Jordan Crooks Followed Unique Path to Becoming Fastest Man Ever
The run to becoming a world-record holder was not without its stumbles for the best swimmer to ever come from the Cayman Islands, a country of less than 100 square miles and a population of under 100,000. Jordan Crooks was first pegged as a short-course-only swimmer as he excelled on the NCAA level and won a short course world title in 2022 before finally mixing it with the world’s best sprinters in the summer of 2023.
Within college swimming and the Southeastern Conference, Crooks has struggled to get past Florida’s Josh Liendo in major events, with Liendo taking first place in three of the four NCAA Championships finals between the two. Even Gui Caribe, his teammate at Tennessee, has overshadowed Crooks at times in recent years. Crooks typically does not record his best times in championship finals.
Not exactly the most conventional path to swimming immortality, but that does not matter when Crooks has moved through water faster than any human being before. The barrier Crooks broke last week at the Short Course World Championships is the sort long remembered.
The first swimmer to go under a certain time carries a bit extra weight when that time ends with a zero, and such achievements are rare. We might never again see the 1:00-mark challenged in any long course event; Roman Sludnov became the first man under 1:00 in the men’s 100 breaststroke in 2001 and Natalie Coughlin did the same in the women’s 100 backstroke a year later.
Since then, the monumental long course marks have included Stephanie Rice and Kirsty Coventry going sub-4:30 in the 400 IM in 2008, Federica Pellgrini breaking 4:00 in the 400 freestyle during the supersuit era of 2009 and Rebecca Soni cracking 2:20 in the 200 breast in the final race of her career. On the men’s side, perhaps 3:40 in the 400 free and 14:30 in the 1500 free are within range. As for short course meters, Mireia Belmonte (butterfly) and Katinka Hosszu (backstroke) both achieved sub-2:00 swims over 200 meters in 2014.
Jordan Crooks — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Crooks just did that in the 50 free, blasting through the 20-second barrier the sprinting community has been seriously pursuing since the suit era, when the mark dropped from 20.93 to 20.30 in two years. After that, Florent Manaudou was the next swimmer to break the world record, dropping down to 20.26, and then Caeleb Dressel went 20.24 and 20.16 during his first two appearances in the International Swimming League finals.
Ah yes, Dressel, the swimmer to whom Crooks has drawn significant comparisons throughout his career because of their shared membership in the 17-second club in the 50-yard free. Dressel first achieved that result in 2018, and Crooks became the second man to join him five years later. Crooks lacks the raw power of Dressel’s starts and turns (so does every other swimmer in the world), but he is similarly excellent underwater. Crooks utilizes a slightly unconventional dolphin kick, undulating from his fingertips to toes with an unusually wide range of motion in his upper body. More internationally-ranked swimmers have adopted this style, but Crooks has executes it to perfection.
As a result, he reached to the barrier that Dressel never could, even when the nine-time Olympic champion swam in a pair of unofficial time trials wearing the part-polyurethane LZR Racer. Crooks did, though, first blasting through Dressel’s world record with a 20.08 prelim swim and then going 19.90 as he obliterated his semifinal heat by seven tenths, an astounding margin in a 50-meter swim. His sister Jillian, also representing the Cayman Islands internationally and competing for Tennessee, presented Jordan with his $25,000 world-record bonus check.
Crooks followed that by winning gold by 38-hundredths, with Caribe taking second for a Tennessee 1-2 finish. Crooks also won 100 free bronze in Budapest.
These swims should not be considered surprising, not considering the start to Crooks’ senior season with the Volunteers. Last month at his home invitational, he fired off yards times of 18.12 in the 50 free, 40.26 in the 100 free, 1:30.00 in the 200 free and 43.77 in the 100 fly, all significant best times except for the 50-yard event. Perhaps the most shocking performance was in the eight-lap race, one that Crooks rarely swims, as he knocked more than two seconds off Tennessee’s school record while jumping to No. 8 all-time in the event.
Now, Crooks finishes 2024 with serious momentum and some well-earned notoriety for his record-breaking swim, the sort of athletic performance short enough to fit into a highlight that fans worldwide can marvel at on their mobile devices. At his next major juncture, showdowns with Liendo, Caribe, Jack Alexy and others await at the NCAA Championships in late March, and next summer, he will try to build on his Paris Olympic performances (eighth in the 50 free, 13th in the 100 free) at the long course edition of the World Championships.
Right now, though, he’s the fastest sprinter ever, his marvelous display of speed and power well worth the thousands of views from admiring fans worldwide.
