Medal Table | Olympic Schedule | Olympic News
PARIS — This astonishing statistic that tells the story of the current evolution of Olympic swimming is, on the surface, a testament to Australian speed. It’s the story of Ariarne Titmuss, the world record “Terminator,” and Molly O’Callaghan, the 20-year-old who may soon become a breakout star in Paris.
At last month’s Australian Olympic Trials, they recorded two of the fastest times ever in the women’s 200m freestyle, 1:52.23 and 1:52.48 respectively.
They also broke through invisible and somewhat arbitrary barriers.
Titmuss and O’Callaghan became the first women to swim faster than Mark Spitz on June 12, 2024.
An Olympic legend, Spitz won a then-unprecedented seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games. He set world records in all seven events, including the four individual events: the 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, and the 100m and 200m butterfly.
Until last month, no woman had come close to matching that record. No women’s team had ever topped Spitz’s 1972 relay record. Then Titmuss and O’Callaghan came along and…
“Wow! That’s amazing,” exclaimed Rowdy Gaines when I first mentioned that the Australian’s time was faster than Spitz’s personal best of 1:52.78.
But then, after pondering the statistic, Gaines revised his response.
“I was shocked when I first heard about it,” the Olympic champion and longtime swimming spokesperson told Yahoo Sports, “and then I started thinking, … Maybe it’s not such a shock, because it’s just the natural course of the sport.”
In every swimming event, from the men’s 50m freestyle to the women’s 400m individual medley, humanity has shaved a second off the world’s best records throughout and since the 20th century. Progress isn’t linear, but it is continuous: technical improvements, technology, rule changes, and resources are constantly pushing competitive swimming to new heights.
So to insiders, women’s overtaking of Spitz shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Comparing the modern era of women to that of men in history provides a fascinating window into that progress.
Although Spitz’s best record has never been beaten by a woman, other world records from 1972 have been broken. In fact, by the late 1980s, Janet Evans had surpassed the 1972 men’s records in both the 800-meter freestyle and the 1,500-meter freestyle. By 2016, Katie Ledecky had beaten her 1972 Olympic records by 19 seconds in the 800 meters and 32 seconds in the 1,500 meters.
But at shorter distances, historic records became harder to chase. The remainder of the 1972 men’s record remained unbeaten by women until the era of the “supersuit.” In the mid-2000s, dozens of swimmers made or broke world records thanks to buoyant, full-body racing suits. Between 2006 and 2009, five more men’s records from 1972 were broken (in two IM, two breaststroke events, and the 400m freestyle).
The remaining nine (including seven owned by Spitz) survived 2009 and are going strong through 2024.
After the 2009 World Championships, “supersuits” were banned, and a streak of world-record-setting swimming came to an abrupt halt; in some events, it has yet to resume. Such is the performance-enhancing effect of polyurethane suits, they remain one of the best examples of how technology beyond the control of engineers and swimmers can speed up a swimming event (the starting blocks are another example).
But in the meantime, the swimmers themselves continue to improve.
One quad jump at a time, one early-morning session at a time, athletes and their coaches, and more recently, high-performance experts and data scientists, have been correcting inefficiencies in their strokes and developing innovative training methods to shave times by tenths, then hundredths.
A special innovation, the underwater dolphin kick, has likely shaved several seconds off top times since the 1980s. Other innovations have been applied to specific strokes; for example, changes in recommended head position have improved the freestyle. On the men’s side, ten years after Spitz’s last swim, Gaines shaved nearly four seconds off the legendary record in the 200m freestyle.
And 19 years later, in 2001, Ian Thorpe was 4.24 seconds faster than Gaines.
In 2009, during the supersuit’s final spurt, the men’s 200m freestyle world record was 10.78 seconds faster than the 1972 record.
However, over the same period, women’s times have deteriorated further, not just in the 200m freestyle but across the board.
Gaines and others believe this is due to slow progress towards gender equality across sports.
In general, money and professional opportunities have transformed swimming for both men and women. The infrastructure surrounding swimming has allowed for sustained careers and full-time commitments, resulting in shorter records. But the differences between the past and the present are stark, especially on the women’s side. In 1976, Gaines recalled, “The men were basically treated like royalty, and the women were treated badly.” Today, as top swimmers in countries like the U.S. and Australia, they receive very similar treatment.
The best athletes, like Spitz in 1972, are extraordinary under any circumstances. Of course, the individuals are an integral part of this story. Titmuss, who has risen to prominence in 2021, already beat Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle on Saturday night. O’Callaghan, a two-time world champion last summer, is the favorite in the 100m and is already leading the way in winning the relay. They go head-to-head in the 200m on Monday (3:41 p.m. ET), but no one from their generation will be able to beat them.
But they’re also part of a broader phenomenon that some swimming enthusiasts are calling “swimflation.”
The clock is starting to flatten, because most of the major inefficiencies in the technology have probably already been identified. Information spreads faster than ever before. Underwater footage of record-breaking swims is now just a click away on a laptop or a tap on a smartphone. Prototypes are analyzed, and coaches and swimmers tweak them.
But clearly humans are still figuring out the best way to crawl underwater. Women, as the marginalized sex, are still realizing the potential once repressed. Spitz’s 200m freestyle record was the first of seven to be broken, but it certainly won’t be the last.
