On a warm August evening in Paris, Kristóf Milák touched the wall in 49.48 and reclaimed the centre of his sport. The Hungarian won the 100-metre butterfly at the 2026 European Aquatics Championships with a European record that left him just 0.03 seconds from the world mark.
Turning behind Grousset, finishing alone
At the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, Maxime Grousset launched to an early lead in front of a packed home crowd. The French world champion split 22.97 to Milák's 23.19 at the turn. Over the final metres Milák drove home in 26.29 while Grousset faded, and the Hungarian stopped the clock in 49.48.
Grousset took silver in 49.70 and Noè Ponti bronze in 49.93. The three men delivered the first sub-50-second podium in European long-course history.
A fourth straight crown and a new career mark
The swim erased Milák's own championship record of 50.18 from 2021 and beat the 49.90 he posted for Olympic gold in 2024. It left him 0.03 outside Caeleb Dressel's world record of 49.45, making Milák the second-fastest man ever in the event. Before this evening he had broken 50 seconds only twice in his career.
The victory marked his fourth consecutive European 100-metre butterfly title and his ninth European gold overall. Grousset, who had entered the meet nursing a broken bone in his foot, saw his European record of 49.62 fall.
Hours later Milák anchored Hungary's 4x100-metre freestyle relay to the nation's first European crown in that event. A comeback season had become a quiet body of proof.
