2026 ACROPOLIS SWIM OPEN
- Friday, May 8th – Sunday, May 10th
- Athens, Greece
- LCM (50m)
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
The 2026 Acropolis Swim Open wrapped last night from Athens, Greece, but not before 20-year-old Apostolos Siskos fired off another national record to conclude his campaign.
Racing in the final of the men’s 200m butterfly, Siskos produced a new lifetime best of 1:56.13 to dominate the field, hitting the sole time of the pack under the 2:00 barrier.
Turkish swimmer Yusuf Kuscu was next to the wall, well behind in 2:00.38, followed by Georgios Kalandros, who rounded out the podium in 2:00.43.
As for Siskos, his 1:56.13 overtook his previous lifetime best of 1:56.42 notched in the semi-finals of the event at the 2024 European Championships. There in Serbia, Siskos ultimately placed 5th in a slightly slower result of 1:56.44.
The former Greek national record stood at the 1:56.23 Stefanos Dimitriadis put on the books over a decade ago at the 2015 World Championships; therefore, Siskos sliced .10 off that previous outing to check in as the fastest man ever from his nation.
Siskos split 26.13/29.85 (55.98)/30.27/29.88 to get the job done and establish the new 1:56.13 Greek standard. He now sits just outside the list of top 25 performers in the world on the season.
You can view the race video here.
This was a solid follow-up to the massive 1:54.12 200m backstroke Greek national record Siskos notched on day one to rank #1 in the world at the moment.
<1:56.2 200FL
<1:54.2 200BK
This is a pretty rare combo… not even Phelps achieved both. Peirsol didn’t… Lochte didn’t…
The only other people who have done this are Tyler Clary & Hubert Kos!
(Clary is actually mightily underrated in this regard… 1:53.6 and 1:53.4 is a nasty combo)
One of the most underrated swimmers of all time
-1:53.4 2back
-1:53.6 2fly
-4:06.9 4im LCM
-3:57.5 4im SCM
-3:36 4 free SCM???
Doesn’t get nearly enough credit for that stacked of a careerr
Phelps swam a 1:54 2 back in 2007 and 1:51 2 fly in 2009 just saying
1:54.6 is greater than <1:54.2
Not even Phelps achieved both?
Phelps was a 1:54 200 backstroker! He was once pretty close to the 200 back WR.
Edit: OK. I see you set the standard at <1:54.2.
But 1:56.2 200 FL and 1:54.2 200 BK are not at the same level at all. The standard is unfair.
The “standard” is merely what Siskos has achieved. Just a fun thought experiment
Remember when he committed to Harvard?