Major honours
With a population under 10 million, Hungary is treated as a great power in swimming alone. The sport has been a matter of national pride since Alfred Hajos won two gold medals at Athens 1896, and it was Hungary that hosted the first European Championships in Budapest in 1926. The Duna Arena, built for the 2017 World Championships, still ranks among Europe's finest venues. Tamas Darnyi swept both individual-medley events at two straight Games in the 1980s and 1990s, and Krisztina Egerszegi defined an era with five Olympic golds across backstroke and the medley. In the 2010s Katinka Hosszu won three titles at Rio 2016, before Kristof Milak drove the 200m butterfly world record down to 1:50.34. At Paris 2024, Milak took the 100m butterfly and Hubert Kos the 200m backstroke, adding two more golds.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
The 200m butterfly duel between Milak and France's Leon Marchand is the finest rivalry in the event today. In the Paris 2024 final, Marchand beat Milak in front of a home crowd, reversing the result from Tokyo.