10 Super-Suit World Records Remain After Kate Douglass Breaks Rebecca Soni’s 200 Breast Mark

During the first finals session of the Incheon stop on the Swimming World Cup, Kate Douglass torched the women’s 200-meter breaststroke world record, setting her first individual world record. It’s a significant achievement for Douglass and it’s an important moment in swimming history, as she wiped another super-suited world record off the books.

Now that Douglass has taken down Rebecca Soni’s mark of 2:14.57 from the 2009 Duel In The Pool, just ten super-suited world records remain–a mark of how far the sport has progressed since the super-suit ban when many worried we would never see another world record.

Short Course Meters Records

There are only two super-suited short course meters records left, one on the women’s side, and one on the men’s.

Sweden’s Therese Alshammar owns the remaining women’s mark, courtesy of the 24.38 she swam at the 2009 World Cup. In the years since, Ranomi Kromowidjojo has gotten the closest to the record, swimming three 24.4s, including a 24.44 at the 2021 SC World Championships.

Sarah Sjoström is the third-fastest performer of all-time and the fastest active swimmer with a lifetime best of 24.51, also from the 2021 SC Worlds. Douglass and Claire Curzan are the next fastest, boasting bests of 24.54 and 24.55. Douglass swam her best—and American record—last week in Shanghai and we could see her lower that mark once again in Incheon.

Paul Biedermann’s first entry in this exercise is his short-course meters 200 freestyle world record of 1:39.37 from 2009. Again, the second-fastest swimmer—Yannick Agnel with a 1:39.70—is no longer active, but Hwang Sunwoo scared this mark at the 2022 SC World Championships with a 1:39.72.

In 2008, France’s squad of Agnel, Fabien Gilot, Amaury Leveaux, and Fred Bousquet clocked 1:20.77 in the men’s 4×50 freestyle relay while wearing super-suits. However, this swim was not ratified by World Aquatics (then FINA) as a world record. So, while it is a world-best time, the official world record is a 1:21.80 by the United States in 2018.

Long Course Meters Records

Overall, there are ten super-suited world records still standing. Eight of those are in the long-course pool, and seven of those are on the men’s side.

The women’s super-suited world record remaining is Liu Zige’s 2:01.81 200 butterfly, which is widely regarded as the toughest world record on the women’s books. At the Paris Olympics, Summer McIntosh crushed the fastest effort we’ve seen since; her 2:03.03 makes her the second-fastest performer all-time, sandwiched between Liu and Jessica Schipper’s super-suited swims. She’s still 1.22 seconds off Liu’s pace. Regan Smith sits fourth at 2:03.84, and Zhang Yufei fifth at 2:03.86

The super-suited records still standing on the women’s side are both butterfly. For the men, the dominating stroke is freestyle—seven of the eight men’s world records are freestyle events, with the lone exception being Aaron Piersol’s 200 backstroke.

Many would say that the 800 freestyle world record is the most difficult of these men’s world records to break, but Piersol’s 1:51.92 is giving swimmers plenty of trouble too. Four of the top five performances in event history are super-suited swims from Piersol and Ryosuke Irie in 2009. In 2011, Ryan Lochte swam the fastest performance in a textile suit (1:52.96).

Mitch Larkin was 1:53.17 in 2015, and the fastest performer in the last nine years is Evgeny Rylov, who is banned from World Aquatics meets. He can still swim in Russian Federation meets, but the fastest active swimmer we could currently see at the World Championships or Olympics is Ryan Murphy. Murphy is the seventh-fastest performer and owns the 13th-fastest swim with a 1:53.57 from 2018. Rylov is the only man to break 1:54 since 2020.

Now, onto the men’s freestyle events. We’ll work our way up from the 50 freestyle, where Cesar Cielo’s 20.91 reigns supreme. Caeleb Dressel owns the textile world record at 21.04, which the new 50 freestyle Olympic champion Cameron McEvoy scared at the 2023 World Championships with a 21.06.

Biedermann is back in the 200 freestyle with his 1:42.00 from the 2009 World Championships. In the same pool 13 years later, David Popovici put together the fastest swim we’ve seen since, blazing 1:42.97. He sits third on the all-time performers list, .01 seconds behind Michael Phelps.

It’s all Biedermann again in the 400 freestyle. At the 2023 World Championships, it looked like either Ahmed Hafnaoui or Sam Short would be the one to break this mark. Lukas Märtens came on strong in the Olympic year while Hafnaoui and Short dealt with injury and sickness. After a 3:40.33 from Martens at the German Nationals, it looked like the world record was on borrowed time but Biedermann’s mark remained as Martens claimed Olympic gold.

Hafnaoui and Short’s sensational 2023 World Championships extended to the distance events as well; in the 800 freestyle, the pair swam 7:37.00 and 7:37.76 for the third and fourth fastest efforts in history. But even after 7:37.00, Hafnaoui still sits 4.88 seconds behind Zhang Lin’s world record of 7:32.12, again from 2009 Worlds.

The final two super-suited world records are the men’s 4×100 freestyle and 4×200 freestyle relays.

Three of the top five performances in the 4×100 freestyle relay are super-suited, including the top two from the 2008 Olympics. At the Tokyo Olympics, Caeleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni, Bowe Becker, and Zach Apple swam 3:08.97 to come .73 seconds away from the world record, held by the United States. Currently, they are the only squad to break 3:09 in textile suits. The fastest textile swim from a non-U.S. team is France’s 3:09.93 from the 2012 Olympics and the only other non-U.S. squad under the 3:10 barrier is Russia in 2019 (3:09.97). Meanwhile, the U.S. has been under that mark five times.

The U.S. also holds the 4×200 freestyle relay world record with a 6:58.55 from the 2009 World Championships, improving on their time from the Beijing Olympics by .01 second. Great Britain’s team of Tom Dean, James Guy, Matt Richards, and Duncan Scott got very close to that mark at the Tokyo Olympics, swimming 6:58.58 for gold.

This quartet has been incredible for Great Britain; they own the #3, #4, and #6 performances in history. After Tokyo, they swam 6:59.08 to win at the 2023 World Championships, then clocked 6:59.43 in Paris to become the first team to defend Olympic gold with the same quartet of swimmers.

Great Britain is the only nation with active swimmers to have been under the 7:00 mark, and they’ve done so three times. The U.S. team of Luke Hobson, Carson Foster, Jake Mitchell, and Kieran Smith came close at 2023 Worlds, swimming 7:00.02.