Swim of the Week is brought to you by arena, a SwimSwam partner.
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.
After Regan Smith, Chen Luying and Laura Lahtinen had an exciting three-way battle in the women’s 200 fly at the opening leg of the 2024 World Cup in Shanghai, no one was predicting one of the series newcomers to shake things up at the second stop in Incheon.
Although Chen wasn’t in the field, Smith and Lahtinen were coming in with plenty of momentum after Smith won in Shanghai in 2:01.85, moving her to #5 all-time, while Lahtinen broke her Finnish Record in 2:03.13.
However, crashing the party in Incheon was Australian Bella Grant, who made her move on the third 50 to overtake Lahtinen and then managed to hold off Smith coming home to touch first in 2:03.13.
Smith was notably just minutes out of winning the 50 back.
The swim for Grant marked a new personal best, overtaking the 2:03.85 marker she put up at the Australian Short Course Championships in September.
The biggest difference for Grant came over the middle 100, as she was nearly a full second quicker—1:03.02 to 1:03.93—relative to last month.
Split Comparison
| Grant, September | Grant, October |
| 27.76 | 28.04 |
| 59.71 (31.95) | 59.51 (31.47) |
| 1:31.69 (31.98) | 1:31.06 (31.55) |
| 2:03.85 (32.16) | 2:03.13 (32.07) |
The 19-year-old moves into a tie for the third-fastest Australian ever, moving past the likes of Brianna Throssell and Jessicah Schipper and putting her just 25 one-hundredths shy of the National Record.
All-Time Australian Performers, Women’s 200 Butterfly (SCM)
- Ellen Gandy, 2:02.88 – 2013
- Madeline Groves, 2:03.08 – 2015
- Elizabeth Dekkers / Bella Grant, 2:03.13 – 2024
- –
- Brianna Throssell, 2:03.25 – 2015
- Jessicah Schipper, 2:03.27 – 2009
In the all-time rankings, Grant is now tied for 14th with countrymate Elizabeth Dekkers and Lahtinen.
All-Time Performers, Women’s 200 Butterfly (SCM)
- Mireia Belmonte (ESP), 1:59.61 – 2014
- Liu Zige (CHN), 2:00.78 – 2009
- Katinka Hozzsu (HUN), 2:01.12 – 2014
- Kelshi Dahlia (USA), 2:01.73 – 2018
- Regan Smith(USA), 2:01.85 – 2024
- Liuyang Jao (CHN), 2:02.28 – 2012
- Luying Chen (CHN), 2:02.52 – 2024
- Ellen Gandy (AUS), 2:02.88 – 2013
- Franziska Hentke (GER) / Zhang Yufei (CHN) 2:03.01 – 2015 / 2021
- –
- Madeline Groves (AUS), 2:03.08 – 2015
- Yuko Nakanishi (JPN) / Suzuka Hasegawa (JPN), 2:03.12 – 2010 / 2020
- –
- Elizabeth Dekkers (AUS) / Laura Lahtinen (FIN) / Bella Grant (AUS), 2:03.13 – 2024
Grant is scheduled to race the 200 back on Saturday, having set a lifetime best of 2:04.12 in the event at last month’s Nationals.
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