2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
- Budapest, Hungary
- LCM (50m)
- Full Competition Schedule
- Meet Info
- Psych Sheets
- Omega Results
- Pick ’em Contest
- Event-by-Event Previews
15-year-old Regan Smith broke a junior world record in semifinals of the 200 backstroke at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest.
Smith, the youngest member of the U.S. World Championships team, put up a gutsy swim in a heat full of seasoned international veterans. Swimming next to Olympic silver medalist Katinka Hosszu, Smith went out patient and swam by Hosszu in the back half. Though both fell behind Russia’s Daria Ustinova down the stretch, Smith still took second in the heat in 2:07.19, a new junior world record.
In fact, the swim erases Ustinova’s own junior world mark, set in 2015 at 2:07.29.
Smith still has almost two and a half years to continue setting junior world records. She turns 18 in the year 2020, which means under FINA rules, she’s eligible to break junior world records until December 31, 2019. Smith will also compete at the Junior World Championships later this summer, as well as in the final tomorrow night. Smith qualified 5th overall.
She’s still not the fastest junior in history, though. That title belongs to Missy Franklin, who set the world record of 2:04.06 as a 17-year-old in 2012. FINA didn’t start tracking junior world records until 2013.
Comparing more directly to Smith, Franklin was 2:07.96 as a 15-year-old back in 2011. Her 15-16 national age group record, though, is a 2:05.10, giving Smith some big improvements to make to keep pace with Franklin’s progression over the next year.
We were watching here today at the state meet when they put this up on the scoreboard. Making Minnesota proud!
I am a great RS fan, as seen from my many comments. They stopped the meet in the middle of an event (of State Meet!) without prior notification to swimmers or coaches. I have never seen so many visibly and verbally angry swimmers, coaches, and parents (lot of them from Riptide, Regan’s team) in the stands and on deck! Yes we are proud of her as fellow Minnesotans, but such a decision made some swimmers waiting behind the blocks for over 30 minutes in perhaps their biggest meet of this season. Mental preparation and pre-race routine are very important to these swimmers. I don’t think Regan would agree to such a stupid decision to undermine and disrupt her fellow swimmers’… Read more »
Would be nice to mention the club team/ coach when talking about an age grouper.
Don’t know where you live but 15 is considered in the senior groups. 14 and unders are age groupers. But yes that would be nice.
Lets not forget Kaylee McKeown is just only turned 16 years old, 2.07.40, only .3 away, these 2 girls may be the future of backstroke swimming.
wow….never heard anything of her before….these young guns are going suuuuper fast
She is the younger sister of Taylor McKeown, the Breaststoker, McKeown jr or Mini McKeown as she is known in Aussie swimming circles, together with Mina Atherton, are the future Aussie backstrokers after Seebohm. I can see Smith & McKeown battling for years to come, 2.07s for 15 & 16 years olds & Kaylee has only just turned 16, is pretty awesome in an event stuck in the 2.05-6s outside of Missy in recent years.
Might seem deflating for Australia overall on the meet results given the late 90s through to 2008, but I’ve noticed a lot of promising young swimmers perform well here…apart from McKeown…Titmus, Cartwright, Wilson, and Jack look like the beginnings of a good foundation.
IS THERE A WAY I CAN WATCH THE SEMIS AGAIN I MISSED IT AND WANT TO SEE HER SWIM!!!
How awesome is it that Elizabeth Beisel, who is likely on her final WC Team is a teammate of Reagan Smith; Beisel swam in her 1st WC 10 yrs ago when she was 14 yrs old, making the semi in the 200 back, then made it onto the 1st of her 3 Olympic Teams at 15, where she made it to the final in the 200 back (and 400 IM).
Regan Smith
Women’s 200 m backstroke
2017 Phillips 66 National Championships
Heats – 2:08.95
Final – 2:08.55
Regan Smith
Women’s 200 m backstroke
2017 FINA World Championships
Heats – 2:08.13
Semifinals – 2:07.19
Not bad for a 15 year old!
Regan’s reaction brought tears to my eyes. What a lovely young lady.
First of all Regan Smith swam a great race and what I am going to say after takes nothing away from that. The USA should be very proud of her. That being said, I dislike the concept of World Jr Records where they didn’t go back in time to see what the fastest time they could verify was. Regan has the world Jr record but she is still 2 seconds away from the national age group record, which was done at the world chanpionships with all of the requisite drug testing and documentation. That is true for many events where you can point to faster qualified and documented swims.
World Jr. Record … not exactly, regardless of FINA’s pronouncements. Clearly Missy’s world record from London is in a class of its own for a “Junior” aged swimmer, but beyond this Hungary’s Krisztina Egerzegi (sp?) won Olympic gold at ages 14, 18 and 22, with a world record set at age 17 in 1991 (2:06.62) which stood for 17 years until broken by Kirsty Coventry at the 2/08 Grand Prix meet at the University of Missouri (Columbia) at 2:06.39. But neither Missy nor Krisztina got credit in their time from FINA for a World Junior record … but we know the truth.
All that said, however, GO REAGAN, and for that matter, GO KAYLEE.