2026 MARIA LENK TROPHY
- Monday, May 18th – Saturday, May 23rd
- Prelims at 9am local (8am ET)/finals at 6pm local (5pm ET)
- Julio de Lamare Aquatic Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
The 2026 Maria Lenk Trophy continued from Rio de Janeiro, with additional swimmers gaining qualification times for this year’s Pan Pacific Championships and Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
23-year-old Maria Fernanda Costa was the top performer in the women’s 200m freestyle, coming within striking distance of her own South American record in the process.
Costa stopped the clock at 1:56.42, a time just .36 away from the 1:56.06 lifetime best and continental standard established at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Splitting 27.75/29.35/29.51/29.81, Costa handily defeated the field, with Gabrielle Roncatto next to the wall over two seconds behind in 1:58.46.
University of Michigan swimmer Stephanie Balduccini rounded out the podium in 1:59.07.
Costa’s time was good enough to add the event to her 400m free Pan Pacs qualification from last night, ranking as the 12th-swiftest 200m freestyler in the world on the season.
2025-2026 LCM Women 200 FREE
O'CALLAGHAN
1:52.86
| 2 | Lani PALLISTER | AUS | 1:53.65 | 06/10 |
| 3 | Summer MCINTOSH | CAN | 1:53.80 | 03/06 |
| 4 | Siobhan Haughey | HKG | 1:54.13 | 05/28 |
| 5 | Freya COLBERT | GBR | 1:54.34 | 04/16 |
| 6 | Erika Fairweather | NZL | 1:55.06 | 05/14 |
| 7 | Li Bingjie | CHN | 1:55.67 | 11/13 |
| 8 | Anna MOESCH | USA | 1:55.81 | 05/24 |
| 8 | Li Jiaping | CHN | 1:55.81 | 11/12 |
| 10 | Anna Peplowski | USA | 1:55.82 | 04/17 |
| 11 | Meg HARRIS | AUS | 1:55.97 | 12/14 |
| 12 | Barbora SEEMANOVA | CZE | 1:55.99 | 05/28 |
| 13 | Liu Yaxin | CHN | 1:56.01 | 11/13 |
| 14 | Inez Miller | AUS | 1:56.41 | 06/10 |
| 15 | Maria Fernanda COSTA | BRA | 1:56.42 | 05/19 |
The men’s edition of the 200m free was also won by last night’s 400m free victor, as Stephan Steverink delivered a speedy mark of 1:46.32 to get the job done.
He opened quickly in 51.58 and had Murilo Sartori right on his heels on the back half. Sartori hit the wall just .22 later to settle for silver in 1:46.54, with both men nabbing Pan Pacs-worthy outings.
Breno Correia also landed on the podium in 1:46.81, although he was faster in the morning with a heats swim of 1:46.57.
Entering this competition, Steverink’s PB rested at the 1:47.23 he notched last summer, meaning the 22-year-old hacked over half a second to clear the 1:47-threshold for his first time ever. He now ranks as Brazil’s #3 performer of all time and Sartori is now the 5th-swiftest.
Top 5 Brazilian Men’s LCM 200 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Fernando Scheffer – 1:44.66, 2021
- Guilherme Costa – 1:46.06, 2024
- Stephan Steverink – 1:46.32, 2026
- Joao De Lucca – 1:46.42, 2015
- Murilo Sartori – 1:46.54, 2026
Additional Notes
- 27-year-old world champion Hugo Gonzalez narrowly defeated Guilherme Basseto to take the gold in the men’s 100m backstroke. The former logged 54.28 to the latter’s 54.34, with Samuel Lopes also in the mix at 54.79. Earlier in the day Davi Vallim posted 55.33 to make the Junior Pan Pacs roster.
- Cadence Vincent topped the women’s 100m backstroke podium in 1:00.68 to beat the field by well over a second en route to gold.
