2024 MARE NOSTRUM – BARCELONA
- May 29-30, 2024
- Prelims/Finals: 9 am / 5 pm local, 3 am / 11 am ET
- Barcelona, Spain
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifying Event
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream
Despite reports of him missing the majority of workouts coming out of the Hungarian Championships in April, Kristof Milak‘s performance shows no signs of a lack of commitment.
On Wednesday, Milak put up a time of 50.95 in the men’s 100 butterfly during the finals session at the second Mare Nostrum Tour stop in Barcelona, tying his series record set in 2021.
Milak’s swim also marked a new season-best, as he went under the 50.99 clocking he put up at the Hungarian Championships seven weeks ago.
The 24-year-old moves up one spot in the world rankings, inching past Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto for 7th in 2023-24.
2023-2024 LCM Men 100 Fly
MILAK
49.90
| 2 | Josh Liendo | CAN | 49.99 | 08/03 |
| 3 | Noe PONTI | SUI | 50.16 | 04/06 |
| 4 | Caeleb DRESSEL | USA | 50.19 | 06/22 |
| 5 | Matthew William Temple | AUS | 50.25 | 12/03 |
| 6 | Maxime GROUSSET | FRA | 50.41 | 08/02 |
| 7 | Ilya KHARUN | CAN | 50.45 | 08/03 |
| 8 | Nyls Korstanje | NED | 50.59 | 08/02 |
| 9 | Thomas HEILMAN | USA | 50.80 | 06/22 |
| 10 | Dare ROSE | USA | 50.84 | 06/22 |
Milak notably had an improved back half relative to what he managed in April, closing in 26.85 after a conservative 24.10 opening 50.
Split Comparison
| Milak, April 2024 | Milak, May 2024 |
| 23.72 | 24.10 |
| 50.99 (27.27) | 50.95 (26.85) |
The fact that Milak tied the Mare Nostrum Record he set in June 2021 is a very positive sign heading into the Olympics. Shortly after that in-season swim three years ago, he rocketed to one of the fastest 100 fly swims in history at the Tokyo Games, winning silver in 49.68 while also winning gold in the 200 fly.
Milak also swam the 50 free on Wednesday—shortly before the 100 fly—and placed 4th in a time of 22.25, having set a personal best of 21.89 last month.
He’s scheduled to race the 100 free and 200 fly on Thursday.
MiLaK iS oUt Of ShApE
He takes years off from practicing and still pop off the number 7 best time in the world. Talk about natural talent. He and Dressel will be fun to watch in the summer.
Interesting to see how a lot of top swimmers are testing an experimenting with their back half speed before the olympics. If Milak is on point in Paris he should be able to split a 26 flat. And Dressel has a strong and Improved back half, too, as he showed the last months.
It could definitly be a whole poduim under 50 seconds.
Who else is going under 50? Liendo?
Liendo, Temple and Grousset have all been 50.2 or better this season
Ponti.
That’s not sub 50
When did grousset go 50.2 lol. Hes been going high 51s
who the hell is he training with. why won’t anybody tell us
@coachpeterandrew
😉
shane tusup
stop with these “reports”, if he is swimming that fast without proper training then he is the most gifted swimmer in history. I think he is super talented and will win both 100 & 200 fly.
I thought these reports were a bit fishy 🐟
He is the most gifted swimmer in history. At least top 3. He broke the 2fly world record with doing zero underwaters. His stroke looks like he has fins on. He is definitely training but the reports may have been accurate to some extent at the time they came out
The fact that his freestyle looks God awful but is still very fast makes me believe he might be one of the greatest talents the sport has ever seen
Perhaps you didn’t see how he’s swimming free this year.
0 underwaters is just an exaggeration. He was taking like 4 when he first broke 1:51.
And have we already forgotten about Phelps, Ledecky, and Thorpe? Dressel who actually has 2 more individual gold medals than Milak and world titles in 50s and 100s of free and fly?
Popovici went 46.8 and 1:42.9 as a 17 year old. Thorpe went 3:41 as a 16 year old in briefs with actual no underwaters, and I don’t think I have to say anything about Phelps and Ledecky. It’s a crowded field to say the least. I’d like to see Milak get a world record in freestyle or at least an Olympic/World title in it before going further.
He… Read more »
He’s a better flyer than Phelps and the 50 is pretty irrelevant in any stroke, if it’s about technique. Nobody considers Dressel that much of a generational talent (compared to the others you’ve mentioned), because he emerged relatively old (20 yo), and the key of his success is insane sprint ability (reaction time, start, turn, UWs), but none of that is actually swimming (the UW part is debatable but it’s still not a stroke that has its own events). Both his greatest competitors in the last few years – Chalmers and Milak himself – have faster over-water speed (that doesn’t mean he isn’t a phenomenal swimmer ofc).
The thing with Milak is that since 2020 basically he didn’t have a… Read more »
If you think the 50 is irrelevant then we’re on two completely different wavelengths lol. There’s a reason they call the winner of the 100m in track the fastest man alive, and the 50 is swimming’s equivalent of it. Dressel was that guy for 5 years. The start and underwaters are part of the sport. You can’t just discount them. And it’s not like Milak hasn’t had killer underwaters since 2021
200fly maybe, not 100fly. Dressel got that one.
“I didn’t study but still got an A” energy
Hungarian head coach next week “Milak disappeared again I’m very worried”
Maybe he disappeared but still trained and swam, because he is always delivering super fast times. Heavy favorite to win 100 & 200 fly imo.
I’m not sure about 100 cause that is wide open but we’ll see.
Yeah look at that top 3 right now. I wouldn’t bet it on it but it’s possible Dressel Milak and Grousset all fail to medal.
I would not be surprised if 100 fly Winner is *anyone* of the 8 finalists.
That’s how deep m100fly right now.
“He has missed 10 out of the last 8 practices and hasnt done meaningful work for years!”
Maybe he just swam (trained) at a different time slot 🙂
This kind of puts the “Milak was tapered for nationals” theory to rest. Surely, he didn’t taper for Mare Nostrum, and he was faster here.