He is not happy if they want to name a swimming pool after him, and after his retirement he only took on one advertising role, and that was only because he and his children liked yogurt.
Five-time Olympic champion swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi gave a great interview to Sportal, whose every word exudes modesty. During the interview, Tamás Szekeres suggested that, as an American swimmer, he could probably win not five, but even ten Olympic gold medals with the relays.
"I've always been proud to be Hungarian, I was born Hungarian," answered Krisztina Egerszegi, who turned 50 in August, but gave an interview only now because she didn't want to share the attention directed at those returning home from the Olympics.
– When I went to my first Olympics, my dad slipped a note into my book (I was reading Sherlock Holmes novels at the time). They wrote on it: be proud to represent my country at the Olympics. That always stayed with me. By the way, I have never been abroad for a long time, after two weeks at the most, I already wanted to go home. So I never thought about what would have happened if I was American or Australian. I was born here for a reason, and that's it."
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he won an Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke, four years later in Barcelona, in the 100-meter backstroke and 400-meter medley, and again in the 200 backstroke in Atlanta in 1996. In addition, he won two world championships and eight European championships in large pool.
She spoke about what she owes to swimming: "thanks to playing sports, thanks to the fact that I didn't have to worry about my existence, after that I became a mother in such a way that I could enjoy every minute, I could be with my children all the time, while they were small".
He talked about why he avoids the spotlight and public appearances, why he gives few interviews.
"You declare something, and although in the best case the article is published completely correctly, other papers take two words out of it, and it suddenly has a completely different meaning than what you said originally. Moreover, if anything happens around me, even something that I have little to do with, the main title still says: Egerszegi," he said, and revealed that he still doesn't like the book that was published about him when he was only 18 years old.
He is also not happy if they want to name a swimming pool after him, and after his retirement he only took on one advertising role, and that was only because he and his children liked yogurt.
“Athletes are in the spotlight more than artists or other successful people, who could also have that nimbus if they got more media attention. Although this is more typical of the past, because in today's social media anyone can be noticed," he said about the cult that had formed around him.
Krisztina Egerszegi, who provided a lot of help to President Sándor Wladár in the Úszó Nemzet Program, said about her family that she raised her children in such a way that the traces of their achievements as athletes were not visible at home, because she did not want to put an unnecessary burden on them.
"I don't have the knowledge that I'm a five-time Olympic champion. I've achieved what I've achieved, it's a very good thing that I was once the best in the world at something, but that's in the past, it's not always in my head," stated Krisztina Egerszegi.
Cover photo: Krisztina Egerszegi, 50 years old
Source: Blikk/Photo: Zita Pozsonyi
