Hosszu responds to doping allegations
Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu has made her first public response to allegations made by Casey Barrett on Monday. The “Iron Lady” was alleged to have been using performance enhancing drugs by Casey Barrett in an article posted on SwimmingWorldMagazine.com last week. The former butterfly swimmer provides a list of “suspicious signs” that made him questioning Hosszu’s performances, szeretlekmagyarország.hu reported.
In his article, Barrett emphasized it several times that others are at the same opinion as he is, writing that “the coaches grumble; the experts roll their eyes; the athletes offer lukewarm congrats at the end of each eye-popping race. Everyone talks, but no one speaks up. She has never failed a drug test, and without that proof positive test it’s all just jealous hearsay.” He even compares Hosszu to Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, saying “no one competes, consistently, at a higher level than she does.”
Earlier, Tamás Gyárfás, President of the Hungarian Swimming Association already expressed his opinion about the article saying “The Hungarian Swimming Association has read with the utmost dismay the outrageous commentary published in your online platform, defaming Katinka Hosszu (…) As the President of the Hungarian Swimming Association, I hereby declare that we would never question any achievement by any great swimmers, let alone from the United States, even if many of them often seem to be superhuman – still, all admired by us, forever.”
Throughout her statement, Hosszu denies the use of any illegal means as an explanation for her success.
Hosszu’s Statement:
Welcome to you all. I have called today’s press conference to respond to the recent suggestion in the Swimming World article that my performances have been aided by illegal means and that these means enabled me to achieve what I have reached in my career so far.
I have decided to make a public appearance in order to confront these false accusations now so that my fans and the swimming community can make sure that every word occurring in these outrageous allegations are false and entirely inconsistent with my character, my values, and the spirit of competition.
I have been swimming competitively since the age of 6 – the fact that I have achieved major success in the sport I love is a result of a combination of hard work, excellent training methods, and the support of my family, friends, and sponsors.
I cannot be grateful enough to my countrymen, my fans, and the Hungarian Swimming Federation – and I ask them to keep supporting me especially in the face of the allegations of Casey Barrett according to which the explanation for my performances could only be doping usage.
I hereby declare that I will personally tell Mr. Barrett, at the appropriate time and place, that he is wrong, has hurt me, and in making false declarations he has also hurt the sport.
His allegations are entirely false, and as he admits, he has no proof. He will never have since there is no proof whatsoever, and the premise of the story itself is false. I have never taken performance enhancing drugs and I firmly believe that there is no such an amount of money, fame, or victory for which I would sell my soul.
It is not in my character to cheat–nor is it in my character to allow someone I don’t know and have never even met to attempt to destroy my trustworthiness, apparently for his own selfish interests.
Let me share with you an important detail: nobody directly linked to that article ever contacted me or my coaches prior to its publication. They have not inquired about my training methods, the hours I spend in the pool, my diet, or the strict safeguards we have in place to ensure that I don’t mistakenly ingest any supplement or compound that is suspect or banned. However, the reality is that facts don’t matter to some people, but they matter to me, and they should also matter to you.
I much appreciate the trust that my family, friends, sponsors, fellow competitors, and fans placed in me. I want everybody to know that nothing means more to me than your fantastic and continuous support.
As for me, I will continue to focus on swimming – and my legal team will have more to say to Swimming World and Mr. Barrett at the appropriate time.
Hosszu, who owns neither a long course World Record nor an Olympic medal, is one of the most accomplished swimmers in the world, and is the defending long course World Champion in the 200 and 400 IM’s, as well as the short course World Champion in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, along with the 100 and 200 IM’s.
Hosszu has become well-known for entering significant event line-ups at various regular-season meets, and has become the winningest swimmer in the history of FINA’s World Cup circuit.
Hosszu has never had a positive test for a banned substance or method as defined by the World Anti-Doping Code.
based on the article of szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu
translated by Gábor Hajnal
Photo: MTI
Source: http://www.szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu/
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