Krisztina Egerszegi, the famous Hungarian Swimmer
Krisztina was born on the 16th of August in the year 1974 in the city of Budapest, Hungary. She is one of the best swimmers of the modern swimming era. The Hungarian Olympic champion has her name in the list of the top ten swimmers of all times,
which is a huge achievement for any athlete. Krisztina is the world record holder in the Olympics.
She has been a part of the three Summer Olympic Championships including the ones that took place in 1988, 1992 and 1996. She is also one those two athletes who won the same event in consecutive Olympic Games. Krisztina managed to win 5 medals at the Olympic
Games. The world record that she set in 1991 in the long course 200 metre backstroke was not broken by any other swimmer for over 17 years. This great record was set by her at the European Championships 1991. She finished this meet in the time of 2 minutes
and 6.62 seconds. This time mark was surpassed in February 2008.
This world record mark is the oldest one on the European list of world records. Another achievement that makes Krisztina one of the best swimmers to have ever lived is her world record in the 100 metre breaststroke, which is the oldest record in the Hungarian
list of world records. This record was set by her three days before the record she made in the 200 metre event. The athlete is a specialist of the backstroke and individual medley events and has the most gold medals in the aforementioned strokes.
The first International competition that she participated in was the 1987 European Aquatics Championships. She was only 13 years of age at that time. Krisztina finished the 200 metre backstroke race in the fourth spot and the 100 metre backstroke meet in
the fifth place.
She won a silver medal in the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 100 metre backstroke event. She was only 14 when she participated in these Olympic Games and won the gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke and became the youngest female Olympic Champion. This youth
record was then surpassed by the Japanese swimmer Kyoko Iwasaki in 1992.
The year that followed, she took part in the 1989 European Aquatics Championships. She contended in three events of the championships including the 400 metre medley in which she won the silver medals.
In the World Championships of 1991, Krisztina won the gold medal in both the backstroke events. The European Championships that followed that year, she won three gold medals and also set world records in two of the backstroke events.
Krisztina won three individual gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics. She was the only female athlete at the event to have won that number of gold medals. The year that followed she participated in the European Championships, and won four gold medals in
the 200 metre butterfly, 400 metre medley, 100 metre and 200 metre medley events.
Krisztina announced her retirement in the year 1994. She did not perform that well at the World Championships, and so decided to swim for another two years to cover up for her two defeats at the World Championships in the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke
events.
The last two of her nine European titles were won at the 1995 European Aquatics Championships. These two titles were won by her in the 400 metre medley and 200 metre backstroke event. She also competed in the 4 into 100 metre medley relay at this event and
won a silver medal in it. After winning this medal she said that it was the one award that made her the happiest.
In her final Summer Olympics that was in 1996 she won the first bronze medal of her career. This medal was won by her in the 400 metre medley. She went on to win her third consecutive gold medal in an event when she competed in the 200 metre breaststroke.
Her world record of winning the Olympic gold medals was only broken by Michael Phelps who has 9 individual gold medals in the Olympic Games to date.
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