Data work from Daniel Takata of SwimmingStats contributed to this report.
The world has gone on a record-breaking tear early in 2023, led by the recent record-breaking swim from Evgeniia Chikunova of Russia in the 200 breaststroke. In the span of 42 days, four long-course world records have been broken.
Keep in mind, we’re in the middle of April right now. The 2023 World Championships, the premier long course “taper” meet of the year, hasn’t happened yet. Major powerhouse swimming countries like the United States and Australia haven’t even held their trials meets. And yet, swimming seems to be averaging one world record a week at this moment. So this brings us to the question: how big of a deal is this really?
For starters, the first long course world record of 2022 didn’t come until April 28, 2022, when Hunter Armstrong took down the 50 back world record at the 2022 U.S. International Team trials. It’s still not April 28, 2023, and we’ve already had four fall.
In 2023, the first long course world record was broken by Kaylee McKeown in the 200 back on March 10—over a month before April 28. And the momentum didn’t stop with McKeown, as two world records came from Summer McIntosh on March 28 and April 1, and Evgeniia Chikunova took down a world record on April 21. In other words, in around the same time (even shorter, actually) it took to see one world record go down in 2022, we’ve seen four broken in 2023.
March 10 is actually the earliest that a long-course world record has been broken in a calendar year since 2017, when Ippei Watanabe broke the men’s 200 breast world record on January 29. In fact, in the post-supersuit-era, only 9 out of the 103 total long course world records set have been prior to May 1st, with half of those 9 world records coming from this year. So while early-season world records are common, to have four of them in one year is certainly an anomaly.
Date That The First Long Course World Record Of The Year Was Set (Post-Supersuit Era):
- 2010: No world records broken
- 2011: July 28 (Ryan Lochte, men’s 200 IM)
- 2012: July 28 (Ye Shiwen, women’s 400 IM)
- 2013: July 29 (Ruta Meilutyte, women’s 100 breast)
- 2014: June 19 (Katie Ledecky, women’s 1500 free)
- 2015: April 17 (Adam Peaty, men’s 100 breast)
- 2016: January 17 (Katie Ledecky, women’s 800 free)
- 2017: January 29 (Ippei Watanabe, men’s 200 breast)
- 2018: April 5 (Australia, women’s 4×100 free relay)
- 2019: July 21 (Adam Peaty, men’s 100 breast)
- 2020: October 1 (China, mixed 4×100 medley relay)
- 2021: May 17 (Kliment Kolesnikov, men’s 50 back)
- 2022: April 28 (Hunter Armstrong, men’s 50 back)
- 2023: March 10 (Kaylee McKeown, 200 back)
List Of Long Course World Records Set Before May 1st (Post-Supersuit Era)
- Adam Peaty, 100 breast (57.92): April 17, 2015
- Katie Ledecky, 800 free (8:06.68): January 17, 2016
- Ippei Watanabe, 200 breast (2:06.67): January 29, 2017
- Australia, women’s 4×100 free relay (3:30.05): April 5, 2018
- Hunter Armstrong, 50 back (23.80): April 28, 2022
- Kaylee McKeown, 200 back (2:03.14): March 10, 2023
- Summer McIntosh, 400 free (3:56.08): March 28, 2023
- Summer McIntosh, 400 IM (4:25.87): April 1, 2023
- Evgeniia Chikunova, 200 breast (2:17.55): April 17, 2023
So what can explain for this phenomenon? Are swimmers really beginning to swim fast year-round instead of just at one big meet? After all, we did see short course US Open records go down three different times prior to conference championships during the 2022-23 NCAA season, so going all-out all the time is clearly the trend. That being said, it wasn’t like the world records this year were being set at random, in-season meets—McIntosh and Chikunova were swimming at the Canadian and Russian championships respectivley, which two of the biggest domestic meets of the 2022-23 season. However, McKeown did say she wasn’t tapered during the New South Wales Championships where she went her 200 back world record, so that’s something to consider.
Another significant fact is that all four world records this year were set by women. By contrast, out of the five individual world records set in 2022, four were in men’s events and only one was in a women’s event (Ariane Titmus’s 400 free). Across the board last year, men’s times did seem to be historically faster than women’s times (7/14 of men’s individual events at the 2022 World Championships were faster than the 2021 Olympic winning time, and only 3/14 women’s events were), so this could be a sign that women’s swimming is catching up.
So what are these early-season world records signifying? If swimming continues the momentum, we are most certainly going to pass the mark of eight world records that were set in 2022, considering the World Championships (where historically, the most world records have been set) hasn’t even happened yet. But only time will tell.
As a refresher, here are graphics showing the number of world records broken every year as distributed by gender and race type, as well as race videos of the world records that have been broken in 2023.
Kaylee McKeown — 200 Back
Summer McIntosh — 400 Free
Summer McIntosh — 400 IM
Evgeniia Chikunova — 200 Breast
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Four Long Course World Records Have Been Broken Already In 2023. How Big Is This? - SwimSwam
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