Olympic Swimmer’s Husband Credited With Her Gold Medal Win, Because Of Course

Katinka Hosszu’s husband credited for her record-breaking win

On Saturday, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu shattered the world record for the 400-meter individual medley, winning her first ever gold medal at the Rio Olympics. It was a big moment for Hosszu, but an even bigger moment for her husband, Shane Tusup, who commentator Dan Hicks called “the man responsible” for her phenomenal swim.

His exact words were, “There’s the guy responsible for turning Katinka Hosszú, his wife, into a whole different swimmer.”

Twitter was quick to notice.

You see, in 2012, after a disappointing London Olympics, Hosszu asked Tusup, her then-boyfriend, to become her coach. He did, and after a few years of increased weight-training, an improved diet, and what is rumored to be a whole lot of verbal abuse, Hosszu has now won Olympic gold. Or her husband has, after putting on a Katinka Hosszu skin suit. Either way, he does a whole lot of yelling.

Take this example from a New York Times article on the couple:

Jessica Hardy, an Olympic medalist who used to train with Hosszu in Los Angeles and wrote about being subjected to verbal and emotional abuse as a child, said, “I’ve seen a lot of inappropriate and not-O.K. behavior in Shane.” She added: “I’ve seen coaches exhibit that kind of behavior in training, but this is another level. It’s scary.”

Here he is celebrating her second-place finish at a meet in December.

What a guy.

It’s not unreasonable to credit coaches for improvements in the performances of the athletes they work with, but to label them as the people “responsible” seems to skip over a very important participant, doesn’t it? It’d be like congratulating someone on winning a gold in one of the sailing competitions and then saying, “And there’s the boat responsible….” Coaches (and boats) are tools used by the athletes to do what they do, but they are not the reason they succeed.

Let’s take a look at what Hosszu (you know, the swimmer) actually achieved here. This is Hozzou’s fourth Olympic games; that means that she’s been one of the best swimmers in the world for over ten years. She’s known as The Iron Lady because she is such a badass. However, despite high expectations, she has failed to medal in any of her previous three Olympics. After returning home from London in 2012, Hosszu was so depressed that she barely left her room for a month.

Cut to 2016. What she did on Saturday was not only win her first gold medal, but also beat the world record by 2.07 seconds. Girlfriend swam 400 meters, using four different strokes, in four minutes, 26.36 seconds. She beat the second place finisher by almost five seconds.

That. Is. Insane.

Katinka Hosszu has two more events in Rio and plans to retire after the games. What she did on Saturday proved that she is one of the best in the world, and no one would be surprised if she leaves with two more gold medals. Hosszu did the work to get here, and deserves all of the high fives that there ever were. Way to go, Katinka.