3 To Go: Bruno Fratus Swims 97th Sub-22 LCM 50 Free of His Career

32-year-old Brazilian star sprinter Bruno Fratus is on his way to making history again this summer. Last summer, he became the oldest swimmer to win their first Olympic medal, taking Bronze in the 50 free at the Tokyo Olympics at the age of 31.

Also, while he was at the Olympics last summer, Fratus made history as the first swimmer to race the LCM 50 free in under 22 seconds 90 times. Yes, 90 times. When all was said and done last summer, Fratus had swum his 92nd 21-point LCM 50 free, with the last one being his Bronze medal performance of 21.57 in the Olympic Final.

Since the Olympic final swim, it seemed fairly likely that if Fratus kept competing this year, he would probably get to 100 sub-22s, becoming the first swimmer to do so. We published an article a few weeks ago following the first stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour in Monte Carlo, wherein Fratus swam 3 different 21-point 50 freestyles. That put his total up to 95 in his career.

Fratus did in fact go on to compete in the other 2 stops of the Mare Nostrum Tour, Barcelona and Canet, clocking another 21-point at both stops. First up was Barcelona, where Fratus won the men’s 50 free in 21.78, touching a bit off the 21.49 he swam in Monte Carlo. He would come in 2nd in the final at the Canet stop, swimming a 21.99, getting the job done by the slimmest of margins.

As we stand here today, Fratus has now swum 97 sub-22 50 freestyles, leaving him 3 to go in order to crack 100. Coincidentally, there are 3 rounds of the 50 free at the upcoming World Championships, which start in just a few weeks. Based off the results from the 2015, 2017, and 2019 World Championships, Fratus won’t necessarily have to swim a sub-22 50 free to advance to semifinals in Budapest, however, he has a track record of swimming fast in every round of the event. For example, at the 2017 World Champs, Fratus swam a 21.51 in prelims, leading the field. He was 21.71 in prelims at the 2019 World Champs and 21.67 in prelims at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last summer. Moreover, he’s just proven that he’s still capable of swimming multiple 21-points at a single meet, having clocked 3 of them at the Mare Nostrum – Monte Carlo stop.

While we can’t predict a final time or whether he’ll win another World Championships medal, it does appear as if Bruno Fratus is well on his way to swimming his 100th 21-point 50 free. We’ll be continuing this series of “100 watch” as the World Championships progress.

The table below shows all 95 of Fratus’ 21-point 50 freestyles in his career, listed in chronological order starting with his first sub-22 at the 2009 Brazilian Nationals, all the way up through his 21.99 in finals on Saturday at the Mare Nostrum Canet stop. A huge thanks to SwimSwam/Swimming Stats’ Daniel Takata and coach Alex Pussieldi for helping to compile and verify this data.