The Male Swimmers With The Fastest Four-Stroke 400 IM Add-Ups – 2026 Version

Just over two years after we initially looked at the top 400 IM add-ups, it’s time to taker another look. We’ll start with the men this time, where we have a new swimmer in top spot.

Thomas Ceccon’s 100 fly swim from the World semi-finals this summer, where he dropped a massive 50.42 to rank 14th all-time, was the key to him claiming that place. He beat out Michael Andrew by just 0.08 seconds, 3:31.72 to 3:31.80, with his advantages on backstroke and free pretty much a wash with Andrew’s 3.85-second lead on breaststroke. The Italian swimmer is 1.48 seconds faster than two years ago, thanks also to a half second drop in the 100 breast from 1:02.51 to 1:01.99.

Michael Phelps is at #3 despite a 1:02.54 100 breast, slowest of anyone in the top ten. Leon Marchand does make it into the top 20 this time around, thanks to a big drop on breaststroke since we last looked at the top-20. His 100 free does lag behind the others around him, and he could easily jump up a place or two even though he is predominantly a 200/400 swimmer, in contrast to those above him.

It is a more diverse top five than two years ago, with Hubert Kos joining Ceccon in the top ten. A drop from 1:08.51 to 1:01.53 is a big reason for his leap up the rankings, but improvements from 53.19 to 52.20 in the 100 back and 51.33 to 50.55 are not to be discounted.

Only two of the ten fastest 200 IM swimmers in history did not make the shortlist here, with Laszlo Cseh’s 3:39.88 sunk by a 1:05.38 100 breast. Shaine Casas is the other in 3:41.29, but has the slowest breaststroke by far (1:10.62) of anyone around him. He’s shown some serious speed on the breaststroke leg in his IM swims recently, outsplitting Leon Marchand at the World Cup in SCM, and should challenge the top five here if he swims that event in the near future.

Finlay Knox is the #19 performer in the 200 IM, but is all the way up in 7th here, despite not having an elite 100 of stroke. He is however the 2024 World Champion in the 200 IM and has split 59.75 on breaststroke before, nearly a second faster than his flat-start best of 1:00.66.

There are a couple of surprises in Nate Germonprez and Danny Kovac, both swimmers who have shone in the NCAA but are yet to make a World or Olympic team. Germonprez is a great IM swimmer with a sub-1:00 breaststroke and solid 53.1/55.5 speed on fly and back, while Kovac is a sneaky-good 1:00.49 on breaststroke to go alongside a 51.41 fly.

Four of the top 20 currently train at Texas under Bob Bowman, who clearly knows how to train IM swimmers. Also counting Phelps, a quarter of this list have swum under him at some point in their careers.

If you find a swimmer who is fast enough to have made the top 20 but is missing, let us know in the comments below.

MEN’S TOP 20 – 400 IM ADD-UP

Other Notable Swimmers:

• There are three swimmers within a tenth a second just outside the top 20, with Tomoe Hvas (3:38.92),  Matt Jensen (3:38.95), Joe Litchfield (3:38.97) and Arsenio Bustos (3:39.02) narrowly missing out. Max Litchfield (3:49.52) is just over 10 seconds behind his brother Joe.
• Ksawery Masiuk is almost identical to #13 Matt Grevers across fly, back and free (1:52.65 to 1:52.45), but we couldn’t find a breaststroke time for him.
• Bernhard Reitshammer (3:40.30) and Jeremy Stravius (3:40.31) are just outside the top 20, but arrived there in radically different ways. The clearest difference is on breaststroke where Reitshammer (59.68) has a huge advantage over the Frenchman (1:07.92).