Danuta Kozák: It's a victory of a lifetime

– You're a six-time Olympic champion!
– I would like to thank my husband, my family, for getting this far, and thank the girls, Tamara Csipes, Dóra Bodonyi, Anna Kárász, Gabriella Szabó, and Katalin Kovács with whom I won the medals – I'm happy. It's definitely a victory of a lifetime. There were difficult moments in it because it's never easy when you go to practice with your daughter crying and asking when this stupid Olympics is going to end. And you're counting down the days that there's only three, then two left, and you just feel more and more that it needs to end quickly. There was a lot of suffering, a lot of bitterness, but I managed to get it this far, and I'm really happy about that.

– In the previous days, you were weak psychologically since neither the singles nor the doubles event went the way you wanted. Now that you have your sixth Olympic gold, are these events somewhat put behind?
– I haven't deleted the last few days out of my mind, but now I know what was missing in singles and doubles.

– And what is it?
– Anger.

– Anger?!
– Yes, but we can call it being focused – concerning the other two events. But I was definitely angry at the start of the K4 final. That's what I missed in singles and doubles. After the two events that didn't go well, of course, I was down psychologically, but this time I thought about the final as come life, come death.

– Did someone help you when were down in the dumps? Did you have to talk to someone about what happened, or were you able to settle everything by yourself?
– I put that bitterness of the previous days in a box and hid it deep inside me that I will deal with it later. The girls hugged me before the start and encouraged me. I saw the fire in their eyes, that everyone wanted this victory, so I couldn't even deal with my own troubles. But I didn't want to anyways.

– But do you even have to deal with that bitterness placed in the box in the future?
– I put that box away like I will have to deal with it one day, but now that you're asking... No, I don't have to.

– The four of you boarded the joint boat in four different states of mind— did this not cause any difficulty?
– Not only were we in four different states of mind, but we also have four different stories. All of them are valuable stories, ones that need to be heard over time. I think one of the most important moments was that all of us were able to soar – regardless of our stories. That's what's valuable, and which is why won. It doesn't matter where everyone comes from emotionally and physically because there's a common goal and moment when you have to show what you're capable of.

– Didn't the rain waver your faith, your determination?
– When it started raining and even the wind was blowing, it hit me: I can't believe that for five years, actually for a much longer time, of course, I've been griding away so that we could a course like this in the final... But I quickly dismissed the thought: no matter what, what the weather is like, we're going to get in the starting block and we're going to do it!

– Was this a different kind of joy in the finish line than three times in a row in Rio?
– I think this cry in Tokyo is equal to the three in Rio.

– What are you taking away from Tokyo?
– A little rebuke.

– I'm sorry, what?
– I rebuke myself: believe it already that you can do it!

– Are you serious? Even when you're now the most successful Hungarian woman Olympian with six gold medals?
– Yes. I can bury myself deep enough... If you always want to be better and better, and you're always looking for errors and you're saying it could be even better and better, plus you're a perfectionist, so when you perform well, you're still looking for errors. You can never be happy; you just can't be satisfied with anything.

– Try it anyways... Are there any goals to conquer after all this?
– Now, it is to find my bed, for example... We got to the finish line, we won, it was enough for a while – I don't want to meet goals for a while.

Translated by Vanda Orosz.