Kristof Rasovszky puts Hungary at the top of the world, wins men’s 10K in Paris over Klemet & Betlehem

Much like the women’s 10K race yesterday in the River Seine, the conditions favored those with the most experience. On Friday morning, Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky swam a very similar race plan to yesterday’s gold medalist Sharon van Rouwendaal, bolting to the lead of the pack and holding first or second the entirety of the near-two hour race.

Rasovszky, age 27, won his first Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10K. After World titles in 2019 and 2024, as well as Olympic silver in Tokyo 2020, Rasovszky took the last step in achieving greatness - an Olympic gold medal.

“I was prepared for this. Yesterday when I saw Sharon winning, I thought this was a sign because she was second in Tokyo, the same as me, so I thought it was a sign for me,” Rasovszky said.

The moment was extra special for Rasovszky, coached by Laszlo Szokolai, as he was joined on the podium by 20-year-old David Betlehem also out of Hungary.

Betlehem and Rasovszky both train out of the same club and have given Hungary two more medals this outing in Paris, bringing the total to five, accumulating from last week when Hubert Kos and Kristof Milak also won golds in the swimming pool.

Rasovszky and Betlehem shared an emotional embrace in the water after the race was over.

“I was really happy for him because in the last three years, we trained together,” Rasovszky said. “He is like my little brother so I was really happy for him. In the last years, he was always fourth, fifth, or sixth, and at the Europeans he was on the podium. We talked about how good it would be to be on the podium together and it never came on any World Series race or World Championships or Europeans. We tried to do it now and it came.”

Betlehem, who was fourth in last week’s 1500m with a national record, is racing in his first Olympics as he was tabbed as a rising star when he won the World Junior title in 2022.

“It was a very tactical race but we prepared for this at home,” Betlehem said. “We knew it would be pretty hard – the way down was easier when the water flowed with us, but it was choppy on the way back. It was hard to pass people because everybody was going to the wall, but in the end I was able to pass Domenico on the inside, so I am very happy.”

The silver went the way of Germany’s Oliver Klemet, who, like Betlehem, was a rising star when he won a surprising bronze at last year’s World Championships to secure qualification for this year’s Olympics.

Klemet, trained by Bernd Berkhahn out of Magdeburg, won Germany’s fourth medal in men’s open water swimming at the Games as the Germans have been represented on the podium at four of the last five Olympics in this event. Klemet, who earlier finished seventh in the 400m freestyle final 13 days ago, won his first Olympic medal at age 22.

"It means everything,” Klemet said. “We trained the whole season for it and the last three years since Tokyo. I just wanted to win a medal here. We focused more on the open water because the chances were higher to win a medal. We did a good job analysing the venue and the current and it paid off."

Klemet was the fifth swimmer out of Berkhahn’s Magdeburg squad to win a medal in Paris, joining 400m gold medalist Lukas Martens and 1500m bronze medalist Isabel Gose, and 10K medalists van Rouwendaal and Moesha Johnson as medal winners.

“We have a great coaching team with Bernd Berkhahn preparing us pretty good for the long distances as well as for the pool,” Klemet said. “We are doing a good job in high volume and we analyzed the current pretty well and it paid off.”

Klemet and Betlehem both grew up racing each other at the junior level and shared the podium together Friday morning.

“Three years ago at the junior European (championship), I raced against Oliver,” Betlehem said. “That was my first international medal and now we are both here on the podium. I hope it’s not the top of my journey, but it’s a very important part.”

29 men entered the race on Friday morning from the River Seine as the water temperature was reported to be at 23 degrees Celsius with the air temperature at 19 Celsius.

Much like the women’s race yesterday, the pace was quick early as the men took advantage of the current going in one direction. Rasovszky and defending Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock set the pace early, much to no one’s surprise. Wellbrock, last year’s World Champion, who trains with Klemet at Magdeburg, has stated he likes to lead from the front and dictate the pace, and that happened early.

For much of the first four laps of the race, it was Rasovszky and Wellbrock trading the lead. The Italian duo of Domenico Acerenza and Gregorio Paltrinieri were in pursuit with the two other Europeans, as was France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier, looking for a home podium.

