The 67th annual M4 Sport Athlete of the Year Gala was held on Monday, 13 January at the State Opera House in Budapest, Hungary. Distinguished guests from the world of Hungarian sports and beyond gathered to honour the outstanding performances of the athletes of this nation last year.
2024 was an Olympic year, with the summer games being held in Paris, France from 26 July to 11 August. Thus, evidently, it was our Olympic medalists who got the most limelight at the illustrious event.
Three swimmers who got (at least one) gold medal in Paris were up for the Male Athlete of the Year award. Somewhat surprisingly, it was not Kristóf Milák who was selected the victor by the Hungarian Sports Journalists’ Association, but Hubert Kós. Kós won the first gold medal of the Hungarian delegation at the Paris Games, in the 200-metre men’s backstroke event. However, Milák outperformed him with one gold and one silver medal. Milák can be a bit of a rebel sometimes, at times being at odds with the Hungarian Swimming Association, so perhaps that’s what decided the vote in favour of Kós. The third nominee was open water swimmer Kristóf Rasovszky, who won one gold in Paris.
‘I want to congratulate Kristóf Milák and Kristóf Rasovszky, they would have deserved first place too. It is good to be here in Hungary, but I was only given a 36-hour leave from my coach Bob Bowman, so I am flying back to the United States on Tuesday to continue training,’ Kós, who is training with the University of Texas swimming team, said while accepting the award.
As we wrote above, Kós won the first Hungarian gold at the Paris Olympics. Female Athlete of the Year winner Michelle Gulyás won the last, on the closing day of the summer games. The pentathlonist beat out handball player and top scorer of the 2024 Women’s Handball Euros Katrin Klujber and fellow Olympic gold medalist taekwondo artist Viviána Márton for the award.
‘It was a tough year. I felt like once I fought past one difficulty, another one was coming in its place. With great faith, resilience, fight, and also thanks to my support network, I rose above all difficulties and fulfilled my childhood dream,’ Gulyás said in her acceptance speech.
The Women’s National Handball team, which finished third in the Euros hosted in part by Hungary, won in the Team of the Year category. Vladimir Golovin, the head coach of the team hailing from Odesa, Ukraine, won in the Coach of the Year category. 'It's been a long journey...I became a coach in Hungary. A lot of great coaches work here, I am here today in part thanks to their work too,' he said.
Kevin Csoboth’s late winner against Scotland at the football European Championship in Germany was selected as the Sports Moment of the Year. Meanwhile, Transylvanian-Hungarian football coach László Bölöni, who is best known for promoting football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo as a teenager to the first team while coaching Sporting CP, got the Lifetime Achievement Award. He accepted it from President of the Republic Tamás Sulyok of Hungary.
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