Hungary’s Hubert Kós completed a dominant European Aquatics Championships in Paris on Sunday by winning the men’s 200m individual medley and breaking the national record with 1:54.24, securing his third gold of the week and a third consecutive European title in the event.
The 23-year-old led by almost two seconds after the butterfly and backstroke legs before Spain’s Hugo González de Oliveira closed rapidly over breaststroke and freestyle. Kós held on by 0.20 seconds, with González second in 1:54.44 and Mikhail Shcherbakov third in 1:56.16. His time erased László Cseh’s 1:55.18 Hungarian record from the 2009 World Championships and moved Kós to fourth on the all-time list.
Kós had already won gold in his main event, the 200m backstroke early this week. He took the final in 1:53.08 after producing a 1:52.30 European record in the semi-final, only 0.38 seconds outside Aaron Peirsol’s world record from 2009. American Olympic champion Michael Phelps reacted to the swim on social media with the words ‘It’s coming…’. Kós trains at the University of Texas under Bob Bowman, who coached Phelps throughout his record-breaking career.
His second gold came in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay alongside Szebasztián Szabó, Nándor Németh and Kristóf Milák. Hungary won in 3:10.03, setting both a national record and a European Championship record and claiming its first European title in the event. Kós led off in 48.18 before Milák closed with a 46.29 flying-start split, helping Hungary beat a team of Russian swimmers competing as Neutral Athletes B by nine hundredths of a second.
‘The Hungarian swimming team finished Paris with 17 medals across pool and open-water competition’
Kós also contested three individual events in which he did not win a medal. He finished fourth in the 100m butterfly in 50.25, placed 14th in the 50m backstroke semi-finals in 24.73, and finished sixth in the 200m butterfly in 1:54.89 after leading at halfway. He later withdrew from the 100m backstroke to race the 200m individual medley instead.
The Hungarian swimming team finished Paris with 17 medals across pool and open-water competition—five gold, nine silver and three bronze. The open-water team had already collected seven—one gold, five silvers and one bronze—before the pool programme began. Overall, Hungary finished fifth in the official medal ranking, a remarkable achievement given that it was by far the smallest country represented in the top five, alongside Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Russia. Host France followed Hungary in sixth place with 13 medals.
Besides Kós, other Hungarian athletes produced outstanding performances. Milák won the 100m butterfly, breaking the European record with a time of 49.48, just 0.03 seconds outside Caeleb Dressel’s world record. He also took bronze in the 100m freestyle with a Hungarian record of 46.87 and played the decisive role in the 4x100m freestyle relay victory.
Richárd Márton won silver in the 200m butterfly, while Zalán Sárkány collected silver over 1500m and bronze over 800m, setting Hungarian records in both events. Hungary’s women took silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay, while 16-year-old Olivér Pápai added another silver in Sunday’s 400m freestyle. In open water, Dávid Betlehem won four medals, including gold in the 3km knockout sprint.
For Kós, however, the unusually heavy programme was deliberate. Before the championships, he called Paris the ‘ultimate test’ before the 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, saying the results would have a ‘massive influence’ on which events he chooses for the next two years.
Sunday’s medley final was his 15th swim of the championships, the results of which already show his possible programme for the two major tournaments. The 200m backstroke remains his clear strongest event, with a realistic world-record target. And while he produced the fourth-fastest medley in history on Sunday, that event might eventually be dropped for Budapest and Los Angeles, as it clashes with the 200m backstroke at both tournaments.
That also means the 200m butterfly and 100m butterfly could be possible alternatives for the 23-year-old, who is already among the most successful Hungarian swimmers of all time.
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