He would like to be there at the Paris Olympics, but he says that’s not all, there is life beyond that.
In 2017 and 2018, Balázs Birkás became the world champion in K2 200 meters as a partner of Márk Balaska, and in 2017 they both won the European Championship gold medal together.
The last time we spoke with Balázs was before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when it had already been decided that the games would be postponed by one year. The 27-year-old kayaker put forward three arguments in favor of the postponement, including the fact that it would not have been fair if the Olympics had been held at the original time, as the conditions for preparation were very different. As he said, he couldn’t have been really happy even with the medal.
We are in an Olympic year again, this was one of the topics of our conversation. Balázs said that his winter preparation was smooth, so he is full of strength and can prepare with full effort.
“I feel good, I have a very good job recently and training is going well. I managed to find answers to a lot of questions about the preparation. I have enough confidence in the boat, I am also in good condition, and so my mood is also good.”
He feels that the work he started a few years ago is beginning to pay off, thanks to which certain answers have begun to arrive.
“For the past couple of years, I have delved a lot into training theory and the technical part of kayaking. I had questions about the relationship between technique and functionality, and also about training theory, so how can I get the most out of my body as a motor. The answers started coming, which now gives me peace and confidence in my preparation and my vibe.”
“There is the most ideal implementation for every form of exercise, including kayaking. I’ve been looking for this for the last few years, and the solutions keep coming. This also required me to sit down and think things through, and of course I also used the literature I had. But many times I transferred what I learned during functional training to kayaking. This job is very exciting and I really enjoy it. Training theory is drier, for this I draw a lot from athletics and cycling.”
Balázs Birkás
Photo: Eurosport
Balázs also told why he decided to leave the team and prepare alone.
“I have a firm opinion that anyone can be useful in a team only with adequate individual performance. At that time, my coach, Viktor Hüvös, and I could no longer get more out of my performance. We discussed this then. But I have a lot to thank him for, for example, I learned this whole point of view, this whole way of thinking from him. He also dared to break out of the habit, for which he got a lot of flak that year, but his results finally justified him. I also have the strong motivation to go my own way.”
As a conscious athlete, he was aware that his own path would have pitfalls.
“I knew that at the beginning it would be a step backwards, especially in the field of team boats, but my own well-being was more important. By the way, there were already examples of individual preparation, at most the public did not know about it. This is how Ákos Vereckei became one of the biggest classics of the sport, but even if not so individually, many people train successfully in a coach-competitor line-up. This is where I believe the importance of personalization comes to the fore. I see this approach in athletics and cycling as well.”
Finding my own answers was important in order not only to feel the movement, but also to know what and why it is.
Balázs also participated in last summer’s World Championships in Duisburg, where he finished sixth in K1 200 meters.
“On the one hand, I’m happy because I was at the World Cup and it was a difficult road to get there. I felt good during the preliminaries, I had strength, I had speed, but my final race was not 100 percent. That’s why I had a bad taste in my mouth. The final was with a tailwind, which has always been my weak point, but since then I got an answer to this matter, and I have made progress in this as well.”
Balázs Birkás
Photo: Eurosport
“So I learned from it, and that’s the main thing as an athlete. We shouldn’t think about this any further. This is the result, such is life. He will return it somewhere later.”
Apart from the fact that he learned to make his movements even in a tailwind, Balázs revealed another thing in which he made progress.
“I started my own preparation from the fall of 2022, and my goal was to build as large a fund as possible in two years. For me, my weak point has always been that my basic endurance was poor, so I had to develop this. Last year I focused on the 200m and I set out to be as good as possible in the 500m this year. The result is that I can now finally achieve very good training volumes and intensities.”
In K1, the Olympic number is 1000 meters, so Balázs may have a chance to be there in Paris in a team boat. Since he is going his own way, his options are significantly narrowed in this regard.
I see a chance in doubles, but I don’t want to say a specific name about who.
“We’ll try it out first in training, and if we see that it makes sense, then we’ll start on the first team, if not, then we’ll both continue according to our own plans. For me, this is the 200 singles, where I want to get to the World Cups and the European Championships, where the goal would be to win.”
“Thus, based on the selection principle, I could get as close as possible to the Olympics as a reserve. I think this would not be bad, overall it is a good goal, and this could be a nice way to close this three-year Olympic cycle.”
Balázs Birkás
Photo: Eurosport
According to Balázs, there is life outside the Olympics, and moreover, he is not only thinking about Paris.
“As long as I enjoy it and I’m physically competitive, I’m like, why not do it?! I just have one more Olympic cycle in me. I will be 28 now, Roland Kökény, for example, became Olympic champion at the age of 37.”
In February, he had the opportunity to attend a training camp in Singapore, where he mainly focused on his preparation. During his stay abroad, however, he found an additional pleasant and useful occupation.
“The Singaporean association approached me with a training partner opportunity, they try to motivate young people with such collaborations. As I did at the time, I learned what I could from the older competitors. I had to decide how many training sessions per week I actually had to attend, and otherwise I was free to do my own program.”
“Everything went very well, I got what I could out of this one month. In addition, I started to observe their system, how they are prepared, and in the meantime I was thinking about what knowledge I could pass on. And not to one person, but to as many as possible at the same time.”
“So I arranged with the coach to give them a lecture on the warm-up. About the land and water warm-up. So from the second week I started to prepare for this, I observed them much more purposefully and put together a concise but useful material for them. My main goal was to strengthen their awareness, and all this in English. It went well, I got really good feedback and I really enjoyed it. By the way, such a line of assistants would certainly look good on my resume.”
The nearest goal is the national selection due in a month, where it will be decided whether it will be K1 200 meters or, according to the best scenario, he and his doubles partner may win the Olympic participation in K2 500 meters.
If everything goes well, I won’t just compete in the national team as an individual. And that’s actually the one competition where the fate of the Olympic and European Championship will be decided. In doubles, you should definitely get one or two. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll focus on 200 from there.
Balázs Birkás
Photo: Eurosport
