Dávid Betlehem won bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the men’s 10 km swimming marathon while his teammate, Kristóf Rasovszky, secured the gold medal for the Hungarian team. Everybody talked about a miracle, and Betlehem continued his career as an athlete and a freshman at North Carolina State University with his girlfriend, Olympic 5th Betti Fábián. However, the university did not support their swimming marathon training and, ultimately, even banned Betlehem and Fábián from training.
Dávid Betlehem and Betti Fábián stopped by American university
According to 444, Dávid Betlehem and Betti Fábián are to move home after a short stay in the USA as freshmen at the North Carolina State University. The university proudly presents both on its website, writing that Betlehem won bronze while Fábián finished 5th at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the 10 km marathon swim. However, the institution did not support their training in that swimming stroke. Hungarian media did not report the university’s reasons.
444 wrote that the university would have supported their training in pool strokes and university competitions instead of world championships in the 10 km marathon. As a result, they decided to come home.
Interestingly, the university banned them from attending training on campus. Consequently, Betlehem could not prepare for the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest starting next Tuesday, so he will not compete.
They shared the following statement this morning:
“First of all, we’d like to thank the opportunity to NC State for including us to their great team. We really enjoyed our time there and we are truly grateful for being part of the family and, even more importantly, being treated as member of the NC State family. It was a tremendous experience for both of us, however, we had to recognise that with open water swimming in our focus, it’s better to return home and prepare for the coming challenges in Hungary as we did before the Olympics.
While taking this sad decision, we also ask everyone to accept this – and to avoid generating any conflicts as our story is about gaining experience, learning lessons and finding the way to give our best efforts. We learnt a lesson and acted accordingly.
We are sorry to leave NC State, and again, our hearts are filled with love when we remember of the past months spent there.”
She disinfected with pálinka after swimming in the Seine
As you may recall, Betti Fábián and her fellow swimmers were the first to swim in the Seine at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before, authorities ran several tests concerning the water quality and found it acceptable only last minute. It went viral that Betti disinfected with pálinka, the traditional Hungarian spirit. Then she drank Coca-Cola. Even so, the 19-year-old swimmer became hospitalised after experiencing nausea and a fever.
We hope that both athletes will find their new homes to train, prepare for future competitions and make us all proud again.
Both swimmers were thankful for the opportunity to prepare in the Danube before the Paris Olympics. They mentioned that as a deciding factor in their success. The water quality of the river is already much better than that of the Seine. Consequently, the Danube could host several swimming competitions at a possible Budapest Olympics. There is a chance now for that since both the government and Mayor Karácsony seem to support the idea and many facilities are ready for the event, including the National Athletics Centre recently opened to the general public.
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The story appears to be slightly different … NC State Coach Braden Holloway responded as follows to SwimSwam’s request for a comment, and replied to the Hungarian Federation’s Instagram post saying this:
“I will not sit back and let this federation put our program and intentions in a bad light. Our history shows our great partnership with countries and we will continue to do so for all internationals moving forward. Absolutely none of this is true. Shame on this post. Based on our meetings with David….
The federation threatened them to return to Hungary- putting a lot of mental stress on the two of them. David and Betti decided it was too risky for them to stay with years ahead- so they left. David stopped swimming to take a break as his mental stress from the federation took a toll. We support open water. In fact, a fellow Hungarian was her second open water meet for her since arriving to campus (Portugal was her first). So kinda funny we “didn’t” support open water since she went to 2 of them in the fall. David didn’t attend any of them as he was sick and lost training time and decided not to go.
The federation stopped financial support for him and the future meets. They threatened to stop entering him in competitions. They also threatened to remove him for opportunities to rep Hungary if he didn’t come back.
The federation treated him poorly and it is a shame they didn’t give him a chance to explore the University system in the states. And when we inquired to speak with the federation about creating a plan to help in the ncaa format and for Hungary swimmingand open water- they declined to speak.
And open water is something we have done and keep open for our athletes (Hannah Moore won a worlds medal with us during her time on the team).”
Source: https://swimswam.com/hungarian-swimmer-david-betlehem-withdraws-from-the-world-championships-due-to-ncaa-issues/
Thanks for the info and source Norbert. Not surprised that Hungarian officials are lying to cover up the ugly truth – no money to support top athlete’s training abroad as Hungary is broke, so they ordered them back and included some threats to make sure they comply and not say a word about the truth. I hope in the future these amazing athletes find some private sponsors that will take pressure off from them and they can train in the best possible conditions, wherever that is for them, during the peak of their athletic careers.