The Iron Lady makes a huge splash — in and out of the pool
budapest — Katinka Hosszu has a case full of medals. She wants so much more. From marketing marvel to ambitious businesswoman to fledgling union organiser, the Hungarian swimmer known as the “Iron Lady” knows how to make a splash — in and out of the pool.
Along with American star Katie Ledecky, Hosszu is perhaps the biggest name at the world championships this week, the home-country favourite whose face seemingly appears on every billboard around Budapest, whose every appearance at Duna Arena is accompanied by footstomping, flag-waving euphoria.
She lived up to the enormous expectations in her first event of the meet, winning the 200m individual medley on Monday night.
“Katinka’s Gold!” blared the frontpage headline on the country’s largest daily sports newspaper.
While Hosszu and her American husband-coach, Shane Tusup, have built a rapidly growing swimsuit and apparel company based on the “Iron Lady” moniker — it now has about 50 employees and is omnipresent in retail stores around Hungary — the 28-year-old has turned her sights to what she considers an even greater cause.
After governing body Fina changed its the rules to limit the number of events a swimmer could enter on the World Cup circuit, a capricious decision that seemed targeted specifically at Hosszu and her gruelling programme (that’s how she got her nickname, after all), the swimmer vowed to fight back.
“I’m obviously trying to do a lot more for swimming than what I do in the pool,” Hosszu said. “I think it’s important to put the same effort into it outside the pool.”
She formed the Global Association of Professional Swimmers (GAPS) and quickly drew attention by persuading more than two dozen of her fellow competitors to come on board, including such major stars as Australian sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell, Britain’s Adam Peaty, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and American Katie Meili.
Hosszu has been outspoken in her criticism of scandal-plagued Fina and seems intent on giving swimmers a much bigger voice in governing the sport. “I’ve been talking to a lot of swimmers lately,” she said. “I had no idea that all over the world, swimmers from different continents, we really speak the same language.”
As swimming’s first millionaire based strictly on her race-prize earnings, Hosszu wants to spread the wealth to others. Given the sport’s popularity during the Olympics and financial strides it made while riding the wave of Michael Phelps, she sees no reason for so many accomplished swimmers to be struggling to make ends meet.