Peter Kiss

Started: He took up the sport at age 12 in Budapest, Hungary. (Athlete, 29 Aug 2021) Reason: He was doing swimming as part of his rehabilitation until coach Istvan Pruzsina visited his school. "Istvan started looking at potential kayak candidates and thought of me. He saw that my physique was good. He asked if I would try kayaking, and I said yes, plus I thought it was cool." (hparalimpia.hu, 25 Nov 2020) Ambition: To defend his Paralympic gold medal in the KL1 event at the 2024 Games in Paris. (paralympic.org, 04 Apr 2024; m4sport.hu, 28 Nov 2023) Milestones: At the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo he became the youngest canoeist from any nation or gender to win a Paralympic medal in the sport, when he claimed gold in the men's KL1 200m event at age 18 years and 120 days. It was also Hungary's first Paralympic gold medal in the sport, and he was Hungary's youngest medallist from any sport in Tokyo. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Jul 2024) Awards: In 2023 he was named Male Para Athlete of the Year by the Hungarian Kayak-Canoe Association. (Instagram profile, 26 Oct 2023) He was named the Athlete of the Month for August 2019 by the International Paralympic Committee [IPC]. He was also named 2019 Para Athlete of the Year in Hungary. (KayakFirst Facebook page, 19 Jan 2020; dailynewshungary.com, 09 Jan 2020; paralympic.org, 11 Sep 2019) Additional Info: POST-PARIS PLANS He has suggested that he may change to a different discipline in the future. "I think I can no longer have much bigger dreams in the sport of kayaking, where I have achieved basically everything. Therefore, in the near future I would like to try out canoeing, to see what I can do there." (paralympic.org, 04 Apr 2024) WATER FEAR He was afraid of water as a child. "I'm glad I found kayaking. I feel like it was invented for me, I love water, although in the beginning it wasn't like that. In the beginning I still had a water fear. I almost drowned when I was a child, but luckily I was able to overcome that too and now we [he and the water] have become pretty good friends." (hparalimpia.hu, 25 Nov 2020)