With the FINA World Championships currently running (or swimming) in Budapest, it seems an appropriate time to look at Hungarian treasure Katinka Hosszú, one of the most decorated athletes in Hungarian history.

For a landlocked nation, Hungary takes competitive water sports very seriously, with perennially highly-ranked water polo teams, and strong showings in competitive swimming. But few in this great nation of swimmers compare to Katinka Hosszú, who earned titles of three-time Olympic champion and nine-time long-course world champion in recent years. She wasn’t given the nickname “Iron Lady” for nothing.

According to Wikipedia, “Hosszú is the current world record holder in 100-meter individual medley, 200-meter individual medley (long course and short course), 400-meter individual medley (long course) and 200-meter backstroke (short course). She was the first swimmer (male or female) to hold world records in all five individual medley events at the same time. She holds two-thirds of the Hungarian national records. Hosszu was named FINA Swimmer of the Year in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, and won SwimSwam's Swammy Award for Female Swimmer of the Year in 2013.”

That’s a lot of accomplishment. But as if that weren’t enough, Hosszú is also the subject of a major big-screen documentary, entitled simply Katinka, the Movie. While critics have taken the film to task for being hagiographic, they also praise the dedication and worthiness of its subject. The documentary was directed by Norbert Pálinkás, best known for directing the highly regarded Hungarian series Taboos WIthout Taboo.

While a subtitled version has yet to see international release, an intrepid critic from the local site Budapest Reporter had this to say of Katinka: “Katinka’s early ambitions and her introduction to swimming is shown through archive footage recorded by her family and at her schools, and by the end of the movie, we get to see all of her most important defeats and victories over the years on several sport events. Her incredible performance was already impressive on TV screens, and she does a great job at reflecting on her memories as a beginner. Her marriage and long-running coach-athlete relationship with Shane Tusup is quite bravely explored, even if we only see old footage about their days spent with training.”

All in all, Katinka Hosszú’s career is still at its peak, and she has become a vocal spokesperson for Hungarian swimming, as well as continually elevating her reputation as a national, if not international hero. As for Katinka the Movie, we do have a subtitled trailer, so will leave the final score up to you.

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