Katinka Hosszú Biography

Katinka Hosszú is the Hungarian swimmer who won three gold medals and a silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016. She is known as the “Iron Lady.”

A 2012 graduate of the University of Southern California, Katinka Hosszú is a specialist in individual medley (IM) events. She was so dominant that in 2016 she held world records in five IM events at the same time: the 100-meter individual medley, 200-meter individual medley (long course and short course), 400-meter individual medley (long course and short course), 100-meter backstroke (short course) and 200-meter backstroke (short course).

Her appearance in Rio was her fourth trip to the Olympics. In her first three outings in 2004, 2008 and 2012, Hosszú was expected to medal but didn’t quite make it.

After the 2012 Olympics in London, Hosszú switched coaches, to American Shane Tusup. They married in 2013 and he continued as her coach. She trained harder and raced in more events, and it paid off in Rio in 2016. There Hosszú won gold medals in the 100-meter backstroke, the 400-meter IM and the 200-meter IM; she also won a silver medal in the 200-meter backstroke.