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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Seventeen-year-old Nils Nolte had a phenomenal showing at last week’s German Junior National Championships in Berlin, going four-for-four in gold medals and setting two new German age records.
Nolte, who competes for Berliner TSC, had his most notable performance come in the boys’ 200 freestyle, winning the 2009-born category in a time of 1:47.88 to chop 15 one-hundredths off his own national age record of 1:48.03 set at the Berlin Swim Open in April.
He had also gone 1:48.43 at the German Championships one week after the Berlin Swim Open, showing impressive consistency after having never broken 1:50 prior to April.
En route to his record swim last week, Nolte had similar splits to the Berlin Swim Open, going out conversatively over the first 50 before putting his foot on the gas over the middle 100. At the German Championships in late April, he went out like a rocket but faded coming home.
Split Comparison
| Nolte, 2026 Berlin Swim Open | Nolte, 2026 German Championships | Nolte, 2026 German Junior Nationals |
| 25.47 | 24.84 | 25.40 |
| 52.56 (27.09) | 51.68 (26.84) | 52.35 (26.95) |
| 1:20.35 (27.79) | 1:19.70 (28.02) | 1:19.92 (27.57) |
| 1:48.03 (27.68) | 1:48.43 (28.73) | 1:47.88 (27.96) |
“I’m absolutely stunned, that was an incredible race,” Nolte said post-race, according to the German Swimming Federation (DSV).
He also credited Simon Brugger, the runner-up in a time of 1:50.75, who went out fast and challenged Nolte over the front-half of the race.
“I’m not used to someone going with me right from the beginning. I think that gave me a real boost at that point,” Nolte said.
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Two days prior, Nolte broke the German age record for 17-year-old boys in the 100 free, clocking 49.85 to lower the 49.97 mark established by Artem Selin in 2019.
Nolte came into the meet with a best time of 50.34, set in April, and had lowered that to 50.03 in the prelims.
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He also won the German junior titles for 2009-born boys in the 400 free (3:51.35) and 200 IM (2:04.02) in Berlin, setting new lifetime bests in both.
Now, he’s looking forward to the European Junior Championships, scheduled for next month on home soil in Munich.
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