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In late October, 2021, Hungarian sport was shaken by an interview with a multiple Olympic medallist and world champion swimmer, one of the most well-known elite athletes in the country, in which he claimed to have been verbally and physically abused by his coach for more than 10 years. Although such issues had come up a number of times, none had as big of an impact as this one. The objective of the paper is (1) to present the chronology of events, interviews and responses related to this case, (2) to describe the historical and sports-cultural context in which these incidents took place, and (3) to find possible explanation to the reactions of the various stakeholders. The texts processed for the study were published between 29 October 2021, the date when the interview with the swimmer was published, and 15 December, a few days after the investigation committee set up by the Hungarian Swimming Association published their report. Besides showing similarities to other national contexts, the results also reveal some of the particularities of the Hungarian sports nation discourse, in which, at times success was enough to legitimize coaches’ violent acts and athletes’ humiliation. Even so, the dynamic of reactions also underlines the existing demand for a change and the uncertainty of how to proceed with it.
