Before I write anything else, let me establish that I am a fan of Katinka Hosszu. In fact, I wrote to her when I was working for SwimSwam to try and help her when she was feuding with her probably horrible NGB.
I love the way that she shuns norms of swimming by going out and racing a lot and giving it her all at every meet she attends. She is probably the best example of a professional swimmer out there, somebody who is world class and shows up ready to compete year round.
So it pains me to criticize her, but with the announcement that her boyfriend will be her registered coach for the European Short Course Championships, I’m going to do just that. Hosszu should stop having her boyfriend/husband be her coach, or vice versa. She’s a role model for millions of swimmers and this is a line that simply should not be crossed.
A Shane Mulligan
I’m willing to offer a mulligan on the first time Hosszu was trained her boyfriend/husband. She and her former partner and professional maniac Shane Tusup were teammates at the University of Southern California. Their relationship started as peers and students, so at least from the outset there wasn’t a significant power imbalance between the two.
Do I think Hosszu should have gotten a non-spouse coach when she went pro? Of course, and not only because of the inappropriateness of being coached by your husband. Whereas I am ahuge fan of Hosszu, I think Tusup is a clown. He consistently embarrassed her, himself and coaches in general with his childish (at best) behavior.
When the two split, Tusup’s over the top response and public airing of grievances was par for the course (Tusup golf pun intended). In public and in his awful web series, Tusup comes across as abusive and manipulative. So breaking free from him was likely a bigger challenge for Hosszu than any swimming race.
Fool Me Twice
Perhaps the decision to have her boyfriend as coach at Europeans is an emergency measure, motivated by her recent break from erstwhile coach Arpad Petrov. Perhaps there are no other people within the Hungarian system that she trusts in any way to look out for her.
Still, I would hope that all other possibilities were exhausted before coming to put everyone involved in a tough situation. Context matters, and the world of swimming has had about 1000% too many coach “boyfriends” who were awful to have such a combination exist anymore.
Suffice it to say, I am both sympathetic to the fact that Hosszu operates within a system that is generally horrible to women and critical of how she is conducting herself here. If you follow this blog you know I sometimes apply the “Dark Ages” tag to posts. Honestly, when it comes to women in the sport of swimming, I probably need a better tag to describe how bad things are,
Hosszu however does not improve the lot by continuing to blend her personal life and coaching in this way. She has shown that she is powerful enough to dictate who is her coach and under what conditions she is coached, so she should use that power for good.