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Stranger than Fiction

Wardrobe malfunction costs Olympic gold medallist world record

Published:Thursday | August 5, 2021 | 5:39 AMA Digital Integration & Marketing production
Kristof Milak of Hungary swims in a men's 200-meter butterfly final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 28, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

An Olympic swimmer claims that ripped trunks cost him the chance to break the world record.

Hungary's Kristof Milak won gold in the 200m butterfly at Tokyo 2020 but says the opportunity to better his own world record vanished when he suffered the wardrobe malfunction.

Milak set a time of one minute 51.25 seconds but fell short of his record-breaking effort of one minute 50.73 seconds set in 2019.

He said: "They split 10 minutes before I entered the pool and in that moment I knew the world record was gone. I lost my focus and knew I couldn't do it.

"It was a problem for me. I have a routine, a rhythm, a focus. This broke my focus and that problem impacted my time.

"I wasn't swimming for the medal, I was swimming for the time. I said earlier I wanted a personal best. And my personal best is a world record."

Despite the ripped trunks, Milak was able to swim the third-fastest time of his career and broke Michael Phelps' 13-year Olympic record in the event. 


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