Christe Ciraulo Breaks Her Own Masters World Record by 24 Seconds

2023 US Masters National Championships

Three National Records, one of which was a World Record, fell on night 1 of the 2023 US Masters Swimming Championships.

Day 1 Records:

  • Jane Oberg, Colorado Masters Swimming: women’s 85-89 1500 freestyle (31:29.52, USMS record)
  • Marcia Barry, North Carolina Masters Swimming: women’s 75-79 1500 freestyle (26:00.10, USMS record)
  • Christie Ciraulo, West Hollywood Aquatics: women’s 70-74 1500 freestyle (21:02.79, World Aquatics world Masters record and USMS record)

Christie Ciraulo from West Hollywood Aquatics won the women’s 70-74 1500-meter freestyle in 21:02.79. That knocks 24 seconds off her own National and World Records set earlier this year.

That’s the only event in which she has the World Record, and one of just a handful of races in the 70-74 age group that isn’t held by hall of fame Masters swimmer Laura Val.

All three records, on the opening distance day came by significant margins. Jane Oberg from Colorado Masters knocked 42 seconds off the old US record for the 85-89 age group, which was set in 2009 by Margery Meyer (32:11.49). Marcia Barry from North Carolina Masters took more than 48 seconds off the record for the 75-79 age group. That old record was a 26:48.86 done by Beverly Montrella in 2021.

The meet continues Thursday with the 100 breaststrokes, 50 backstrokes, 100 flys, mixed 200 free relays, and 800 freestyles.

 

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LBSWIM
11 months ago

STUD!

Dlswim
11 months ago

Ciraulo’s time is outstanding! Holding 1:24/100 m at that age boggles the mind.

Cynthia curran
11 months ago

Well, Laurie Val is not doing as much events as she into her early 70’s and all the breastroke records are held by other people since she is not a braststroker.

Mike C
11 months ago

Does anyone know if someone has crunched the data on the the masters records to see how swimmers get slower (or faster) with age? Might be a good four hour project for Swim Swam data team…

MAP Masters
Reply to  Mike C
11 months ago

Probably more than a 4 hour project as there’s much more variability than trying to compare time progression with younger swimmers. Some people go right into Masters from age group swimming, some pick it up later in life without an age group swimming background, and there are many that were strong college swimmers that took sometimes decade-long breaks before coming back. Overall, the records get slower as the age groups go up but there are still elite Masters performers in older age groups that hold records faster than age groups younger than them.

Mike C
Reply to  MAP Masters
11 months ago

I was thinking simple graph of time on y-axis and age on the x-axis for each event and gender. Someone with the database and good with excel could knock it out quick

Alison England
11 months ago

Imagine being able to swim 1500m in your mid-late 80s! (Jane Oberg). That is amazing.

Cynthia curran
Reply to  Alison England
11 months ago

Yeah, that is truly great.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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