2023 PRO SWIM SERIES – FORT LAUDERDALE
- March 1-4, 2023
- Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Long Course Meters (50 meters)
- Prelims/Finals
- `Prelims: 9:00 AM (EST)
- Finals: 5:00 PM Wednesday, 6:00 PM (EST) Thursday-Saturday
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- Day 2 Prelims Recap
American 16-year-old Kaii Winkler leveled-up on Saturday morning at the Pro Swim Series stop in Fort Lauderdale when he became the youngest American ever under 49 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle.
Winkler’s swim broke the US 15-16 National Age Group Record in the 100-meter free that was previously set by Thomas Heilman at the 2022 Junior Pan Pac Championships. Winkler’s previous best of 49.45 from December’s US Open ranked him 4th all-time in the age group.
All-Time US 15-16 Rankings:
| RANK | TIME | SWIMMER | MEET |
| 1 | 48.81 | Kaii Winkler |
2023 PSS – Ft Lauderdale
|
| 2 | 49.06 | Thomas Heilman | 2022 Jr Pan Pacs |
| 3 | 49.28 | Caeleb Dressel |
2013 Summer Nationals
|
| 4 | 49.40 | Destin Lasco |
2018 Summer Nationals
|
| 5 | 49.67 | Jack Alexy |
2019 Summer Nationals
|
Splits Comparison:
| SPLITS | Kaii Winkler – New NAG Record | THOMAS HEILMAN – #2 all-time | Caeleb Dressel – #3 all-time | Kaii Winkler – Previous PB | |
| 50m | 23.55 | 23.61 | 23.15 | 23.71 | 23.85 |
| 100m | 25.26 | 25.45 | 26.13 | 25.74 | 25.83 |
| FINAL TIME | 48.81 | 49.06 | 49.28 | 49.45 | 49.68 |
What’s really interesting about this list is that the top three times in age group history have all been done in prelims heats – besides Winkler, Heilman at the Junior Pan Pacs, and Dressel at the Junior National Championships both swam their best times in prelims.
Winkler’s swim was 3rd-best in the heats on Thursday morning and made him the top-seeded junior-aged swimmer by a whopping 34 spots. Canadian Aidan Norman was 37th in prelims in 51.47.
Winkler’s time is a US age group record for 15-16s, and while nobody keeps official global age records at that level, among other notable times around the world are Flynn Southam‘s Australian Record for 16-year-olds of 48.60, and David Popovici‘s global standard of 47.30 from a few months before his 17th birthday.
With the 2023 World Championship Trials and Paris 2024 Olympic Trials looming, Winkler is creeping into territory where he might get selected for one of the major international teams. That swim not only made him the top-finishing American in prelims of the 100 free, but the top American in the long course 100 free in the 2022-2023 season so far – though much of his main competition has yet to race this season.
He also ranks 7th in the world globally this season.
2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Free
Chalmers
47.15
| 2 | Pan Zhanle | CHN | 47.22 | 05/01 |
| 3 | Jack Alexy | USA | 47.31 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Maxime Grousset | FRA | 47.42 | 07/27 |
| 5 | Matthew Richards | GBR | 47.45 | 07/27 |
| 6 | Alessandro Miressi | ITA | 47.54 | 07/23 |
| 7 | David Popovici | ROU | 47.61 | 04/08 |
Winkler trains locally in Miami with Eagle Aquatics, a small club where the head coach is Adam Madarassy.
Future of USA swimming alongside heilman williamson diehl
Chalmers went 48.69 at Australian Nationals in 2015
Small popovici build. Good swim.
And here comes the next skinny record breaker.
Popovici
Sunwoo
Scott
Winkler
Am I the only one to see a pattern?
Is it possible to increase the 200 Free performance by reducing body mass? What if a couple of swimmers decide to find out?
Is there a need for a minimum Body Mass Index? More than likely, the sport of swimming will change only after several highly publicized cases of anorexia and bulimia (just like ski jumping).
I’m not saying this is an issue just yet, but give it a couple of years and I’m sure both swimmers and coaches will begin to notice the relationship between being extraordinarily lightweight and a tremendous 200-free performance.
Thorpe was over 100kg when he swam 1.44.06, Agnel wasn’t a small guy either, you can be fast while being skinny or with an heavier build, it only depends on how good you are and what works for you
I think this is the next great frontier in swimming tech: nailing down the techniques that work for different physical characteristics and better guide swimmers to their ideal techniques and training. I think there are too many ectomorphic body types training like endomorphic body types and vice versa.
The idea that both endo-and ectomorphic body types could work as an indicator for optimising training has already been covered. Here:
“This data clearly demonstrates the necessity to monitor body composition characteristics in sprint swimmers, at the international level, even during the preparation training season, as well as during the competition period. This provides a valuable system of collecting information for coaches. Generally speaking, body composition control in international sprint swimmers should be a valuable system of control of the efficiency of body adaptation on training process aimed at optimizing competitive performance potential.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7766121/
What I am beginning to notice though, is that what was previously known as an optimal balance between muscle size,… Read more »
Right, I don’t think it’s a novel notion to look at these factors. I think what the revolution will be is the technology to make those decisions actionable by every swim coach on earth, as well as a number of different factors.
I’m not sure exactly what specific levels you’re talking about when you say “very low body weight” and “extremely high levels of LBM” but this doesn’t sound like a good combo. Athletic performance would be severely impacted at any BF% below 10% (without the use of “aids”) so an extremely high LBM but very low weight person probably isn’t going to happen.
As I’m sure you can appreciate, Thorpe’s body weight is irrelevant to the issue. The question I ask is if there’s a risk that young swimmers relate extremely skinny body compositions to fast swimming.
Anorexia and bulimia are not new phenomenas. Up to 45% of female athletes struggle with an eating disorder. 19% of males.
When male swimmers with their hip bones sticking out are breaking records it’s a bit of a side note to argue that “Thorpe was over 100kg”.
There is a photo of Spitz and Hall at Indiana..both very skinny..these kids are young! The fact that they are swimming so fast is great technique!! Popovici surges over the water when he breaths, as does Winkler, though less so..with less body mass, they can produce great lift. They both have great Amplitude, and very loose kicks.
This kid has to have a great 200 as well with that stroke
There is a difference between USA-Swimming/SwimSwam Long Course World Ranking and the FINA World Ranking. One starts on 9/1 and FINA starts over on 1/1 which partly explains the difference between the World rankings the announcer presents vs the articles here.
25.2 coming home is so silly
Bro these kids are so fast 😫