The Most Dominant Long Course World Records Heading Into The Paris Olympics

Courtesy: Henry Lyon

Of all the titles in swimming, there is arguably none greater than “world record holder.” To hold this title means you stand at the top of years of history in an event. Some of these are challenged and broken year in and year out, some have their limits pushed by one or more swimmers every year, and some see swimmers come unbelievably close to beating it, yet no one ever does. However, some records are so fast that they tower above the rest of the field in an event, remaining untouchable, with no one even coming within arms reach of cracking them. Here is a collection of those records (in no particular order).

Some quick hits:

• Men’s 400 IM (Leon Marchand, 4:02.50) – The only person within two and a half seconds of Marchand is the legendary Michael Phelps, who held the world record in this event for 21 years before Marchand came in and broke it in 2023. I wanted to add this, but I have a feeling that Marchand has a little more left in the tank for this one, so I’m holding off for now. Phelps himself said that he has the potential to be the first man under 4:00.
• Women’s 400 Free (Ariarne Titmus, 3:55.38) – The trio of Titmus, Summer McIntosh (3:56.08), and Katie Ledecky (3:56.46) have a firm grip on this record, even if they toss it around a bit. The 4th fastest in history is Frederica Pellegrini, whose time of 3:59.15 from 2009 was first broken by Ledecky in 2014 in 3:58.86. Ledecky then chopped off over two seconds over the next two years to eventually bring it down to her current best time of 3:56.46 in 2016. Titmus then broke it in a 3:56.40 in 2022, following her beating Ledecky in the event at the Tokyo Olympics, which was then broken by McIntosh’s 3:56.08 in 2023, then only four months later was once again taken back by Titmus in 3:55.38 where it stands today. Titmus also went 3:55.44 at the recent Australian Olympic Trials. These three swimmers are all ridiculously far ahead of the competition, with the only people able to contest them being themselves. This race may go down as one of the best at this upcoming Olympics.
• Men’s 50 Free (Cesar Cielo, 20.91) – Only Frederick Bousquet and Cielo have broken the 21-second barrier in this event, with their 2009 supersuit domination still towering above everyone else who has ever raced the splash-n-dash. Caeleb Dressel (21.04), Cameron McEvoy (21.06), and Ben Proud (21.11) have been very close to breaking the barrier, along with a number of other swimmers having been 21.3 or faster. Even going through talent like that, this record still stands, showing its incredible caliber. While we might see our first sub-21 in 15 years in Paris, I still think the record survives.
• Women’s 200 Free (Ariarne Titmus, 1:52.23) –  The 1:53 barrier has always been the final frontier of the women’s 200 free, first being eclipsed by Frederica Pelligrini in 2009, when she went a 1:52.98. That stood as the only sub-1:53 performance until the 2023 world championships, when Mollie O’Callaghan pulled off a surprise win in the event in 1:52.85 to beat Ariarne Titmus, who finished in 1:53.01, narrowly missing the 1:52. O’Callaghan held onto that for a whole year, until her and Ariarne Titmus dueled at the Australian Olympic trials, resulting in Titmus winning in a 1:52.23, absolutely annihilating the former world record. O’Callaghan also swam a huge personal best with a 1:52.48. The two are still the only active swimmers to have broken the 1:53 barrier, with the closest of any other Olympic competitor in the event being Siobhan Haughey, who has been as fast as 1:53.9. This record has a high possibility of going down, with the two fastest in history having another showdown. 1:51 is certainly possible.

Women’s 800 and 1500 Free – Katie Ledecky

You can’t have a world records list without mentioning the greatest distance swimmer of all time. While she lost the 400 free record to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, her 800 and 1500 freestyle are still incredibly dominant. She holds the top 16 fastest swims ever in the 800 and the top 18 in the 1500. These are two gargantuan feats, so let’s try to break them down.

Ledecky first broke the 800 record in 2013 at the age of 16 with a time of 8:13.86, taking out Rebecca Adlington’s 2008 mark of 8:14.10 (It should also be mentioned that Adlington’s swim took out a 19-year-old record from Janet Evans. High level 800 freestyle swimming over the last 40 years has been kind of insane). Ledecky then took the record down to a mind-boggling 8:04.79, where it stands today. No one else has even been within shouting distance of this record, with Summer McIntosh’s 8:11.39 from this year being the closest. That time is still a whole 6.6 seconds away from Ledecky’s standard, making this record seem almost completely out of reach. McIntosh will not be swimming the event at the Olympics, and because of that Ledecky’s closest competitor is 400 free world record holder Ariarne Titmus, who holds a best time of 8:13.59 from 2023 worlds in Fukuoka. While Titmus could give Ledecky a run for her money, I’d say the record survives the Olympics this year. It could be decades before we see this one fall.

