arena Swim of the Week: 15-Year-Old Umi Ishizuka Drops 2:08.54 200 Fly In Australia

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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.

Up-and-coming Japanese swimmer Umi Ishizuka dropped a blistering swim in the women’s 200 butterfly at the South Australian State Open Championships last weekend in Adelaide, becoming one of the fastest 15-year-olds of all-time.

Ishizuka, 15, came into the meet with a lifetime best of 2:09.34, set this past August at the Japanese Junior High School Championships.

After clocking 2:10.91 in the prelims, Ishizuka blasted her way to a time of 2:08.54 in the final, going out within a second and a half of her personal best in the 100 fly (59.68) on the front half in 1:01 flat.

Split Comparison

Splits from her previous PB of 2:09.34 unavailable.

In addition to winning the event by more than four seconds over 17-year-old Australian Rafaela Kopellou (2:12.83), Ishizuka’s time would’ve also placed 5th in the men’s field at the South Australian State Championships.

Despite there being no definitive ranking for all-time performances from 15-year-olds, we can still see that Ishizuka is one of the quickest swimmers we’ve ever seen at the age.

Dating back to the 1993-94 season, only two American swimmers have been faster than Ishizuka at the age of 15: Cassidy Bayer (2:08.03) in 2015, and Charlotte Hook (2:07.87) in 2019.

Of course, former world record holder Mary T. Meagher went 2:07.01 at the age of 14 in 1979, and then reset the world record in 2:06.37 at 15 in 1980.

The Australian Age Record for 15-year-old girls is also slightly faster than Ishizuka’s time, with Elizabeth Dekkers clocking 2:08.51 in 2019, while most recently, we’ve seen Summer McIntosh produce a time of 2:05.20 at the age of 15, done en route to winning gold at the 2022 World Championships.

Ishizuka’s swim came on the heels of a disappointing major international debut at Short Course Worlds in December, as in her only event, the 200 fly, she was disqualified in the prelims after initially touching in a time of 2:06.65, which would’ve placed 10th.

Along with her 200 fly victory, she also the runner-up in the 100 fly (59.98), placing 7th in the 50 fly (27.95) and swam in the ‘B’ final of the 200 free (2:06.75) at the meet, setting a new PB in the latter.

In 2024, Ishizuka’s time of 2:09.34 put her in a tie for 41st in the 200 fly world rankings. Her swim in Australia would’ve been good enough for 26th, and fourth among Japanese swimmers. She’ll be one to watch out for in 2025.

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