Krisztina Egerszegi

Krisztina Egerszegi (born 16 August 1974) is a Hungarian former swimmer who held world records and is considered one of the country’s greatest Olympic champions. She competed in three Olympics—1988, 1992, and 1996—winning five gold medals. Along with Dawn Fraser, Michael Phelps, and Katie Ledecky, she is one of only four athletes to win the same swimming event at three consecutive Summer Games. She was also the first female swimmer to earn five individual Olympic golds. Her world record in the long-course 200 m backstroke stood for nearly 17 years. In 2013, she received the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen.

Egerszegi first appeared internationally at the 1987 European Aquatics Championships when she was 13, placing fourth in the 200 m backstroke and fifth in the 100 m backstroke. At the 1988 Olympics, she took silver in the 100 m backstroke and gold in the 200 m backstroke. At 14 years and 41 days old, she became the youngest female Olympic swimming champion, a record broken in 1992 by Japan’s Kyoko Iwasaki. That year, she was the world’s top-ranked 200 m backstroke swimmer and was named Hungary’s Swimmer of the Year and Best Female Athlete.

At the 1989 European Championships, despite a bad cold, she earned silver in the 100 m and 200 m backstroke and the 400 m medley. She again topped the world rankings in the 200 m backstroke and was again named Hungary’s Best Female Athlete. At the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, she won Hungary’s only gold (200 m backstroke) and silver (100 m backstroke), helping the country finish 16th overall. At the Hungarian Championships held that December, she won 12 gold medals, and she ended the year as the nation’s top swimmer and athlete.

In 1991, at the World Championships in Perth, she won both backstroke events, becoming the first Hungarian female swimmer to win world titles. Later that year at the European Championships in Athens, she took three golds and set world records in the 100 m (1:00.31) and 200 m (2:06.62) backstroke. She was the first female swimmer since Rica Reinisch in 1980 to set world records in both backstroke distances at the same event, and the first swimmer overall since Rick Carey in 1983 to break both backstroke world records at one meet. At the Hungarian Championships, she added ten gold medals. For the fourth straight year, she was voted Hungary’s Best Swimmer and Best Athlete, and *La Gazzetta dello Sport* ranked her the world’s second-best athlete.

In April 1992, she and canoeist Zsolt Gyulay administered the Olympic oath for the Hungarian team. She won eight more golds at the Hungarian Championships. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she won three individual golds, the only female athlete at those Games to do so. She was again named Hungary’s top swimmer and athlete, and *La Gazzetta dello Sport* ranked her the world’s best female athlete.

In 1993, she won ten Hungarian titles, then at the European Championships in Sheffield, she competed in the 200 m butterfly for the first time and won four golds—adding the 400 m medley and both backstroke events. She was again Hungary’s top swimmer and athlete, and both *La Gazzetta dello Sport* and *L’Équipe* named her the best female athlete of the year.

In 1994, she won nine Hungarian titles and then announced she would retire after the World Championships in Rome. Those championships were overshadowed by the performances of Chinese swimmers, who won 12 of 16 women’s events; seven later tested positive for banned drugs at the Asian Games. In Rome, Egerszegi lost both backstroke events to He Cihong, who had placed 13th in the 100 m backstroke at the 1992 Olympics (where Egerszegi won in an Olympic record 1:00.68). At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, He Cihong finished 25th in the 100 m backstroke and did not qualify for the 200 m backstroke; Egerszegi won both Olympic golds in those events. After placing fifth in the 100 m backstroke and second in the 200 m backstroke in Rome, Egerszegi decided to continue competing for two more years, citing those defeats as her motivation.

At the 1995 Hungarian Championships, she won nine golds. At the 1995 European Championships, she won her final two European titles—the 400 m medley and 200 m backstroke. She also competed in the 4×100 m medley relay for the first time, alongside future Olympic champion Ágnes Kovács; the team took silver, which Egerszegi called her happiest medal. She chose not to enter the 100 m backstroke, even though her time of 1:00.93 from the heats would have been competitive.