BUDAPEST − A top Hungarian swimming coach and federation official quit today over allegations of past physical and psychological abuse made against him by swimmers, including multiple Olympic medal winner Laszlo Cseh.
Gyorgy Turi, 64, who coached two-time world champion and six-time Olympic medallist Cseh and other top swimmers, said the allegations made his situation “unmanageable” and risked harming the reputation of the sport and his club.
“As of today, I resign from the position of technical vice-president, board member and chairman of the training committee of the Hungarian Swimming Association (MUSZ),” he said in an open letter published in local media.
Cseh, who was coached by Turi for most of his career until 2014 and who retired after the Tokyo Olympics, said in an interview last month that Turi subjected swimmers to physical abuse and “psychological terror”.
After Cseh’s comments, several other swimmers told local media that Turi used physical abuse, including pulling a swimmer from a pool by the hair and beating up others.
A female swimmer said that Turi, who was known by the nickname “Czar”, likened them to pigs if weighing scales showed they had put on weight.
MUSZ launched a probe into the allegations earlier this month but the body’s president Sandor Wladar said in a statement that Turi’s resignation was “the only acceptable decision”.
“There is no place for any form of abuse in Hungarian swimming... while it is an undoubted fact that (Turi’s club) achieved fantastic success in the pool in recent years and even decades, the statements of the former competitors cast a serious shadow over the results,” said Wladar.
The coach, who has admitted striking one swimmer in the face as well using a stick during training sessions, has defended his controversial methods as “part of the road to success at that time”.
“Let he throw the first stone who... when dealing with children from the 1980s, didn’t lift anyone out of the water more aggressively than is acceptable today,” he told a local news site. – AFP, November 25, 2021