Klemet was hanging back with the leaders as well, staying very relaxed with his stroke. At this point in the race, he looked as if he was in perfect position to run down the leaders when fatigue would set in.

The lead pack was much closer together early on than the women’s race yesterday as some of the guys started losing caps early on - Acerenza, Olivier, and eventually Betlehem.

By the fifth of six laps, the lead pack started to create a bit of separation. Wellbrock and Rasovszky were going back and forth and it looked to come down to these two, and if they were going to falter, then Acerenza and Paltrinieri would pounce.

But midway through the fifth lap, Wellbrock was weakening. Rasovszky made a move and the German couldn’t keep up. Klemet moved in front of his Magdeburg teammate, and eventually so did the Italians. The lead pack of six had created a gap, as the podium picture was starting to take place.

As the field moved against the current coming back on lap five, creating a straight line on the riverbank, Wellbrock fell further back as Paltrinieri appeared to be Rasovszky’s biggest challenger.

After a stellar performance last week in the pool in which Paltrinieri took home silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 800m, he looked to be on his way to an unprecedented trifecta of medals, but when Rasovszky made his move on lap six, Paltrinieri couldn’t keep up.

"It was really tough. I never tried (to race in) a river in my life. It was my first time so I didn't know what to expect,” Paltrinieri said.

"I felt really uncomfortable on the way down, with the stream. I couldn't find my stroke, I couldn't find my rhythm. Then on the way back against the current it was a little bit better, but it wasn't me. It was a really difficult race. Good job to the guys; they really flew away on the last lap.

“I tried my best but today wasn’t my day.”

Klemet was the only one that could hold Rasovszky’s pace as the two turned the corner for the last lap.

“We pulled away on the last straight and thought maybe we could separate us from the pack,” Klemet said. “But then they caught us on the way back and they went to my feet and I was a bit annoyed by that. Kristof did a good job in front and we separated again from the others so on the last 500 meters, I was pretty sure we would make gold and silver. I tried to win gold at the finish but he was much faster than me.”

Rasovszky, who came to Paris for only one race, was not fazed, and he led Klemet all the way to the finish, punching the touchpad at 1:50:52.7. Klemet won the silver at 1:50:54.8.

“I saw in the last two turns one of the Germans coming behind me. I couldn’t tell which one it was. I thought it was Florian,” Rasovszky said.

“I had to push really hard on the front and when I could turn for the last lap at the front, I was thinking, ‘OK, it is going to be a podium, I won’t give it to anybody’. I was hoping (Oliver) wasn’t stronger than me in the last hundred meters.”

Betlehem was in a battle on the last lap with Acerenza as they dropped the rest of the pack, leaving the likes of Paltrinieri, Wellbrock and Olivier behind.

Betlehem found another gear and kicked away from Acerenza, touching the pad at 1:51:09.0, six tenths ahead of Acerenza (1:51:09.6).

“On the last lap I was looking for Kristof, who was leading, and thinking, ‘I want to be on that podium together’. I am very proud of us. I can’t be more happy right now,’” Betlehem said.

“I don’t feel good but I'm happy for the result because I did all I could,” Acerenza said. “I'm very happy about how I managed the race. That's it, this is sport."

“In the last sprint I was really, really dead. I gave all my energy, so I'm happy."

France’s Logan Fontaine (1:51:47.9) and Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe (1:51:50.8) each had late surges to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, as they passed the likes of Olivier (1:51:50.9), Wellbrock (1:51.54.4) and Paltrinieri (1:51:58.0), who finished seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively.

Greece’s Athanasios Kynigakis (1:52:37.2), who was in the chase group for a while, finished tenth.

800m Olympic champion from last week Daniel Wiffen (1:57:20.1) finished 18th overall in his very first open water race.

"It's the worst and best thing I've ever done in my life,” Wiffen said, jokingly. “It was good when I was in the first two laps and then every lap after that it was slowly getting worse and worse and worse. I was thinking about quitting halfway but I really drove through and I'm happy to say that I finished it."

“Now that my Olympics is over, I'm going to go back, I'm going to put on my medals and I'm going to go to sleep with them on,” Wiffen said. “That's exactly what I'm going to do."