Tallying Up Records At The Olympics

Courtesy: Corey He

WOW. What a week of racing that was. And how lucky were we, as swimming fans, to have been treated to some of the most fierce, competitive, and inspiring races that we’ve seen in such a long time?

But it seems that perhaps one of the most intriguing conversations about these past Olympics centered around the pool itself — and, in particular, whether it was a “fast” pool. Especially in the first few days of the meet, rumors were circulating that the pool was “slow,” with much attention directed towards the pool’s shallower depth.

Frankly, I’m not the one to jump to such a conclusion. In fact, it’s got me thinking: What’s the easiest way we can compare how “fast” these past Olympics in Paris were to previous Olympiads?

A fast pool at a fast meet often sees many records come off the books. As such, we’ll run the numbers and count up the number of world (including world-junior) and Olympic Records that have fallen at the last few Olympiads. Once that’s done, I’ll let you be the judge.

*As a reminder, any world record is also automatically an Olympic Record (for obvious reasons), so I won’t be double-counting these records. In addition, I’ll be leaving out the super-suited 2008 Olympics…more on that later.

2004 Athens Olympics: We’ll start 20 years ago, or precisely five Olympiads prior to Paris. The competition — the only one on this list to take place in an outdoor pool — featured a total of eight world records and 11 Olympic Records.

• Women’s 100 Freestyle, WR: Jodie Henry (Australia), 53.52
• Men’s 100 Backstroke, WR: Aaron Peirsol (USA), 53.45
• Men’s 400 IM, WR: Michael Phelps (USA), 4:08.26
• Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay, WR: South Africa, 3:13.17
• Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay, WR: Australia, 3:35.94
• Men’s 400 Medley Relay, WR: USA, 3:30.68
• Women’s 400 Medley Relay, WR: Australia, 3:57.32
• Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay, WR: USA, 7:53.42
• Men’s 200 Freestyle, OR: Ian Thorpe (Australia), 1:44.71
• Men’s 1500 Freestyle, OR: Grant Hackett (Australia), 14:43.40
• Women’s 100 Backstroke, OR: Natalie Coughlin (USA), 59.68
• Men’s 200 Backstroke, OR: Aaron Peirsol (USA), 1:54.95
• Men’s 100 Breaststroke, OR: Brendan Hansen (USA), 1:00.01
• Women’s 100 Breaststroke, OR: Luo Xuejuan (China), 1:06.64
• Men’s 200 Breaststroke, OR: Kosuke Kitajima (Japan), 2:09.44
• Women’s 200 Breaststroke, OR: Amanda Beard (USA), 2:23.37
• Men’s 100 Butterfly, OR: Michael Phelps (USA), 51.25
• Men’s 200 Butterfly, OR: Michael Phelps (USA), 1:54.04
• Men’s 200 IM, OR: Michael Phelps (USA), 1:57.14

2008 Beijing Olympics: Due to super-suits, this one will be omitted from the list, but just in case you were curious, here are the numbers. This Olympiad was BY FAR the most record-breaking of them all, with 21 world records and 30 Olympic Records coming off the books.

What’s even more amazing is that world records were broken a total of 25 times, and Olympic Records were eclipsed 65 (yes, you read that right) times — meaning multiple records were broken multiple times.

When it was all said and done in Beijing, only two world records remained untouched: Ian Thorpe’s 400 freestyle (3:40.59), and Inge de Bruijn’s 100 butterfly (56.61). Almost every event on the schedule featured a broken record. So yes, we’ll be leaving this one out — because of its otherworldly outlier (and super-suited) status.

2012 London Olympics: Next on our list, we feature an Olympiad that saw eight world records come off the books, along with another 12 Olympic Records — just edging out the performance we saw in Athens.

• Men’s 1500 Freestyle, WR: Sun Yang (China), 14:31.02
• Women’s 200 Backstroke, WR: Missy Franklin (USA), 2:04.06
• Men’s 100 Breaststroke, WR: Cameron van der Burgh (South Africa), 58.47
• Men’s 200 Breaststroke, WR: Daniel Gyurta (Hungary), 2:07.28
• Women’s 200 Breaststroke, WR: Rebecca Soni (USA), 2:19.69
• Women’s 100 Butterfly, WR: Dana Vollmer (USA), 55.98
• Women’s 400 IM, WR: Ye Shiwen (China), 4:28.43
• Women’s 400 Medley Relay, WR: USA, 3:52.05
• Women’s 50 Freestyle, OR: Ranomi Kromowidjojo (Netherlands), 24.05
• Women’s 100 Freestyle, OR: Ranomi Kromowidjojo (Netherlands), 53.00
• Women’s 200 Freestyle, OR: Allison Schmitt (USA), 1:53.61
• Men’s 400 Freestyle, OR: Sun Yang (China), 3:40.14
• Women’s 400 Freestyle, OR: Camille Muffat (France), 4:01.45
• Men’s 100 Backstroke, OR: Matt Grevers (USA), 52.16
• Women’s 100 Backstroke, OR: Emily Seebohm (Australia), 58.23
• Men’s 200 Backstroke, OR: Tyler Clary (USA), 1:53.41
• Women’s 200 Butterfly, OR: Jiao Liuyang (China), 2:04.06
• Women’s 200 IM, OR: Ye Shiwen (China), 2:07.57
• Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay, OR: Australia, 3:33.15
• Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay, OR: USA, 7:42.92

2016 Rio Olympics: With a total of seven world records, three world junior records, and six Olympic Records, several of the records set in Rio still stand to this day.

