Fun Facts Through 4 Days of the 2015 World Championships

2015 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

FINA’s website provides a live info feed with a bunch of facts and notes on different records being broken throughout the world championships. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones, along with some of my own points as we have reached the halfway mark of these championships.

  • Sun Yang has won his 6th and 7th gold medals at the world championships, surpassing Luo Xuejuan (who had 5) as the most successful Chinese swimmer ever
  • Coming into the competition Ryan Cochrane had 6 world championship medals, but won his first in the 400 free in Kazan
  • Katie Ledecky won USA’s 100th gold medal won by women at the world aquatic championships
  • Marrit Steenbergen won a silver medal on the Dutch 4x100m freestyle relay team, becoming the first swimming world championship medalist in history to be born in the 2000’s (January 11, 2000)
  • France became the second nation in history to win the men’s 4x100m free relay at three consecutive Olympic/world championships. First time done was the US, who accomplished the feat multiple times.
  • After missing the final, the USA was shut out from gold in the men’s 4x100m free relay for three consecutive World Championships for the first time ever
  • Fabien Gilot equalled the record set by Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Kosuke Kitajima and Laszlo Cseh, by winning a medal at six different world championships with his medal in the 4x100m free relay
  • In the next finals session, Laszlo Cseh won a medal to make it his 7th world championships with a medal, a new record
  • Cameron van der Burgh became the first man to ever win four medals in the men’s 100 breastroke, surpassing Kosuke Kitajima and Brendan Hansen who each had 3
  • Sarah Sjostrom became the first woman to win the same individual event three times with her title in the 100 butterfly
  • Katinka Hosszu became the second woman to win the 200 IM twice (2013, 2015) after Katie Hoff did so (2005, 2007)
  • Hosszu became the first woman to win three medals in the 200 IM
  • Hosszu became first female swimmer from Hungary to break a long course world record since 1991
  • With his silver in the 200 free, Sun Yang becomes the second man to ever win a medal in the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 at the world championships (Grant Hackett managed to do it at a single championships in 2005, and Sun could very well do it with a medal in the 1500)
  • Emily Seebohm and Madison Wilson’s performance in the 100 backstroke marks the first time since 2007 that two Australian women were both on the podium for the same event (Schipper & Trickett 100 Fly, 2007)
  • Katie Ledecky had the largest winning gap ever in the 1500 free, winning by 15 seconds over Lauren Boyle
  • Ledecky ties Kate Ziegler and Hannah Stockbauer with two titles in the women’s 1500
  • Lauren Boyle wins her 4th medal at the world championships becoming the most successful swimmer from New Zealand ever
  • Alia Atkinson’s bronze medal in the 100 breastroke is the first ever swimming medal for Jamaica at the world championships
  • Yuliya Efimova became the first male or female with gold medals in the 50, 100 and 200 breastrokes at the world championships
  • Laszlo Cseh became the oldest male winner of the 200 fly ever (29 years, 130 days)
  • Cseh also won his 11th swimming medal at a world championships, the most ever by a Hungarian
  • Federica Pellegrini won her 6th straight medal in the women’s 200 freestyle, becoming the first swimmer to win six medals in an individual event at six different world championships
  • Cameron van der Burgh became the first swimmer from South Africa to win 5 medals in any specific event (50m breastroke)
  • Surprisingly, Adam Peaty is the first male to win the 50 and 100 breastroke at a single world championships. Ledecky did it earlier in the day when she won the 200 free.
  • Laszlo Cseh wins his second world championship title 10 years and 5 days after he won his first, the largest gap ever. The previous record was shared by Oleg Lisogor and Natalie Coughlin at 5 years 242 days
  • Sun Yang wins his third gold medal in the 800 freestyle, the most ever
  • With Great Britain’s victory in the mixed medley relay, Adam Peaty is the first male swimmer to win three gold medals at these championships
  • At the 2013 world championships, Spain set the most national records of anyone with 16. So far at these championships they have 0
  • Of any country with more than 10 swims so far, Poland has by far the highest percentage of swims faster than their entry times (75%)
  • At the 2013 world championships USA had 41 more finals appearances than Great Britain. So far Great Britain has 1 more than the US
  • 12th in finals per country in 2013, Canada is in 5th so far this year
  • We have already seen 7 world records in Kazan, more than the final tally in Barcelona (6)

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swim
9 years ago

a true fun fact, is that Morozov’s locker was broken for the second time in Kazan (the first was not in Kazan), and someone stole everything that was inside. I guess someone wants his knickers….

Lennart van Haaften
9 years ago

“Sarah Sjostrom became the first woman to win the same individual event three times with her title in the 100 butterfly”

That’s an amazing statistic if you compare with men. Cielo, Popov, Thorpe, Sun, Hackett, Peirsol (2 events), Lochte (2 events), Gyurta, Phelps (3 events) have won 3 titles in the same event, several of them won 4 or even 5. If I don’t forget anyone.

Lennart van Haaften
9 years ago

It is indeed remarkable how rare the 50-100 double is outside of freestyle. Peaty is the first to do it in any stroke other than freestyle. Lacourt has titles in the 50 and 100 back, but at different WCs. Larkin still has a chance in this meet for the backstroke double.

Lennart van Haaften
9 years ago

2000 is 20th century though!

To make up for it:

Sun ties Hackett’s record of 7 individual freestyle gold medals at the WACs.

He also ties the record shared by Popov, Hackett, and Thorpe with his 9th individual global long-course freestyle title (Olympics and WACs combined).

anonymus
Reply to  Lennart van Haaften
9 years ago

shes born on january 11th 2000, that means in the 21st century.. once the clock turned from 23:59:59 31st december 1999 to 0:00:00 1st january 2000 the 21st century began 🙂

Admin
Reply to  anonymus
9 years ago

Technically, January 1 2001 started the 21st Century. I’ll change to “2000’s” above.

Steve
9 years ago

Peaty is great but Ledecky had three golds before he won his second (and third).

Nick
Reply to  Steve
9 years ago

I think Ledecky’s is ultimately the greater achievement, but the fact she got there first is entirely down to the scheduling.

Swimfanarg
9 years ago

If I´m right, Cseh is the first man in win medals in 6 differents individual events at worlds champs.

Lennart van Haaften
Reply to  James Sutherland
9 years ago

Lochte also had 5. He was close to 6 with the 100 fly last time. Phelps could have aimed for a backstroke medal but gave priority to his traditionally best events. I suppose the best strategy to get this record is to evolve your specialty events during your career.

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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