Dubai: After winning three gold and one silver at Rio 2016 this summer, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu is already eyeing more medals at Tokyo 2020.
“The four year cycle has started up again and the long term goal is Tokyo,” she said on the sidelines of the Dubai leg of the Swimming World Cup at the Hamdan Sport Complex this week where she won nine golds and four silvers.
“If I didn’t feel I could better Rio I would stop, but I definitely feel I can still improve on so many things and that’s what I’m working for.”
Hosszu is now hurtling towards her fifth consecutive overall World Cup series win after just five rounds of the annual nine-stage tour.
Asked if it was hard to motivate herself for the smaller events after the success of Rio, she replied: “Honestly, it was pretty crazy what happened in Rio, but on the other hand I really enjoy the sport and I really enjoy racing even in the World Cup where you have to compete in so many races.
“I just try to do my best and keep challenging myself and that keeps me motivated. Even though I have all the titles you can get I am still motivated, because when you have all the titles that’s when you start counting how many of each.” The most successful female Olympic swimmer of all time was Hosszu’s fellow Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi, who won five golds, one silver and a bronze, over three Olympics from 1988 to 1996.
But Hosszu, 27, who up until Rio had never won an Olympic medal despite four appearances since 2004, said she had no number in her head when it came to how many Olympic medals she hoped to win in total.
“I never have goals in medals, I never count it that way. I always have targets in times. Obviously if I hit that time the medal comes with it. It’s the same with Rio, I went in chasing world records, and it’s the same way now, I hope to be getting better with times.”
With the World Championships being held in her homeland of Hungary next year, she said Budapest 2017 was the perfect short-term goal to help her stay motivated after Rio.
“I’m getting ready for that and in December we also have the short course World Championships in Canada, so there’s lots of meets and goals that we are chasing. “I definitely want to do well in Hungary because it’s not only a world championship but also a world championship in front of my home crowd. You want to give back to your country and fans back home so it is definitely good timing.”
Thanks to Hosszu’s 12 medals in Dubai, Hungary topped the nation’s list with 19, ahead of Russia on 12 and South Africa on nine.
Hosszu extended her runaway lead at the top of the women’s individual series standings to 639 points, as did Russia’s Vladimir Morozov in the men’s who is now on 388 points, with four golds and one silver — and a further two golds came in team events.
Chad Le Clos, who has won the overall World Cup series three times since 2011, chalked up his 100th world cup event win in Dubai with three gold, one silver and a team bronze, but is still second overall to Morozov, 79 points short of the Russian.
Morozov and Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson were the respective men’s and women’s swimmers of the meet each totalling 997 points apiece. Atkinson achieved this with one gold, two silvers and a bronze, but is still second to Hosszu by 404 points.
