Anna Elendt Swims #4 100 Breaststroke (1:05.97) In The World This Year In Berlin

2025 Berlin Swim Open

• Friday, April 25th – Sunday, April 27th
• Prelims at 9:30am local (3:30am ET)/Finals at 4pm local (10am ET)
• Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark, Berlin, Germany
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central

Swimming in the finals of the Berlin Open tonight, German Record holder Anna Elendt announced herself as a contender for the 100 breaststroke in Singapore this summer. The Texas swimmer powered to a time of 1:05.97, clipping her previous season best from this morning by over a second

These swims come hot on the heels of a 1:07.31 at the TXLA last chance meet, which previously stood as her season best. It appears that the heats there were swum mixed, with Elendt taking second overall behind 18-year-old Daniel King.

That followed on from a pair of 1:07s at the TYR Pro Swim Series in early March, as the German swimmer looks to be gearing up for some fast swims this summer. In previous years she was only at the 1:06-high mark in April, and has not tended to drop much if at all at major meets.

That seems to indicate she should be no worse than a mid-1:06 this summer, plenty fast enough to make the semi-finals. She also appears to be back in the same form as 2022, splitting similarly here to her times from spring and summer three years ago.

Notably, this was the first time since the 2022 World Championships that her second 50 was under 35 seconds. She did so in all four of her previous times under 1:06.

Elendt burst onto the scene in 2021, breaking the German Record in the 100 breaststroke in the heats at the Tokyo Olympics with a time of 1:06.96, the first ever under 1:07. She added slightly to finish 13th in the semifinals there in 1:07.31, 1 position below her placing at that year’s NCAAs.

It was in 2022 that she truly established herself on the world stage. Having taken 5th at NCAAs in the 100 after leading prelims, she went on to smash her PB in the long course version just two weeks later at the San Antonio Pro Swim Series.

She swam 1:05.96 in prelims to take exactly a second off, before dropping another four-tenths in the final to go 1:05.58, which still stands as the German Record.

She finished second behind Lilly King at that meet, and would take the silver again at that summer’s World Championships in Budapest in a time of 1:05.98, just 0.05 away from gold. Her time from the semi-finals, 1:05.62, would have won the event.

Elendt then went on to take the bronze at the Short Course World Championships in Doha, again in a German Record of 1:04.05.

Since the summer of 2022, Elendt had not broken 1:06 again until today. She had also not made another world-level semi-final, finishing 19th in Fukuoka and 20th in Paris, despite multiple top-5 NCAA finishes.

Her time today bodes well for her swims in Singapore this summer, where she will enter as the German Record holder in all three distances. With a time of 1:05.59 making the podium in Paris an on-form Elendt is a threat to medal this year, although she will need to be at her best in all three rounds.

Tang Qiangting and Angharad Evans are the frontrunners in the event so far this year. Tang comes off a dominant short course season where she was within 0.02 of the world record on two occasions, whereas Evans recently broke her own British record with a world-leading 1:05.37.

Elendt’s last big year internationally came just after the Tokyo Olympics; we could be about to see a repeat of that in 2025.