Hungarian · Veszprém, Hungary · Born 20 February 2000Emerged as the dominant men's butterfly swimmer of his generation, winning Olympic, World, and European titles across both butterfly distances.
Kristóf Milák rarely gives interviews and has built a reputation as one of competitive swimming's most private stars, saying little even after performances that make headlines on their own. The gap between how much he talks and how much he wins is unusually wide even by the standards of a sport that doesn't reward its athletes for personality. What he does instead is swim the 200m butterfly faster than anyone in history has swum it, by margins that regularly leave the rest of an Olympic final looking like they're competing in a different race. His world record of 1:50.34 stands well clear of the pack in an event where fractions of a second usually separate medals. Milák's Olympic titles came four years apart in different events -- the 200m fly in Tokyo, the 100m fly in Paris -- a rare double that shows range across the two distances most butterfly specialists don't dominate simultaneously, delivered by a swimmer whose public profile has stayed almost entirely on the strength of what happens in the water rather than anything he's said about it.
200m butterfly world record holder, breaking Michael Phelps' 10-year-old mark
How They Played
Explosive underwater phase and powerful stroke technique
Lasting Impact
One of the greatest butterfly swimmers in history
Career Honours
- Olympic gold 200 fly (Tokyo 2020) & 100 fly (Paris 2024)
- World titles 200 fly (2019, 2022), 100 fly (2022)
- WR 200 fly 1:50.34
Hungarian Athletes