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.
As we round the corner into March, nations are starting to gear up for the long course season with plenty of meets taking place in the Olympic-sized pool across the globe.
In Canada, that included some top names competing at the Western Transmountain Festival in Calgary last weekend, and 2021 International Swimming League (ISL) star Ingrid Wilm emerged as the top performer.
Wilm picks up arena Swim of the Week honors after establishing a new personal best time in the women’s 50 backstroke, clocking 27.78 to come within 16 one-hundredths of the Canadian Record set by Kylie Masse on Friday morning (27.62). Masse’s previous record was 27.64 set in 2017.
Wilm’s time also ranks #2 in the world for the 2021-22 season (according to FINA’s world rankings), trailing only France’s Analia Pigree (27.41), and is the fastest thus far in the 2022 calendar year.
Wilm’s swim lowers her previous best of 27.98, set last August, and sets her up for what could be a big long course season after breaking out in the short course pool in 2021.
Wilm came into the 2021 ISL season as a relative unknown, signing on as a free agent with the LA Current, and ended up becoming one of the league’s most valuable swimmers, scoring 287 points to rank 11th overall for the season.
Her swims throughout the campaign included breaking Masse’s national record in the 100 back, one which Masse took back at the end of the year at the Short Course World Championships—a meet Wilm wasn’t selected to compete in due to her lower-ranked long course times (relative to SC).
In addition to her 27.78 50 back swim in Calgary, Wilm also cracked 1:00 in the 100 back, clocking 59.96 to fall just shy of her 59.88 set at the Canadian Olympic Trials last June.
With the World Championships and Commonwealth Games on the schedule for Canada this long course season, Wilm appears well on her way to challenging for a berth on both teams. And if she qualifies, it’s not hard to imagine her being in the mix for a medal. At the 2019 World Championships, 27.78 in the 50 back was fast enough to make the final and was less than three-tenths off of what it took to land on the podium.
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Ingrid’s 100 BK from that meet is here (at the 38:45 mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9cNGzAQw5A
Ingrid’s 50 BK from the meet is here (at the 2:00.30 mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83t-09GjX3g
Not the best stream but you might be able to catch a bit of it.
Kylie masse just broke this Record (27.62) at the trials prep event in Toronto this morning