Hubert Kos Continued Ascendancy With Masterful World Cup Performance
More than two years have passed since Hubert Kos secured his status as the world’s top 200 backstroker when he surpassed Ryan Murphy for gold in the event at the 2023 World Championships. The following year, the Hungarian captured Olympic gold in the event plus a short course world title, coming within two hundredths of the world record in the 25-meter format. But it has been his accomplishments over the past eight months that have put him on the short list for world’s best swimmer.
Not at the top of the list, of course — that honor still belongs to Leon Marchand, the Frenchman who Kos has trained alongside for the past three years — but Kos has pulled off some performances that echo Marchand at his best. In 2024, Kos was a supporting player as Marchand’s generational performance lifted Arizona State to an NCAA team title, and one year later, it was Kos stepping into that role for the title-winning University of Texas Longhorns. On the college level, Kos crushed the fastest times in history in both the 100 and 200 backstroke while moving to second all-time in the 200 IM, trailing only Marchand.
In long course, he would take the next step by blasting into 1:53 territory in the 200 back. Faced with a challenge from South Africa’s Pieter Coetze in the Worlds final, Kos notched a time of 1:53.19 to move to No. 5 all-time and break the European record held by his predecessor as Olympic champion, Evgeny Rylov.
The Singapore meet also marked the first occasion Kos seriously contended for medals in additional events at a major long course competition. He qualified for three additional finals, scoring bronze behind training partners Marchand and Shaine Casas in the 200 IM while taking fourth in the 100 back, less than three tenths out of the medal mix, and eighth in the 50 back. He finished the summer ranked top-12 in the world in five individual events; in addition to the backstroke and IM performances, he topped out in the 100 butterfly at 50.55.
Hubert Kos (right) with Gretchen Walsh during the World Cup circuit — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
And most recently, in the three stops of the World Cup circuit, Kos was the only male swimmer to win three events at each stop, going nine-for-nine in backstroke while taking second to Casas in the 100 IM at all three stops. The series started with Kos facing off against Marchand in the 200 back, his training partner making a rare appearance contesting his weakest stroke, and Kos could only laugh as Marchand’s underwaters had him in the lead for much of the event. From there, Kos built up into a dazzling world-record finale in Toronto.
In his signature event, Kos blasted the 200 back world record that had narrowly eluded him 10 months earlier. His mark of 1:45.12 came in a half-second under the decade-old standard held by Mitch Larkin.
“It’s kind of unbelievable,” Kos said. “You can’t really process these things straight away and it’s just going to take me some time, especially since I’m still processing the Olympic gold, so who knows how long this will take to process? I knew I could be pretty close.”
Later in the session, Kos would jump to sixth all-time in the 100 IM with a mark of 50.56, and the next day brought his fastest time of the series in the 50 back, a 22.67 that was only three hundredths off his best and six hundredths outside of the all-time top-10. And in his final race of the series, Kos clinched the overall men’s title with his second world record, a time of 48.16 in the 100 back beating the previous global mark by 0.17.
“ It was great. The last 25 really, really hurt, but I just wanted to get that one,” Kos said. “I came here wanting to get that record. I didn’t expect the 200, but we’ll take two. I am really, really happy with (how I) performed over these three weeks and really sad it’s come to an end.”
Following the World Cup, Kos planned to turn his attention to his final collegiate season, with his Longhorns favored for a repeat national championship. Expect Kos to challenge or lower his records in the yards backstroke events, although his third race comes into question with the new changes to the NCAA Championships format.
As for his surging international career, Kos figures to remain at the helm of the 200 back while pushing toward 1:52-territory, maybe even close to the world record of 1:51.92 that has survived since the polyurethane era. A long course 100 back breakthrough is surely imminent. In fact, Kos would have a chance to contend for global medals in all five of his events if the race schedule were to line up in his favor. The World Cup was evidence that Kos is going to become an even bigger problem for his competition in the coming years.
