2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
After breaking her own World Junior Record in the heats of the women’s 200 back this morning with a 2:06.01, 17-year-old American Regan Smith dropped almost another 3 seconds, breaking the 2012 World Record held by Missy Franklin. Smith swam a 2:03.35, shattering the record by .71 seconds. Franklin’s record had seemed like one that would stand for a while longer, since the fastest non-Franklin swim since she set the record in 2012 was Australia’s Emily Seebohm, who clocked a 2:05.68 at the 2017 World Champs.
With the swim, Smith now holds the World Record, World Junior Record, American Record, and 17-18 NAG for Americans. Franklin was also 17 when she set her World Record. Going by age, Franklin’s WR would have also been a World Jr Record, however, FINA did not yet recongize WJRs in 2012. Here is a split comparison between Smith’s WR swim, Missy Franklin‘s WR swim, and Smith’s WJR swim this morning.
| REGAN SMITH 2019 WORLD CHAMPS SEMIFINALS | REGAN SMITH 2019 WORLD CHAMPS PRELIMS | MISSY FRANKLIN 2012 OLYMPIC FINAL |
| 29.06 | 29.44 | 29.53 |
| 31.31 (1:00.37) | 31.50 (1:00.94) | 30.97 (1:00.50) |
| 31.47 (1:31.84) | 32.34 (1:33.28) | 31.66 (1:32.16) |
| 31.51 | 32.73 | 31.90 |
| 2:03.35 | 2:06.01 | 2:04.06 |
Smith was under WR pace the enitre way through the race, even outsplitting Missy’s race on every 50 except the 2nd. Smith stayed incredibly consistent on the last 3 50s, with those 3 coming in at a range of only .20 seconds.
Here is video of the end of Regan’s race:
Regan Smith, 18 years old, wipes Missy Franklin's 200m backstroke world record off the books. Brings it down from 2:04.06 to 2:03.35. pic.twitter.com/Zl2uEPcmZk
— Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) July 26, 2019
Fastest Women’s 200 Meter Backstrokers in History:
- REGAN SMITH, USA – 2:03.35 (2019)
- Missy Franklin, USA – 2:04.06 (2012)
- Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe – 2:04.81 (2009)
- Anastasia Fesikova, Russia – 2:04.94 (2009)
- Emily Seebohm, Australia – 2:05.68 (2017)
- Margherita Panziera, Italy – 2:05.72 (2019)
- Katinka Hosszu, Hungary – 2:05.85 (2017)
- Kylie Masse, Canada – 2:05.94 (2019)
- Maya DiRado, USA – 2:05.99 (2016)
- Belinda Hocking, Australia – 2:06.06 (2011)
Ok we can assume that we are 98% certian that the coaches are going to leadoff with regan smith in the medley relay final, what time is everyone predicting??? To the hundredth. Im gonna go with 57.25
57.68
57.17 – given what she just shaved in the 200, I’m going really low.
Actually, seeing everyone throw up they’re 57-point guesses, I would like to play this like on the Price Is Right and just bid 1 second.
I’ll bid 1.01 seconds.
Milak won the 200 fly by 3.13 secs. Regan could go better than that tomorrow.
I’d guess it won’t be 3 seconds faster than Luca goes at nationals. I wish Luca was able to go head to head with Milak, but we’ll have to wait til the Olympics.
Awesome swim. For anyone paying attention, it’s thrilling but not shocking to see her break the WR. She’s been crushing her in-season 200s this year, focused, aggressive, never faltering, never fading, never backing down. Regan has been dominant unrested and now she shows us what she can do tapered. Congratulations Regan! Your time has come.
Heres a crazy thought, if she can go a 205 in the 200 fly one would have to wonder what time she can pop in the IM’s, shes got 3 of the 4 good strokes mmm🤔🤔🤔
I think I’ve seen an interview of hers where she says she’s so bad at breaststroke it eliminates 200IM
Though you’d think that someone THAT talented could spend some time and figure it out eventually. Just need to be able to split 37.5ish for a world-class IM, given her obvious ability in fl-bk-fr.
She needs to go pro and make that money.
I’m just dreading another Missy situation.
Incredible to think that a sub 1:00 100back was an amazing swim not too long ago, and Smith took that race out in 1:00.3 to her feet – with relative ease.
Yeah this shows just what an old fart I am but her stroke is just as beautiful and effortless as Krisztina Egerszegi’s was. It is poetry. I did not see that time coming. It is such a huge drop and absolutley wonderful.
You know what’s insane? How Regan is hacking away at the gap between her time and the men’s times. 2:03.3 is basically 6s behind what it took to final in men’s 200bk – that is not much gap at all compared to what we usually see. 200br is like 12s between fastest woman and 8th guy in semis, 8s for 200fr, 9s in 200fly – crazy because back is the 2nd slowest stroke typically.