Katinka Hosszú (Hungarian: [ˈkɑtiŋkɑ ˈhossuː]; born 3 May 1989) is a Hungarian former competitive swimmer specialized in individual medley events. She is a three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion. She is the owner of a Budapest-based swim school and swim club called Iron Swim Budapest, and a co-owner and was captain of Team Iron, founding member of the International Swimming League.
Hosszú held seven world records in the course of her career, and was the first swimmer (male or female) to hold world records in all five individual medley events at the same time. She holds two-thirds of the Hungarian national records. Hosszú was named FINA Swimmer of the Year in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, and won SwimSwam's Swammy Award for Female Swimmer of the Year in 2013.
Hosszú competed at five Summer Olympics: 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. After a long tenure under head coach Shane Tusup, who was her husband, following their divorce Hosszú was coached by Dave Salo before moving onto Árpád Petrov. At the end of 2019 she parted ways with Petrov, and by the following year had hired József Nagy to be her coach.
She was one of the most versatile swimmers in the world, and was nicknamed the "Iron Lady", which she has since turned into a fast growing international brand. In 2014 she became the first race-prize dollar millionaire (man or woman) in swimming history.
In 2019, Forbes magazine considered her to be the most valuable Hungarian athlete, having ranked in the first position for the previous five years.
Katinka Hosszú was born in Pécs, Hungary, the daughter of Barbara Bakos and István Hosszú. She is the youngest of three (Gergely and Ádám). Katinka grew up in Baja and was coached in swimming by her grandfather, László Bakos until the age of 13. Hosszú met her future husband Shane Tusup in 2009, when they were both freshmen at the University of Southern California. After being crushed under the pressure of expectations at the 2012 London Olympics and not medalling, she asked her then boyfriend Tusup to become her coach, replacing her coach since her U.S.C. swim team days, Dave Salo. After the Olympics, at the Beijing World Cup swim meet, she competed in 8 events, medalling in 5 of them, leading to Chinese newspapers says she was made out of iron, leading to her nickname, The Iron Lady. Hosszú married Tusup in 2013. She graduated from USC with a degree in psychology.
In August 2016, Hosszú lost a defamation lawsuit against writer Casey Barrett, magazine Swimming World, and publisher Sports Publications International, Incorporated. She had filed the lawsuit in November 2015 after the magazine published an article on its website in May 2015 questioning whether Hosszú was using performance-enhancing substances, despite Hosszú never having been found to use such substances. The lawsuit was dismissed because the judge ruled the article to clearly be an opinion piece. Hosszú and husband Tusup opened their own swim club in Hungary, Iron Aquatics in September 2016.
On 16 February 2018 Hosszú filed for divorce from Tusup. On 25 May 2018 Hosszú's Facebook page was deleted by Tusup, who was the sole administrator of the page. However, on 6 June 2018 she regained access to her Facebook page with the assistance of activist and women's rights defender Matan Uziel.
In January 2022, Hosszú announced her engagement to her boyfriend since 2019, Máté Layber-Gelencsér. The two got married in August 2022. Later in the year, a biographical film entitled "Katinka", which portrays her life, was released in theaters. Together they have two daughters, born in 2023 and 2025.
Hosszú was renowned throughout the swimming world for swimming many events well in a short space of time. During the third leg of the 2014 FINA/MASTBANK Swimming World Cup, organised in the Victoria Park Swimming Pool of Hong Kong, she got an unprecedented achievement winning 12 medals out of the 17 individual events for the two-day meet. 10 gold (200 m, 400 m and 800 m free, 50 m, 100 m and 200 m backstroke, 200 m butterfly, 100 m, 200 m and 400 m individual medley) and 2 silver (50 m free and 50 m butterfly).
Hosszú is an active part of the swimming community as well. She is one of 30 swimmers who have founded the Global Association of Professional Swimmers in 2017. She is also working on reforming swimming as an entertainment by being the ambassador for the International Swimming League, a new initiative with the aim of organizing and reorganizing swimming competitions.
Hosszú made her international debut at the age of 15 representing Hungary at the 2004 Summer Olympics where she competed in the 200-meter freestyle finishing 31st with a time of 2:04.22.
2004 European Short Course Swimming Championships
She won her first medal at the 2004 European Short Course Swimming Championships, a bronze in the 400-meter individual medley (4:35,41).
2005 European Junior Swimming Championships
At the 2005 European Junior Swimming Championships held in Budapest she won three gold medals in 200-meter freestyle, 400-meter individual medley and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Two silver medals in 400-meter freestyle and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. And a bronze medal in the 800-meter freestyle.
She won her first long course medal at the 2008 European Championships, a silver in 400-meter individual medley (4:37.43).
At the 2009 World Championships she won two bronze medals in the 200-meter individual medley and 200-meter butterfly before becoming World Champion in the 400-meter individual medley. She was elected Hungarian Sportswoman of the Year for her achievements.