Women’s 800 free fast facts:

The 1500 is similarly absurd, with her first time obtaining the record coming from 2013 as well. She took out Kate Ziegler’s 2007 mark of 15:42.54 with a time of 15:36.53. This smashed the time by six seconds, an already incredible swim, although nobody could have prepared for what was about to come. Ledecky made an assault on the event, bringing the record down to an astonishing 15:20.48 over the course of five years, with the record being set in 2018. The next fastest person in the event is Lotte Friis, whose PB is 15:38.88, a whole 18 seconds behind Ledecky. She is the only other person under 15:40. The next fastest active performer after Friis in the event is Lauren Boyle of New Zealand, who threw down a 15:40.14 at the 2015 Worlds. Like the 800, the only way this goes down at the Olympics is if Ledecky does it. Also like the 800, it will probably not fall for an absurdly long time, maybe outlasting its shorter counterpart.

Women’s 1500 free fast facts:

Men’s 200 Back – Aaron Peirsol

Venturing over to the men’s side, we find our first super-suit record. Back in 2002, backstroke legend Aaron Peirsol became the world record holder in the 200, throwing down a time of 1:55.15 to demolish the old mark of 1:55.78 from 1999. In the following years, he chipped away at his record (although Ryan Lochte held it for about a year from 2007-2008), eventually bringing his time down to 1:51.92 in 2009, during the height of the super-suit era.

Only one person has ever been within a second of this time, with Ryosuke Irie’s 1:52.51 (swum at the same meet as Peirsol’s 1:51.92) standing as the next fastest swim. Ryan Lochte is the only other person to have been under 1:53, with his time of 1:52.96 from 2011 standing as the fastest textile swim in history. To give perspective to how dominant this record is, the closest anyone has been to it since the Tokyo Olympics is Hubert Kos’s 1:54.14 from the 2023 World Championships. This one is going to be a tough one to take down. We saw Evgeny Rylov throw down two 1:53.2s back in 2021, but even that is over a second away from the record. Rylov will also not be competing in the Olympics this year. This mark will most likely stand through the Olympics, although an exciting battle between the aforementioned 2023 world champion Hubert Kos, decorated Olympian Ryan Murphy (1:54.33 season best), newly-minted Spanish record holder Hugo Gonzalez (1:54.51), and 2024 Olympic Trials runner-up Keaton Jones (1:54.61) is brewing that will make for a very exciting final, along with potentially others such as 100 back world champion Xu Jiayu vying for the medal.

Men’s 200 back fast facts

Women’s 200 Breast – Evgeniia Chikunova

What’s this? A recent record? Yes. In fact, this world record just turned a year old, being set in April of 2023. While it’s only been around for a year, it’s already been cemented as one of the most outstanding records in the books. In history, exactly ten women have been under the 2:20 barrier in the 200 breast, with only two of those being under 2:19. One of those swimmers, Tatjana Schoenmaker, achieved that with a world record of 2:18.95 back in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics. For almost two years, she was the only woman to have broken 2:19, just ahead of the former world record holder Rikke Pedersen, whose PB stands at 2:19.11 from 2013. However, teenager Evgeniia Chikunova of Russia dethroned her by breaking 2:19 as well. Not only did she break 2:19, she broke 2:18. Chikunova clocked a monster 2:17.55, annihilating Schoenmaker’s record by almost half a second.

The women’s 200 breast rankings are close, with the 2nd through 10th being within a second. This was a highly contested record, with many swimmers hovering around the 2:19 and 2:20 barriers, close to that 2:18.95 mark. Chikunova is a huge step above that, standing above a loaded field of the best breaststrokers of all-time. Chikunova has only been under the 2:20 barrier two other times, with her 2:19.71 from only three months after her PB and her 2:19.74 from the Russian Championships just last week standing as the 14th and 15th fastest performances in history, showing that not only is this record dominant compared to other swimmers, it’s also dominant compared to the holder’s own best times list. She is still a very young swimmer, though, at only 19 years old, so she still has a long career ahead of her to make even more of a splash than she already has.

