Summer McIntosh Is not Simply The 200 Fly World Record Holder

2026 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials

You could also be conscious {that a} vital report fell final evening. No, not Mexico’s 13-year-long unbeaten report on the Azteca stadium, the place the altitude was no match for the alti-Jude, however the ladies’s 200 fly world report.

That report, set by China’s Liu Zige on the 2009 Chinese National Games lasted 16 years, eight months, and 14 days. It was the longest-standing world report in ladies’s swimming, the ultimate relic of the supersuit period. It didn’t fairly make it to its dancing queen period, as Abba as soon as sang.

So what are you able to do in 16 years, eight months, and 14 days?

• Be born
• Qualify for the Olympic Games, end 4th within the 400 free remaining and break the nationwide report within the 4×200 free relay
• Become a quadruple nationwide champion and break a Commonwealth and World junior report
• Win two World titles
• Win two Commonwealth titles
• Set a senior world report, overtaking two of the perfect feminine swimmers in historical past as you accomplish that

What’s extra, you’d nonetheless have one month and 4 days left. Plenty of time to do one thing like plan a financial institution theft, or run 34 marathons.

Summer McIntosh has been shut earlier than. She swam inside half a second of Liu’s 2:01.81 twice final yr, clocking 2:02.26 at Canadian Trials and a pair of:01.99 on the World Championships. She was not initially thrilled by the slightness of the margin, simply 0.18 seconds, however the hole after this swim got here down on the proper facet of the report for her.

Throughout the report’s lengthy lifetime just one swimmer, McIntosh, has come even near difficult it. Only 5 ladies in historical past have even been below 2:04 within the occasion – a mark that’s now practically two and a half second behind McIntosh’s world report. In truth, outdoors of Liu’s 2:01.81 nobody aside from McIntosh has been sooner than Jessica Schipper‘s 2:03.41 from the 2009 World Championships.

If it was not for McIntosh, the highest two performers on the finish of 2009 would nonetheless be the highest two performers right this moment. No one besides her has been inside two seconds of Liu’s mark because it was set. Regan Smith clocked 2:03.84 for silver on the Paris Olympics and is the #4 performer in historical past, 2.03 seconds again from Liu, posting the quickest non-McIntosh swim since 2009.

Equivalent occasions (by proportion distinction) within the three remaining particular person supersuited world information – the boys’s 200 free, males’s 800 free, and males’s 200 again – appear much less of an outlier than within the 200 fly.

Equivalent Gap Between World Record And Fastest Non-McIntosh 200 Fly Swim Since Record, All LCM Super-Suited Records

• Women’s 200 fly – 2:03.84, #4 all-time (Regan Smith)
• Men’s 200 free – 1:43.70, #5 all-time (precise #5 – Luke Hobson, 1:43.73)
• Men’s 800 free – 7:39.65, #16 all-time (precise #16 – Mykhailo Romanchuk, 7:40.05)
• Men’s 200 again – 1:53.79, #10 all-time (precise #10 – Jiayu Xu, 1:53.99)

Even amongst these 4, by way of performances the ladies’s 200 fly is on one other degree. At the time Liu set the report, the #25 efficiency in historical past was 2:05.95, greater than 4 seconds again. The hole between the 2 was 3.29%. For comparability, Gretchen Walsh‘s 100 fly world report was 2.35% away from the #25 efficiency when she swam 54.33 earlier this yr.

It was not as if the 200 fly was in a rut on the time of Liu’s report in 2009. A full 15 of the highest 25 performances in historical past on the finish of 2009 had been set at that summer season’s world championships in Rome, together with eight of the highest ten. There had been 5 swimmers who clocked 2:04.50 or higher within the 2009 world remaining, and no remaining since has been as quick to such depth.

Nearly 17 years later, and there have solely ever been 11 swims below 2:04: two for Regan Smith (2:03.84, 2:03.87), one for Zhang Yufei (2:03.86), one for Jessica Schipper (2:03.41), two for Liu Zige (2:01.81, 2:03.90), and 5 for Summer McIntosh (2:01.65, 2:01.99, 2:02.26, 2:02.62, 2:03.03). There have been simply 23 swims of two:04.50 or higher – 5 from the 2009 world remaining.

The successful occasions on the World Championships and Olympic Games paint an image of simply how far-off the report had been from the sphere lately.

World and Olympic Winning Times, Women’s 200 Fly, 2011-2025

• 2011 World Championships – 2:05.55
• 2012 Olympic Games – 2:04.06 (OR)
• 2013 World Championships – 2:04.59
• 2015 World Championships – 2:05.56
• 2016 Olympic Games – 2:04.85
• 2017 World Championships – 2:05.26
• 2019 World Championships – 2:06.78
• 2021 Olympic Games – 2:03.86 (OR)
• 2022 World Championships – 2:05.20 *McIntosh*
• 2023 World Championships – 2:04.06 *McIntosh*
• 2024 Olympic Games – 2:03.03 (OR) *McIntosh*
• 2025 World Championships – 2:01.99 *McIntosh*

Of non-McIntosh swims, the Olympic successful occasions make up three of the quickest 4 since 2011. However, on the 2019 World Championships, the ultimate main worldwide meet till McIntosh made her debut, the successful time was simply 2:06.78, practically 5 seconds off the world report.

Since the summer season of 2021, there have been 18 swims below 2:05, ten of which belong to McIntosh. Of the eight swum by others, 5 have been between 2:04.80 and a pair of:05.00.

This was not a report that was creaking earlier than McIntosh turned her sights to the occasion. Four years later, it’s not a report that might be creaking with out her within the area. It won’t take one other decade and a half to see this report fall once more, however as soon as McIntosh retires – and keep in mind, she is simply 19 years previous – it might be one other quarter-lifetime earlier than it belongs to another person.