How Unusual Is Rylee Erisman’s 21.6 in the 50 Free + 4:34 in the 500 Free?

16-year-old American sprinter Rylee Erisman turned heads at the recent USA Swimming Winter Junior Championships – East meet, winning all four of her individual events in dominating fashion.

It was the two longest of these races that caught the most attention, as they were new revelations for the young Floridian. She swam 1:40.93 in the 200 free, which ranks her as the 16th-fastest performer in history (of any age), and 4:34.60 in the 500 free, making her the 8th-fastest swimmer in 15-16 history.

This begged the question: just how rare was this range? A swimmer capable of going 4:34.60 in the 500 free and 21.61 in the 50 free.

The answer is incredibly rare. In fact, of the 51 women all-time who have been 4:34-or-better in the 500 free, only four have been under 22 seconds in the 50 free, and only one has been faster than Erisman.

This data will have some bias to it because most of the swimmers who have been 4:34-or-better haven’t swum a tapered flat-start 50 free in their senior careers.

But context that also matters: at this meet, Erisman didn’t go best times in her best events. Her meet-best in the 50 free was 21.95, and she has been 21.6 more than once.

And she’s only 16.

The four members of the 4:34, 21-second club:

• Bella Sims (4:28.64, 21.88)
• Anna Peplowski (4:33.86, 21.85)
• Rylee Erisman (4:34.60, 21.61)
• Mallory Comerford (4:34.63, 21.49)

Sims and Peplowski are both Olympic medalists in the 800 free relay, and while Comerford never qualified for an Olympic team, mostly because of bad timing, she has 14 World Championships (LC + SC) on relays, including gold at the 2017 World Championship in Budapest.

This combination of speed + endurance has historically lent itself to the 200 free, an event that Erisman has only recently begun exploring. She was the silver medalist at the World Junior Championships over the summer, and improved her long course time over the summer by almost three seconds.

While National High School and National Age Group Records from Erisman in the 50 and 100 free have built her as a pure sprinter, this performance implies that as she grows and matures, she might find a space internationally as more of a modern 100/200 freestyler, ala a Mollie O’Callaghan.

Erisman, like O’Callaghan, is tall by a normal definition, but not overly tall in the context of swimming like the 6’1″ Gretchen Walsh or the 6’0 tall Sarah Sjostrom.

Erisman is graduating high school early and will begin training at Cal in the fall of 2026 at only 17 years old.

Full List of Best 50 Free Times by 500 Freestylers Who Have Been 4:34 or Better

Note: data was hand-compiled. Let us know if you spot any errors.