The American Dream in Postsocialist Hungary: Melodrama, Reflexivity, and Transference in Elite Swimming

Abstract

Hungarian-born, 3-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszú and her American coach-husband Shane Tusup revolutionized elite swimming through a training methodology that produced one of the most spectacular comebacks in sport history and turned Hosszú into the financially most successful swimmer. In Hungary, they were considered the “American Dream” due to their Hollywoodish love story, can-do attitude, and professional success. The Hosszú–Tusup collaboration became a site of intercultural encounter that brought into relief the discrepancies between the so-called American mentality of democratic, capitalist professionalism, and the socialist-style paternalism of Hungarian sport. Through their May 2018 split, the public and the media deployed melodramatic conventions of meaning making to narrativize, and thus understand, a diverse set of issues such as marriage, adultery, feminism, gender relations, masculinity, coach–athlete relationships, postsocialist transformations, corruption, state paternalism, capitalism, and professionalism.