The HardCoreSwim of the week goes to Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte for breaking the 100 breaststroke World Record on Saturday.
Meilutyte, on the first day of the FINA World Cup stop in Moscow, swam a 1:02.36 to break both the Rebecca Soni World Record of 1:02.70 and the Leisel Jones World Cup Record of 1:03.00.
That’s a 16-year old, breaking records set by two of the greatest breaststrokers ever, when the old records were both done in polyurethane supersuits.
Really, Meilutyte’s swim was a fitting end to the week, and sort of summed up a lot of the week’s big themes here on SwimSwam. She did the swim at the World Cup. She gets out incredibly fast on the first 50, thanks in large part to her incredible start. Her start is made up in one part by her impressive athleticism, and in part due to her coach’s belief that you can, in fact, make a huge difference by training starts.
The best part is that Meilutyte’s coach Jon Rudd has said that she’s taking things easy this year to focus on her studies. So much for that.
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