Zsuzsa Ördög defected to the United States after the 1956 Olympics, as did many Hungarian Olympians in response to the Soviet repression of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. She settled in Seattle, where she lived with the family of US Olympian Nancy Ramey. She continued swimming, winning US titles in the 100 and 200 breaststroke outdoors in 1958, and winning the indoor 200 breast in 1958-59. She later Americanized her name to Susie Ordogh and enrolled at Seattle University, where she studied chemical engineering. Ordogh joined Boeing where she developed a gold paint that wouldn’t flake off the tails of planes. She married Dan Zimsen and they raised five children together in the Seattle area.
Hungary