And then there remained only one.

The only sure thing in swimming is that records eventually get broken. Sometimes we expect it, sometimes nobody does.

For much of the last decade, the sprint records were held by Swedish superstar Sarah Sjöström. A mainstay on the international stage since she was 14 in 2008, she broke her first world record in July 2009 (lowering 100 LCM Fly mark to 56.44 and then to 56.06). Dana Vollmer broke that mark in July 2012, but Sjöström got it back in July 2014 and has had at least one world record ever since. That’s nearly 12 years and counting. During this time, she has held the world record in the 50 free (LCM and SCM), the 100 free (LCM and SCM), the 200 free (SCM), the 50 fly (LCM), and the 100 fly (LCM and SCM). She was the first woman under 25 in the 50 fly, the first under 52 in the 100 free, the first under 1:51 in the 200 SCM free.

A few months ago, I wrote an article pointing out that Sjöström has the longest current streak of having at least three individual, long course, world records concurrently. At the time (January 19th) this was 3,103 days, and I think most people expected that that number to keep increasing for quite some time. Certainly, roughly zero people expected Kate Douglass to break the 50 free mark on June 19th (Douglass herself did not!), and probably very few expected Marrit Steenbergen to break the 100 free mark a few days later on June 27th. And even once that happened, how expected was Gretchen Walsh re-breaking the 50 free mark the next day? And all this not even at the major international meet of the season!?

And so, Sarah Sjöström’s streak came to an end at 3,253 days. The only active streak of 3 individual long course world records remains Summer McIntosh’s, currently at 387 days.

But that’s just how it goes with records. Everyone’s reign must come to an end eventually. Janet Evans held a world record for more than 21 years, and held the 400, 800, and 1500 free marks together for more than 18 years. Laure Manaudou, the first woman to break an Evans record (the 400 free) in 2006, was barely a year old when Evans first broke the 400 free record. Yet now, Evans is just the 43rd fastest ever in the event (remarkably she is still 20th in the 1500 and 12th in the 800).

Michael Phelps’ reign lasted even longer — maintaining at least one individual world record continuously for more than 22 years, from March 2001 until July 2023. His final record to fall was the 400 IM, which he initially set in August 2002. Léon Marchand was just five months old at the time, and he would go on to break it soon after his 21st birthday. For very nearly the entirety of Marchand’s life, that world record belonged to Michael Phelps. Now, Phelps doesn’t have any individual records left either. 

After years and years and years on top of the world in not just one but several events, Sarah Sjöström is now down to just a single world record: the 24.43 she swam in the 50 fly in 2014. This time has, for years, seemed other-worldly. Untouchable. Surreal. It took almost 11 years for another woman to finally break 25 (Sjöström had done it 23 times by then). And now, Gretchen Walsh is just 0.08 away from taking away that last world record. Suddenly it’s not a question of if, but simply a question of when.

It has been, so far, 4,379 days since the last day Sjöström has not held an individual long course record. Someday — perhaps even within months — that time will come to an end. But when that day comes, she will simply join the storied swimmers that preceded her as one of the all time greats.