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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.
Coming off a standout performance at the NCAA Championships, Henrietta Fangli kept the ball rolling with a breakthrough swim at the Hungarian National Championships.
Fangli, who represented Romania internationally until recently, fired off a time of 1:07.50 in the final of the women’s 100 breaststroke, breaking a Hungarian Record that had been on the books for more than two decades.
The previous record stood at 1:07.79, established by Agnes Kovacs at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Kovacs put up that time in the semis before placing 5th in the final in 1:08.09.
Coming into the meet, Fangli held a lifetime best (and the Romanian Record) of 1:09.25, set at last summer’s Romanian Championships. She brought that down to 1:08.75 in the prelims before her record-setting swim in the final.
Split Comparison
| 2023 Romanian Nationals | 2024 Hungarian Nationals – Prelims | 2024 Hungarian Nationals – Final |
| 32.75 | 33.16 | 32.30 |
| 1:09.25 (36.50) | 1:08.75 (35.59) | 1:07.50 (35.20) |
The long course breakthrough for Fangli comes on the heels of concluding her junior season at the University of Houston, having qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time and earning a second swim at the fastest meet in college swimming.
Fangli has always hit best times when it matters most. She won the AAC title in the 100 breast (SCY) as a freshman in 1:00.07, and then reset her PB in the final of the conference championships the following season in 59.96, placing 3rd.
This season, with Houston moving to the Big 12, Fangli was 4th in the 100 breast final at the conference meet in 59.29, qualifying her for NCAAs.
She then went another best time of 59.23 in the prelims at nationals, qualifying for the consols in 16th, and then broke 59 seconds for the first time in the final, clocking 58.98 for 14th.
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Although she didn’t hit the Olympic Consideration time of 1:07.12, Fangli is not far off, and could potentially take a run at that time at a different meet over the next two months to land a plane ticket to Paris.
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