• Men’s 100 Freestyle, WJR: Kyle Chalmers (Australia), 47.58
• Women’s 100 Freestyle, WJR: Penny Oleksiak (Canada), 52.70
• Women’s 400 Freestyle, WR: Katie Ledecky (USA), 3:56.46
• Women’s 800 Freestyle, WR: Katie Ledecky (USA), 8:04.79
• Men’s 100 Backstroke, WR: Ryan Murphy (USA), 51.85
• Men’s 100 Breaststroke, WR: Adam Peaty (Great Britain), 57.13
• Women’s 100 Butterfly, WR: Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden), 55.48
• Women’s 100 Butterfly, WJR: Penny Oleksiak (Canada), 56.46
• Women’s 400 IM, WR: Katinka Hosszu (Hungary), 4:26.36
• Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay, WR: Australia, 3:30.65
• Women’s 100 Freestyle, OR: Simone Manuel (USA) and Penny Oleksiak (Canada), 52.70
• Women’s 100 Breaststroke, OR: Lilly King (USA), 1:04.93
• Men’s 200 Breaststroke, OR: Ippei Watanabe (Japan), 2:07.22
• Men’s 100 Butterfly, OR: Joseph Schooling (Singapore), 50.39
• Women’s 200 IM, OR: Katinka Hosszu (Hungary), 2:06.58
• Men’s 400 Medley Relay, OR: USA, 3:27.95

2020 Tokyo Olympics: After the pandemic set this highly-anticipated meet back by a year, these Olympics delivered a total of six world records and 13 Olympic Records — courtesy of a few new events (including distance events and mixed relays) being added to the schedule.

• Women’s 200 Breaststroke, WR: Tatjana Smith (South Africa), 2:18.95
• Men’s 100 Butterfly, WR: Caeleb Dressel (USA), 49.45
• Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay, WR: Australia, 3:29.69
• Men’s 400 Medley Relay, WR: USA, 3:26.78
• Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay, WR: China, 7:40.33
• Mixed 400 Medley Relay, WR: Great Britain, 3:37.58
• Men’s 50 Freestyle, OR: Caeleb Dressel (USA), 21.07
• Women’s 50 Freestyle, OR: Emma McKeon (Australia), 23.81
• Men’s 100 Freestyle, OR: Caeleb Dressel (USA), 47.02
• Women’s 100 Freestyle, OR: Emma McKeon (Australia), 51.96
• Women’s 200 Freestyle, OR: Ariarne Titmus (Australia), 1:53.50
• Men’s 800 Freestyle, OR: Mykhailo Romanchuk (Ukraine), 7:41.28
• Women’s 1500 Freestyle, OR: Katie Ledecky (USA), 15:35.35
• Women’s 100 Backstroke, OR: Kaylee McKeown (Australia), 57.47
• Men’s 200 Backstroke, OR: Evgeny Rylov (ROC), 1:53.27
• Men’s 200 Breaststroke, OR: Zac Stubblety-Cook (Australia), 2:06.38
• Men’s 200 Butterfly, OR: Kristof Milak (Hungary), 1:51.25
• Women’s 200 Butterfly, OR: Zhang Yufei (China), 2:03.86
• Women’s 400 Medley Relay, OR: Australia, 3:51.60

2024 Paris Olympics: With a total haul of four world records, two World Junior Records, and 15 Olympic Records, I’ll let you be the judge — how does this stack up with the other Olympiads?

• Men’s 100 Freestyle, WR: Pan Zhanle (China), 46.40
• Men’s 1500 Freestyle, WR: Bobby Finke (USA), 14:30.67
• Women’s 200 Butterfly, WJR: Summer McIntosh (Canada), 2:03.03
• Women’s 200 IM, WJR: Summer McIntosh (Canada), 2:06.56
• Women’s 400 Medley Relay, WR: USA, 3:49.63
• Mixed 400 Medley Relay, WR: USA, 3:37.43
• Women’s 50 Freestyle, OR: Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden), 23.66
• Men’s 800 Freestyle, OR: Daniel Wiffen (Ireland), 7:38.19
• Women’s 200 Freestyle, OR: Mollie O’Callaghan (Australia), 1:53.27
• Women’s 1500 Freestyle, OR: Katie Ledecky (USA), 15:30.02
• Women’s 100 Backstroke, OR: Regan Smith (USA), 57.28
• Women’s 200 Backstroke, OR: Kaylee McKeown (Australia), 2:03.73
• Men’s 200 Breaststroke, OR: Leon Marchand (France), 2:05.85
• Women’s 100 Butterfly, OR: Gretchen Walsh (USA), 55.38
• Men’s 200 Butterfly, OR: Leon Marchand (France), 1:51.21
• Women’s 200 Butterfly, OR: Summer McIntosh (Canada), 2:03.03
• Men’s 200 IM, OR: Leon Marchand (France), 1:54.06
• Women’s 200 IM, OR: Summer McIntosh (Canada), 2:06.56
• Men’s 400 IM, OR: Leon Marchand (France), 4:02.95
• Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay, OR: Australia, 3:28.92
• Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay, OR: Australia, 7:38.08

Final Thoughts

Perhaps there are other ways to judge how fast a meet is. You could look at time cut-offs that would have made it back for the semifinals or finals. You could compare winning times across all events — along with times that would have won a medal. You could even look at the margin of victory across all races to see how “competitive” these events were.

But I think looking back at the records — both world and Olympic Records — yields the clearest picture. Because when we think of how fast a meet truly is, the first thing we think about are the top performances that these athletes delivered.

So, what do you think?

ABOUT COREY HE

Corey is a current junior at the University of Pennsylvania, studying biology and healthcare management on a pre-medicine track. Originally from New Jersey, he first jumped into the water when he was 4 years old and swam competitively all the way through high school. Prior to college, he swam for Fanwood-Scotch Plains YMCA. He hopes to pursue a career in sports medicine.