Unfortunately, Chikunova is opting not to swim at the Olympics due to her stance on the current IOC regulations around Russian athletes, but there are a few swimmers who have an outside shot at her record. The aforementioned Schoenmaker has been electric the last few years, and she will be in the field, along with American Kate Douglass, who put up her best time of 2:19.30 in January this year, along with posting two more 2:19s at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She holds the short course yards record in this event in 2:01.29. Dutch swimmer Tes Schouten is also in the field, holding a best time of 2:19.81 from this February. The only other sub-2:20 in the field is 100 breaststroke world record holder Lilly King, who set her best time of 2:19.92 at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Like every time on this list, it’s going to be a tough one to beat, but this is a very loaded field, and we could at the very least see another 2:18. This is another race I’m excited to see, record aside, with four of the top ten performers battling it out. I say this one survives Paris, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it fall.

Women’s 200 breast fast facts:

Men’s 200 Fly – Kristof Milak

Michael Phelps. Everyone has heard his name in the swimming world. The most decorated Olympic athlete ever, Michael Phelps was almost impossible to beat in the 200 fly from the time he first broke the record in 2001 in 1:54.92 at the age of 15. He spent the next eight years taking it down to 1:51.51, where it stood for five days short of ten years. Suddenly, Hungarian Kristof Milak, the World Junior Record holder in the event, came out of the woodwork and blasted a 1:50.73 in 2019, shattering one of the most legendary records in the books. Not only that, he knocked it down again almost three years later, clocking a 1:50.34 in 2022.

No one besides him or Phelps has ever been under 1:52, with the next fastest person being Frenchman Leon Marchand, whose time sits at 1:52.43. I feel like this record, like the next one I’m going to talk about, doesn’t get enough attention. The only person within two seconds of Milak is Phelps himself, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change, with butterfly stars such as Chad Le Clos (2012 Olympic champion, 1:52.96), Tomoru Honda (SCM world record holder, 1:52.70 in LCM), and Daiya Seto (Former SCM world record holder, 1:52.53) not even being within shouting distance of Milak, along with him holding the top five times in the event. He is just that dominant. In fact, these swimmers are a far cry from Phelps’s time, which itself seems like small potatoes compared to Milak.

With all that said, this record could still fall at the Olympics. The world record holder has been getting back into form recently, posting a 1:53.94 at the recent Mare Nostrum circuit, showing his potential return to form. We will see Milak make a run for it, but there are other people who have a shot at the record as well. Leon Marchand, the third fastest in history, is also in the event. While not a 200 fly specialist, he’s been on an absolute tear the last couple of years, and he’s shown his ability to post ridiculous times in events outside of his comfort zone, as seen with his 100 and 200 free lead-offs at the NCAAs (both the second-fastest in history). SCM world record holder Tomoru Honda is also in the field. Honda has a complete stranglehold on the 200 SCM fly, with his 1:46.85 standing 1.39 seconds faster than anyone else in history. With such an incredible level of dominance in short course, he is certainly capable of putting up a fantastic long course time. While it may be unlikely, this may even be the year we see a 1:49.

Men’s 200 fly fast facts:

Women’s 200 Fly – Liu Zige

In the height of the super-suit era, as Michael Phelps was busy putting up his legendary eight gold medal performance at the Beijing Olympics, Chinese swimmer Liu Zige burst onto the scene and crushed Jessica Schipper’s two-year-old record in the 200 fly with a 2:04.18, knocking it down over a second. In the wake of the Olympics, this record would fall a couple more times, with Mary Descenza and Schipper clocking 2:04.14 and 2:03.41 respectively. But Liu wasn’t done yet. She put up an absolutely astonishing 2:01.81 in the same year in 2009, crushing Schipper’s record.

Since this record, we have seen quite a few 2:04s, even a few 2:03s. But no one else has ever been faster than 2:03. What I find interesting about this record is that Liu never got close to her record again. She never even got back under 2:04. Her fastest time outside of this record is 2:03.90 from a few months before her world record, which would put her as the fourth fastest in history if you ignore her best time, behind Regan Smith (2:03.87) and Zhang Yufei (2:03.86), and Schipper (2:03.41). You know a record is insane when the person who swam it couldn’t even get close to beating it, kind of like Chikunova’s 200 breast.

This record is one I don’t hear talked about enough in the swimming world. While it may be because the swimmer didn’t have the same stranglehold on the event as we see in the other examples I’m talking about in this article (although she was still always at the forefront of 200 fly standings, and she held the world record in the SCM version of the event for five years), I think this is a record we should all appreciate, as it’s just truly remarkable. Only two active swimmers (Regan Smith, 2:03.87; Zhang Yufei, 2:03.86) have broken 2:04, although Summer McIntosh won the 2023 World Championships in 2:04.06, closing in on the barrier herself. The record seems out of reach this year, but a 2:02 is possible, considering the loaded field. It’ll be an exciting race.

