Laszlo CSEH, Jr.

The son of backstroke swimmer László Cseh, Sr., László Cseh is an individual medley specialist. Unfortunately for him, his career coincided with that of swimming megastar Michael Phelps, also an expert in the medleys. This has deprived Cseh of all but one international level title. At the Beijing Olympics, he won three silvers (all behind Phelps), and he has similarly won six World Championships medals (three silver, three bronze) in medley events behind Phelps. The only exception came when Phelps skipped the 400 IM at the 2005 worlds, allowing Cseh to claim the world title. Outside of the medley events, he has also done well in the butterfly (one silver at the Beijing Games) and the backstroke (bronze at the 2005 Worlds). In European championships, with Phelps not competing, Cseh has been dominant. He has won four consecutive 400 IM titles (2004-2010), three consecutive 200 individual medley golds (2006-2010) and a gold in the 100 back (100 m). In the European Short Course Championships, he has collected 19 medals, of which 13 were gold. Six of these were won in the 400 IM. With Phelps rarely competing in short-course events, Cseh has been able to set short-course world records in the medley events on three occasions, all of which were broken by another US swimmer, Ryan Lochte.