Budapest (AFP) - Let her rivals beware. Hungarian Olympic champion and multiple world record holder Katinka Hosszu, nicknamed the "Iron Lady", is looking forward with relish to the world swimming championships in Budapest.

"It is always a special feeling to be on the blocks before a home crowd," the 28-year-old told local website Index.hu in the gleaming new meet venue the Duna Arena where she has been training for months.

"I will know each and every little tile here in the ground, they will greet me, and I will them. This is the advantage of the home track," she said.

After the Rio Olympics last year, when Hosszu won three gold medals and a silver, she said Budapest was "the obvious next stop to get motivated for".

She will compete in the 200m and 400m individual medleys, 100m and 200m backstroke, 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly, just as at the last world championships in Kazan, Russia.

Few would bet against her at least matching the two individual medley golds she won in Kazan, although Hosszu admitted to a degree of hometown pressure.

"This pool is so beautiful, that it also puts a little pressure on us Hungarians, now we all have to swim fast for sure," she said.