SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers what they thought was the top swim of the European Short Course Championships, which wrapped up earlier this month in Lublin:
Question: What was the best performance of SC Euros?
RESULTS
- Steenbergen – W 200 IM Euro Record (2:01.83) – 39.3%
- Steenbergen – W 200 free Euro Record (1:50.33) – 11.6%
- Steenbergen – W 100 free Euro Record (50.42) – 9.1%
- Grousset – M 50 free relay split (19.96) – 8.5%
- Curtis – W 50 free relay split (22.71) – 8.2%
- Corbeau – M 100 breast (55.54) – 4.4%
- Jefimova – W 100 breast (1:02.82) – 3.8%
- Steenbergen – W 100 IM Euro Record (56.26) – 2.8%
- Coll Marti – M 200 breast (2:00.86) – 2.8%
- Grousset – M 100 fly (48.10) – 2.5%
- Corbeau – M 50 breast relay split (24.78) – 2.2%
- Grousset – M 100 free (45.17) – 1.9%
- Steenbergen – W 50 back Euro Record (25.47) – 1.6%
- Gose – W 400 free Euro Record (3:54.33) – 1.3%
Marrit Steenbergen had an otherworldly performance at the European Short Course Championships, incredibly setting new Continental Records in five different events en route to stacking up six gold and eight total medals in Lublin.
There were numerous European Records, blistering relay splits and other swims that were among the fastest of all-time produced at the meet, so we asked readers which performance stood out to them as the best in our most recent poll, and it was three Steenbergen swims coming out on top.
Leading the way by a wide margin, and rightly so, was her swim in the 200 IM, which took down Katinka Hosszu‘s longstanding European Record in a time of 2:01.83, marking the second-fastest swim ever.
Hosszu’s previous record stood at 2:01.86, set in 2014, which was also the world record for a decade before Kate Douglass took it down last year in 2:01.63.
Steenbergen’s previous best time, set at the 2022 SC Worlds, was 2:04.94, making her performance in Lublin all the more impressive.
That swim earned 39.3% of votes, while Steenbergen’s swims in the 100 (9.1%) and 200 free (11.6%) were next up in the poll.
She clocked 1:50.33 in the 200 free, which ranks her #3 all-time behind world record holder Mollie O’Callaghan, who set the all-time mark of 1:49.36 in October, and Siobhan Haughey, who held the previous record at 1:50.31. Steenbergen lowered the eight-year-old European Record of 1:50.43, set by Sarah Sjostrom in 2017.
Steenbergen also broke Sjostrom’s European Record in the 100 free, clocking 50.42 to knock off the Swede’s previous mark of 50.58 and moving her into #4 all-time in the event.
The only other two swims that earned more than 5% of votes in the poll were 50 free relay splits from Maxime Grousset and Sara Curtis.
Grousset anchored the French men’s runner-up 4×50 medley relay in 19.96, just the third split in history under 20 seconds and the first in a textile suit.
Curtis anchored the Italians to a world record in the mixed 4×50 medley relay, splitting 22.71 for the second-fastest ever behind only Emma McKeon (22.62).
Steenbergen added European Records in the women’s 100 IM (56.26) and the 50 back (25.47) leading off the Dutch women’s 4×50 medley relay (that also set the European Record) en route to stacking up six gold and eight total medals and walking away with a meet-leading $50,000 in prize money.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: What was the top swimming story of the year?
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The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.
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