Women’s 200 fly fast facts:

Men’s 800 Free – Zhang Lin

While Ledecky has been untouchable in distance on the women’s side, the 800 on the men’s side has a super-suit record that also will make you do a double take. Distance legend Grant Hackett, who held world records in six events across his career, clocked 7:38.65 in 2005 to beat another distance legend, Ian Thorpe’s, mark of 7:39.16 from 2001. His record survived for four years, with nobody coming within five seconds of his time until the 2009 World Championships when Zhang Lin and Ous Mellouli stepped up to battle for the gold medal in the event. While a fast time was expected, no one could have foreseen how fast these two would go. Mellouli finished behind Zhang in an astonishing 7:35.27, three seconds ahead of Hackett’s record. This alone would have been a legendary swim, but Zhang clocked a mind-boggling 7:32.12, demolishing both Mellouli and Hacket’s record.

Mellouli and Zhang’s times have been out of reach since they were posted, with the closest performance coming from Ahmed Hafnaoui, who went 7:37.00 in 2023. In total, only 12 swimmers have broken the 7:40 barrier, which makes Zhang’s near sub-7:30 performance seem even more impressive. That 12-swimmer list includes all the swimmers I’ve already mentioned along with the SCM 1500 world record holder Florian Wellbrock (7:39.63), the LCM 1500 world record holder Sun Yang (7:38.57), the SCM 800 world record holder Daniel Wiffen (7:39.19), as well as decorated Olympians and world champs attendees. While the argument can be made that this event hasn’t had as much of an opportunity to be pushed to its limits as other events due to it not being swum in the Olympics until Tokyo, it still has had a load of talent go at it at world championships, with the whole top 16 performers in the event having their PBs come from that meet.

While this is also a record that will probably stand through Paris, seven of the top 13 performers are going to have a shot to swim it, with Hafnaoui withdrawing. Again, this record will likely survive the Olympic year, but I think we could see some historic swims that might give it a scare. At the very least, I think at least someone in this stacked group will get under Mellouli’s time, maybe even making a run at Zhang’s record. While it’s a stretch, there hasn’t been a field in years with as good a shot as this one. The men’s distance events will be some of the most exciting races in my opinion, with a ton of talent in all of the races.

Men’s 800 free fast facts:

Women’s 50 Fly – Sarah Sjostrom

In the conversation of the greatest sprinter of all time, it’s hard to ignore the Swedish superstar Sarah Sjostrom. She holds four world records and has been virtually untouchable in sprint freestyle and butterfly since her first world record showing in 2009 at just 15 in the 100 fly. Of all of these events, though, her most dominant is undoubtedly the 50 fly. She has only broken this record once, although she hasn’t had to break it any further to defend it. Before Sjöström arrived on the scene, the record stood at 25.07 from Therese Alshammar, the world record holder in SCM. Sjöström absolutely demolished that swim, posting a 24.43 in 2014, becoming the first woman under 24.5. Not only that, she was the first under 25.

No one else has even been close to this time, with the next fastest coming from Zhang Yufei, who posted a 25.05 at the 2023 world championships. Sjöström holds the top 24 fastest performances in this event, 20 of which are sub-25. That’s right, she’s the only sub-25, and she’s done it twenty times. That’s a level of dominance that even Ledecky’s numbers have a hard time matching. Who is more dominant is up to you to decide, but, whichever way you lean, there is no denying that this is one of the most impressive records in any sport, period. Unfortunately, it is not swum at the Olympics, so it will survive Paris. However, Sjöström recently rebroke her 50 free record in 2023, so she might still be able to undercut her 50 fly time at some point in the future.

Women’s 50 fly fast facts:

Men’s 200 Free – Paul Biedermann

The 1:43 barrier in the 200 freestyle has only been cracked a total of four times, standing as the absolute peak of 200 free performance. The first instance came at the 2008 Olympics from Michael Phelps, who went 1:42.96 to crush his own world record of 1:43.86 from 2007. The second came in world record form from Paul Biedermann, who led off the German 2009 World Championships relay in 1:42.81. The most recent comes from Romanian teenager David Popovici, who clocked 1:42.97 in 2022 at the age of 16.

The last one is the current world record, a 1:42.00 from Paul Biedermann in 2009, who crushed his own newly minted record from the relay leadoff a few days before (1:42.81). Only five people have ever broken the 1:44 barrier, with Yannick Agnel (1:43.14, 2012) and Danila Izotov (1:43.90, 2009) being the only others besides those I already mentioned to accomplish the feat. Biedermann’s record towers over the rest of the top performers in history, a whole 0.96 seconds ahead of second and 1.90 ahead of 5th. Biedermann’s record is one that he, like others on this list, never was able to truly replicate. His 1:42.81 from the same meet stands as his only other time under 1:43, as well as only holding three times under 1:44 and seven times under 1:45, and his top 4 all coming from the 2009 world championships. While that list may be one of the most impressive of any 200 freestyler, even he couldn’t come close to his world record.

