final in 5th place with a national record. He finished seventh here. He finished 5th in the 800 meter sprint. In the final, he finished fourth with a national record. From September to the end of October 2013, he was forced to take a longer absence due to an eye disease. Because of this, he missed the short-track season.
At the 2014 European Swimming Championships, he was fifth in the 400 m breaststroke, bronze medalist in the 800 m breaststroke and the 4 × 200 m breaststroke relay, and silver in the 1500 m breaststroke. At the 2014 Short Course Swimming World Championships, he placed fifth in the 400m breaststroke, fourth in the 800m breaststroke and fourth in the 4 × 200m relay.
- on August 4, at the World Swimming Championships in Kazan, he won a bronze medal in the 1,500 meters with a time of 15:47.09, which improved the national record by 15 seconds. He finished 8th in the 400 m sprint and sixth in the 800 m sprint. At the 2015 European Short Course Swimming Championships, he was 10th in the 200m breaststroke, bronze in the 400m breaststroke, and silver in the 800m breaststroke. In December 2015, he transferred to UTE.
At the 2016 European Swimming Championships, he also won the European Championships in 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m and the 4 × 200 m relay. At the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, he won a bronze medal in the 800-meter freestyle and finished 4th in the 400-meter freestyle.
At the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, he finished 5th in the 400-meter freestyle and 4th in the 1500-meter freestyle. He finished 5th in the 800 meter freestyle. At the short-course European Championships in December, he won gold in the 400-meter freestyle and silver in the 800-meter freestyle, swimming a new personal best.
At the 2018 European Swimming Championships, he finished in fifth place in the 800-meter freestyle and won the European championship in the 200-meter butterfly. At the 2018 Short Course Swimming World Championships, he finished 24th in the 200-meter freestyle, and then due to illness, he did not start in the 800-meter and 400-meter freestyle.
At the 2019 World Swimming Championships, he finished 6th in the 400m breaststroke, and won the world championship title by swimming a new personal best in the 200m butterfly.
In the summer of 2020, he was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune thyroid disease. Due to his illness, he sometimes felt sick (dizziness, weakness). For this reason, he had to withdraw from the 200 m butterfly final at the 2020 Hungarian Swimming Championships. In May 2021, she won the 200-meter butterfly final at the European Swimming Championships in Budapest with a new individual record, ahead of Katinka Hosszú, thereby defending her European championship title. He won a silver medal as a member of the 4 x 200 meter relay, and a bronze medal in the 400 meter relay. At the Tokyo Olympics, she finished 4th in the 200-meter butterfly, and finished 7th with the 4 x 200 relay (Evelyn Verrasztó, Zsuzsanna Jakabos, Laura Veres, Ajna Késely).
In July 2022, he announced that he would not compete in the European Championship.
Her husband is Ádám Telegdy, who is also a swimmer. After the wedding on August 27, 2022, she took her husband's surname.
(Wikipedia)
Photo: Tibor Illyés / MTI
