Katinka Hosszu

Hungarian swimmer nicknamed the 'Iron Lady', a three-time Olympic champion and nine-time world champion renowned for competing across an unusually broad range of events.

Born in Pécs, Hungary, on 3 May 1989, Katinka Hosszú made her Olympic debut at just 15 at the 2004 Athens Games. She swam collegiately for the University of Southern California, graduating in 2012 with a degree in psychology and winning NCAA titles across several different strokes and distances, a versatility that would define her entire career. Hosszú's breakthrough at the top level came through the 2010s, when she became snooker's — rather, swimming's — most prolific all-rounder, winning nine individual long-course world titles between 2009 and 2019 and holding world records in as many as five individual medley distances simultaneously. Her signature Games came at Rio 2016, where she won three individual gold medals — the 100m backstroke and her trademark 200m and 400m individual medleys — and added a silver in the 200m backstroke, cementing her status as one of the finest all-around swimmers in history. Known as the 'Iron Lady' for her relentless training regime and gruelling event schedule, often swimming several disciplines at a single meet, Hosszú also dominated the short-course world championships, winning 17 gold medals there over her career. She competed at five Olympic Games in total and amassed 97 international medals across an 18-year career. Hosszú announced her retirement in January 2025, still holding the long-course 200m individual medley world record. She remains widely regarded as one of the greatest all-around swimmers of all time, having redefined how much a single competitor could take on across a career.

Versatile all-rounder across medley, backstroke, freestyle and butterfly

One of the greatest all-around swimmers in history, redefining event-range for a single competitor