This year’s 200 freestyle at the Olympics has some pretty interesting storylines, with us seeing a lot of 1:44s in this past year, highlighted by Lukas Märtens’ 1:44.14 from the German Swimming Championships. South Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo is in the mix, holding the third-fastest time in the world this year with a 1:44.40. British swimmers Matt Richards and Duncan Scott join him in that club with a 1:44.69 and 1:44.75 respectively, along with American Luke Hobson, who posted a 1:44.89 at U.S. Olympic trials. The fastest this year, however, is David Popovici. After bursting onto the scene in 2022 by breaking the world record in the 100 free and breaking the world junior record in the 200 free, the now 18-year-old stayed relatively under the radar until this June, when he reappeared at the top of the world standings by putting up a 46.88 100 free and a 1:43.13 200 free, just off his best times. With the Olympics only about a month away, we’ll see what he can follow this performance up with. He seems to be the only one who could take down the record this year, although I still think it’ll survive the Olympic year. But who knows, maybe we’ll see our first ever 1:41.

Men’s 200 free fast facts:

Men’s 100 Breast – Adam Peaty

When talking about the men’s 100 breaststroke, one name always comes to mind: Adam Peaty. Peaty was the first man to ever break 58 in the 100 breast in 2015, and just four years later became the first man under 57 in a 56.88. At the time he went his 56.88, he was still the only person to have ever broken the 58-second barrier, with Ilya Shymanovich standing as the second-fastest performer in 58.29, a whole 1.4 seconds behind Peaty. Also, at the time of breaking it, he held the top 16 times in the event, 12 of which being sub-58. Peaty left the swimming scene in 2021, although he had already done enough to cement himself as one of the greatest and most dominant breaststrokers of all time, with him still holding the top 14 times in history to this day, as well as 21 of the top 25 performances. While he’s only cracked 57 once, he’s been awfully close many times, having gone 57.10, 57.13, 57.14, 57.37, and a slew of 57-mids. For almost six years, Peaty was completely untouchable in the event. In order to beat him, you had to be 57. The first person besides Peaty to do that was Arno Kamminga in 2021, half a dozen years after Peaty’s initial breaking.

Qin Haiyang is the second fastest performer in history, holding a best time of 57.69 from 2023. He holds the world record in the 200 breast at 2:05.48, which he also swam in 2023. The aforementioned Kamminga is the only other sub-58 swimmer in history, holding a best time of 57.80 from the Tokyo Olympics. These two will both be making a run at the gold medal in this event in Paris, although they will be challenged by none other than Peaty himself. The world record holder returned to the pool this year, going a 57.94 to qualify for the games just last month. This could be the first time we see three sub-58s in a 100 breast final.

But what about the record? While this is undeniably the most amount of talent we’ve ever seen in a men’s 100 breast final, they’re going up against an absolute behemoth. Qin’s best time is still a whole eight-tenths off of Peaty’s monster mark from 2019. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and, despite Qin’s impressive improvement arc recently. Along with Qin, Peaty, and Kamminga, we could also see Michael Andrew (58.14), Nicolo Martinenghi (58.26), the aforementioned Shymanovich (58.29), and Nic Fink (58.36) hunting to become the next swimmers under that 58-second barrier. While one or maybe all will do it, sub-57 is a different ballpark. However, you never know with Peaty and Qin in the final. We could see another sub-57 and maybe, just maybe, a new world record.

Men’s 100 breast fast facts:

World records will always remain the pinnacle of human achievement in the sport of swimming, and sometimes it’s good to step back and really see just how insane some of them are. The Paris Olympics will bring some incredible swimming, and I can’t wait to watch all of the many storylines that will bring some awesome racing, records aside. If you have any other events you think I should have added, I encourage you to talk about it in the comments. These picks are all opinionated, and these are just the ones that I wanted to mention.

ABOUT HENRY LYON

Henry Lyon is a distance swimmer with M3 Aquatics located in Chicago, Illinois. He has been swimming since the age of eight, and has been passionate about the sport ever since the beginning. Still only a sophomore in high school, he hopes to go on to make a difference in the sport as he gets older, starting with his work on the Illinois Swimming Age Group Committee, as well as working as a swim instructor for M3A’s swim school. He hopes to continue both of those things going into college and beyond.