FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 2012: gold (200m breaststroke), 4th (100m breaststroke), 5th (4 x 100 medley relay); 2004: silver (200m breaststroke); 2008: 5 th place (200m breaststroke), 24th (100m breaststroke); 2016: 9th (100m medley relay), 7th (100m breaststroke), 7th (200m breaststroke); THREE WORLD RECORDS: (200m breaststroke); LONG COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2015: bronze (200m breaststroke); 2013: gold (200m breaststroke); 2011: gold (200m breaststroke); 2009: gold
(200m breaststroke); SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: 2014: gold (200m breaststroke); 2012: gold (200m breaststroke); 2010: silver (200m breaststroke); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2014 (LC): bronze (4 x 100 medley relay); 2012: gold (200m breaststroke), bronze (4 x 100 medley relay);
2010: gold (200m breaststroke); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): 2015: silver (200m breaststroke); 2013: gold (100m, 200m breaststroke); 2011: gold (200m breaststroke); 2009: gold (200m breaststroke) silver (100m breaststroke); 2007: gold (200m breaststroke); 2006: gold (200m breaststroke);
It is not unusual in the sport of swimming for females to emerge as international stars in their early teenage years. For teenage boys, success typically comes a little later, with a few special exceptions. Count Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta as a male phenom.
Enhancing a rich Hungarian breaststroke tradition, Gyurta emerged as a future star before his teenage years, thanks to 11- and 12-year-old times that had never been before been produced. The Hungarian’s rapid development continued over the next few years, and carried Gyurta into the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Known for closing on the opposition during the back half of his races, Gyurta relied on that skill set during the final of the 200-meter breaststroke. En route to a silver medal behind champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan, Gyurta moved up from sixth at the race’s midway point to reach the podium at his first Olympics.
Over the next few years, Gyurta was unable to replicate his precocious success, as he finished sixth in the 200 breaststroke at the 2007 World Championships and fifth in the event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. By 2009, however, Gyurta had established himself as the king of the 200 breaststroke.
A gold medal at the 2009 edition of the World Championships marked the first of three consecutive global titles, with additional golds earned in 2011 and 2013. During that stretch, Gyurta also claimed a European crown in the 200 breaststroke. But it was at the 2012 Olympic Games in London in which Gyurta delivered the defining moment of his career.
Backing up his status as the reigning world champion, Gyurta raced to a gold medal at the London Games in grand fashion. Behind a time of 2:07.28, Gyurta edged Great Britain’s Michael Jamieson and set a world record. The performance also enabled Gyurta to join countrymen and fellow Hall of Famers Jozsef Szabo and Norbert Rozsa as Olympic champions in the 200 breaststroke. “It was hard for me, but I managed to do it,” Gyurta said of claiming Olympic gold. “I can’t believe it. It was my dream when I was young.”
A year after his moment in the Olympic sun, Gyurta punctuated his reign at the World Championships by grabbing his third straight title. Racing in Barcelona, Gyurta registered a personal-best time of 2:07.23 to win the 200 breaststroke by more than a second over silver medalist Marco Koch of Germany. Two years later, he added a bronze medal in the event to reach the podium for a fourth straight World Champs.
Gyurta also flourished in the short-course pool, where he was the world-record holder in the 200 breaststroke from 2009 to 2016, and the world champion in 2012 and 2014.