Men’s 100 Freestyle Short Course World Record Should Fall This Winter
An October 2021 World Cup in Kazan, Russia, played host to Australian sprinter Kyle Chalmers as he sought the first world record of his already-accomplished career. Chalmers had narrowly missed the world mark in the short course 100 freestyle on several occasions that fall between International Swimming League competitions and World Cup stops, but he finally succeeded in Kazan. Chalmers clocked 44.84 to lower a 13-year-old world record by one tenth.
The previous top time belonged to Frenchman Amaury Leveaux, a 44.94 that had survived since the December 2008 European Short Course Championships, held at the height of the polyurethane-suit era. Leveaux, part of the French 400 free relay team that had won Olympic silver months beforehand and would win gold four years later in London, had annihilated the previous record at that meet in Rijeka, Croatia, taking a mark of 45.69 down to 45.12 in the semifinal round and then 44.94 in the final.
When the rubber suits were banned at the start of 2010, it took years for global sprinting to catch up. At the biannual Short Course World Championships, held in December since 2010, no one got within a half-second of that world record at six consecutive editions of the meet, not until after Chalmers broke the record in 2021. The Aussie would win his first global title in either course when he went 45.16 at the 2022 edition of the meet held on home turf in Melbourne.
Now, as the swimming community enters its biggest short course meters season of the quad leading into the global championships this December in Beijing, that record should be on high alert. Numerous sprinters have posted sizzling 25-meter times in recent years while an onslaught of 46-second swims in the long course pool suggest room to drop in short course as well.
Egor Kornev — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Aside from Chalmers, two active swimmers have gone below 45 seconds: Jordan Crooks clocked 44.95 at the 2024 Short Course Worlds while Egor Kornev ripped off a time of 44.99 last November. Just behind that group sits Jack Alexy, who went 45.05 in the 2024 global final to edge out Crooks for gold, while Maxime Grousset clocked 45.17 at last year’s European Championships. The past two years have also seen Josh Liendo clock 45.30, Gui Caribe 45.47 and Chris Guiliano 45.50. Caribe has already been as fast as 45.61 this year at the José Finkel Trophy.
As for the long course pool, David Popovici has been the standout performer two consecutive years, topping out at 46.56 to win the European title in August, coming up just 0.16 behind Pan Zhanle’s world record. Popovici has traditionally struggled in short course compared to long course, but two others with strong 25-meter credentials joined him in sub-47 territory in an exceptionally fast final at the Euro meet in Paris. Egor Kornev got second there in 46.74 while Kristof Milak went 46.87 for third. In relay action, Milak split as fast as 46.29, Kornev 46.32.
Other standout performances in the 100 free this summer included Australia’s Flynn Southam going 47.09 at the Commonwealth Games, Alexy clocking 47.14 to win gold at the Pan Pacific Championships, Guiliano at 47.16 and Spain’s Luka Hoek posting a time of 47.26 at the European Junior Championships. That’s a lot of elite sprinting talent trending upward in the past two years.
And of course, we cannot forget about Pan, the enigmatic sprinter who posted the electric 46.40 for Olympic gold but has been quiet since. That could change with the Asian Games coming up later this month, and then Pan will likely compete at a global-level competition in his home country for the first time when Short Course Worlds come to China in December. He could win gold by a huge margin or finish out of the mix; neither outcome would be too surprising given his up-and-down track record in the past few years.
It remains to be seen which of these sprinters will race short course meters over the next three months, but the attraction of global honors should draw many to Beijing. That plus tough competition should draw out multiple 44-second performances, and Chalmers’ world record is due to go down.
