The Feminine Swimmers With The Quickest Four-Stroke 800 IM Add-Ups

Just over three years, a pair of private greatest instances from Summer McIntosh within the 200 again and 200 breast, each off-events for her, prompted some readers to ask: which feminine swimmer had the quickest 800 IM add-up?

 The reply in December 2022 was Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu, at that time holder of each lengthy course IM World data. She was one among solely three swimmers underneath 8:40, and over three seconds forward of Ye Shiwen and McIntosh in second and third respectively.

This time, McIntosh has taken a commanding lead. She is over eight seconds sooner than she was in 2022, due to drops in all 4 strokes. The most notable of them is available in breaststroke at 3.62 seconds, though fly is simply behind with 3.21 seconds, regardless of her being the reigning world champion in that occasion after we checked out this beforehand. She additionally dropped 1.14 seconds on free, and 0.34 seconds on again.

Four of the highest 5 swimmers are earlier Olympic Champions, with Katinka Hosszu (2016), Ye Shiwen (2012), and Yui Ohashi (2021) becoming a member of McIntosh on the prime. Mary-Sophie Harvey is the odd one out, after dropping greater than 5 seconds on this add-up over three years to maneuver from eighth to 4th, placing two Canadians within the prime 5.

There are 4 Hungarian swimmers within the prime 14, showcasing the medley energy of that nation extends past Hosszu. The most shocking of that quartet is Dalma Sebestyen, who has a greatest time of simply 4:43.77 within the 400 IM. An enormous motive for her leap was a formidable 2:26.47 within the 200 breast which she swam simply final month on the Győr Open Swim Cup.

The U.S. has probably the most swimmers within the prime 20, nonetheless, with Katie Hoff, Ariana Kukors, Elizabeth Beisel, Madisyn Cox, and Leah Smith making the reduce.

Regularly swimming all the requisite occasions, at both full taper meets, mid-season relaxation meets, nationals rolling into World Championships, and different such affairs, is usually a limiting consider these lists. For a few of the greatest 400 IMers in historical past, like Stephanie Rice on breaststroke, we couldn’t discover instances for lengthy course 200s of all strokes.

If you discover a swimmer who’s quick sufficient to have made the highest 20 however is lacking, tell us within the feedback beneath.

Swimmers Who Narrowly Missed Out:

• There have been eight swimmers inside a second of the highest 20, way over there have been inside the similar distance within the 400 IM add-up. They have been led by Olympic Bronze medalist Caitlin Leverenz, who was simply 0.03 seconds behind Jenna Forrester in 8:54.40.
• There is an anglophone theme to the vast majority of these eight, with all bar Yana Klochkova hailing from one of many U.S., Canada, Great Britain, or Australia. Audrey Derivaux is the youngest of these, notching 8:54.77 at simply 16 years outdated.
• Regan Smith is a breaststroke swim away from making the final, as was the case within the 400 IM add-up. She is 6:04.42 throughout free, fly, and again, however we couldn’t discover a breaststroke time for her. It would take 2:49.95 to match Jenna Forrester for twentieth.
• Kaylee McKeown, her backstroke rival, is lacking a 200 fly time, as is Alex Walsh and Anastasiya Gorbenko. Anything underneath 2:20 would slot them comfortably onto the record, as they presently stand at 6:23.38, 6:28.50, and 6:30.48 respectively.