Krisztina Egerszegi (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈkristinɒ ˈɛɡɛrsɛɡi]; born 16 August 1974) is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era. She is a three-time Olympian (1988, 1992 and 1996) and five-time Olympic champion; and one of four individuals (Dawn Fraser, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky being the other three) to have ever won the same swimming event at three consecutive Summer Olympics. She is the first female swimmer to win five individual Olympic gold medals.
Egerszegi held the world record in the long-course 200 m backstroke for almost 17 years. In 2013, she was awarded the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen.
Egerszegi made her international debut at the 1987 European Aquatics Championships at the age of 13, coming fourth in the 200 m backstroke and fifth in the 100 m backstroke. At the 1988 Summer Olympics, she won silver medal in the 100 m backstroke and became Olympic champion in the 200 m backstroke. At the age of 14 years and 41 days, she became the youngest-ever female Olympic champion in swimming. This youth record was broken in 1992 by Kyoko Iwasaki of Japan, who won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics at the age of 14 years and six days. At the end of 1988, she was the top-ranked swimmer in 200 m backstroke in the world ranking as well as she became the Swimmer of the Year and the Best Female Athlete of the Year in Hungary.
At the 1989 European Aquatics Championships, she competed in three events adding the 400 m medley to the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, winning silver medal in all three events despite she struggled with a strong cold during the entire Championships. At the end of that year, she topped again the world ranking in 200 m backstroke and she was selected again the Best Female Athlete of the Year in Hungary.
At the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, she won the Hungarian team's only gold and silver medal (first in 200 m backstroke, second in 100 m backstroke), with which Hungary finished 16th in the overall standings. At the Hungarian Championships, which was held in December due to the World Championships in Australia she won 12 gold medals. Egerszegi finished the year of 1990 again as the Best Swimmer and as the Best Female Athlete of Hungary.
In 1991, she competed at the World Championships in Perth, Australia, winning both backstroke events (100 and 200 metres) and becoming the first Hungarian female swimmer of all time who won gold medals at the World Championships.
A few months later at the European Championships in Athens, Greece, she won three gold medals and set world records in the 100 m (1:00.31 min) and 200 m (2:06.62 min) backstroke events. Eleven years after Rica Reinisch, Egerszegi was the first female swimmer since 1980, who set world records on both 100 m and 200 m at the same event. Since 1983 (when Rick Carey completed this feat in Clovis, USA), Egerszegi was the first swimmer who broke both world records of the backstroke at the same event. At the Hungarian Swimming Championships, she added 10 gold medals to her unique collection. In December, she won her 4 consecutive awards as the Best Swimmer and the Best Athlete of the Year in Hungary. The Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport has been voted her as the world's second best athlete.
In April 1992, along with the two-time Olympic champion sprint canoer Zsolt Gyulay has administered the official Olympic oath on behalf of the Hungarian Olympic Team and athletes. At the Hungarian Championships, she collected 8 more gold medals. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she won three individual gold medals, becoming the only female athlete at the Games to do so. End of 1992, she got the most votes again at the Best Swimmer and Best Athlete of the Year selection. La Gazzetta dello Sport has been top-ranked her as the Best Female Athlete of the Year.
In 1993, she claimed 10 first places at the Hungarian Championships then at the European Championships in Sheffield, England, she competed in the 200 m butterfly for the first time and went on to win four gold medals also winning the 400 m medley and the 100 m and 200 m backstroke. In December, she was selected the Best Swimmer and Best Athlete of the Year in Hungary, while La Gazzetta dello Sport and L'Équipe voted her as the best female athlete of the year.
In 1994, she won 9 gold medals at the Hungarian Championships and then she announced that she would retire after the World Championships in Rome which was overshadowed by the suspicious Chinese swimmers' performances. China won 12 of the 16 women's titles, but these achievements were sullied less than a month later when seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned drugs at the Asian Games in Hiroshima. In Rome, Egerszegi lost the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, both events were won by He Cihong, who was only 13th (1:03.50) on 100 m backstroke two years earlier in Barcelona, where Egerszegi won in an Olympic record time of 1:00.68. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, He Cihong was 25th on the 100 m backstroke. On the 200 m backstroke, He Cihong qualified neither for Barcelona, nor Atlanta; both Olympic golds were won by Egerszegi. After getting fifth place in the 100 m backstroke and coming second in the 200 m backstroke, Egerszegi decided to compete for two more years, citing the two defeats as the main reason.
At the Hungarian Championship in 1995, she claimed 9 gold medals. She competed at the 1995 European Aquatics Championships where she won the last two of her nine European titles in the 400 m medley and the 200 m backstroke event. For the first time, she competed in the 4×100 m medley relay where one of her teammates was Ágnes Kovács, a future Olympic champion. They came second and Egerszegi has named this silver medal as "the one that made her the happiest". She decided not to compete in the 100 m backstroke even though her time of 1:00.93 clocked during the 4×100 m relay final was better than Mette Jacobsen's winning time of 1:02.46 by almost two seconds.
In 1996, she closed her final appearance at the Hungarian Championships with collecting 9 gold medals. In Atlanta, at the Centennial Olympic Games, although Egerszegi advanced into the final with the best time on 400 individual medley, she finished in third. This was her first and only bronze medal during her Olympic career. She competed in the 4×100 m medley relay as member of the Hungarian team, who finished in 11th. Her time in this event at the qualification round, would have won the 100 m backstroke event. Her final career appearance was one of the finest farewell of all time in swimming sport: she won her beloved 200 m backstroke event with the greatest margin in any short distance events of the swimming sport, collecting her fifth individual gold medal and defending her titles for three consecutive Olympic Games.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics, she won her first and only Olympic bronze medal in the 400 m medley and went on to win the 200 m backstroke becoming the second of only four swimmers in Olympic history (Dawn Fraser, Michael Phelps & Katie Ledecky being the other three) to win gold for the same event at three successive Olympics (200 m backstroke: 1988, 1992, 1996).
Between the winning time of Egerszegi (2:07.83) and time of the runner-up Whitney Hedgepeth (2:11.98), the margin of victory was 4.15 seconds, which is the greatest in any women's 200 m event in the swimming history. In 1996, Egerszegi did not enter the 100 m backstroke, yet her leadoff backstroke time in the medley relay, 1:01.15, was faster than the winning time in the 100 m backstroke final.
Between 1988 and 1996 she won 5 individual Olympic gold medals, which was a record for a swimmer for individual gold medal wins. This record has since been broken by Michael Phelps, who won 13 individual gold medals. Egerszegi's record for female swimmers was broken by Katie Ledecky in 2021.
Egerszegi announced her retirement from swimming soon after the Olympic Games, at the age of only 22. In the same year, she became the board member of the Hungarian Swimming Association and in 2007 the member of the Hungarian Olympic Committee as well as she was named for 9th times as the Best Swimmer of the Year and for 7th times as the Best Female Athlete of the Year.