Hungarian Iron Lady Katinka Hosszú became victim of a brutal robbery!

Katinka Hosszú and her partner were robbed in Barcelona when she was getting ready for the Tokyo Olympics.

One of Hungary’s most successful competitive swimmers, Katinka Hosszú, aka the Iron Lady, left Tokyo rather unsatisfied. The three-time Olympic champion and nine-time long-course world champion did not manage to win what she always goes for and almost always wins: the gold medal. At these Olympic games, unfortunately, she did not even make it onto the podium.

Without taking away anything from the well-deserved merits of her career, something definitely happened to one of the country’s most renowned athletes before the competition.

Forbes: Katinka Hosszú is the highest net worth Hungarian celebrity in 2020

Based on the information published by promotions.hu, we might have the answer.

The website writes that

back in June, during the Mare Nostrum Swim Tour organised in Barcelona, the athlete and her partner/coach fell victim to a rather brutal robbery.

Professionals of the sports industry say that this incident could be the source of her performance in Tokyo.

According to the information of Index, the couple went for a walk at night, right after the conclusion of the competition. Not long later, a group of five or six people cornered them and wanted to steal the Rolex watch of Katinka’s partner, Máté Gelencsér.

The former swimmer did not surrender and fought back, but he was outnumbered. He ended up on the ground without his watch.

Katinka, however, did not let the group escape with the costly watch and ran after them, writes 24.hu. Allegedly, the perpetrator gave it back to her. As

they went back to the hotel and wanted to call the police, the personnel were quite unwilling to do so.

The news page says that this gave Katinka and Máté the impression that the bellboy gave the information to the perpetrators about the couple, their intention to go out, and the expensive watch on Máté’s wrist. 

The management of Katinka did not comment but did not deny either that this incident had something to do with her performance a month later at the Olympic Games. An anonymous source of information of Blikk, however, says that it deeply shocked the swimmer.

“Mentally, she is unbelievably strong, but even she was influenced by what happened, as they seriously could have been hurt. I am sure that this mugging contributed to her poorer performance in Tokyo.”

Katinka received many negative comments on social media, both for her swimming performance and when she decided to stand down and not compete in 200m butterfly. This latter caused people to openly express their rage as many complained that Katinka took away the chance from Zsuzsanna Jakabos to swim in this race. Since Jakabos finished behind Hosszú in the qualifying races, the Iron Lady was chosen to compete.

Read alsoShining silver and dreams come true for Hungarians in Tokyo 2020

Source: index.hu, olimpia2020.24.hu, promotions.hu, blikk.hu