Yesterday, Lukas Märtens became the first man under 3:40 in the 400 LCM Freestyle, swimming a 3:39.96 to break Paul Biedermann‘s 16-year-old super-suit record of 3:40.07. When Biedermann swam that time, he only beat Ian Thorpe‘s record by a single hundredth of a second.
Thorpe swam his 3:40.08 in July 2002, when Märtens was just 7 months old. Altogether, in the last 23 years, this record has only been broken two times — for a grand total of 0.12 seconds. That’s not a lot of movement! At these past Short Course World Championships, Gretchen Walsh took more time off of the 50 fly record than that — not in percentage terms, in absolute terms.
I thought it would be interesting to take a look at just how little movement this was, in comparison to all the other long course world records (since 2002):
| Event | 2002 Record | Current Record | # of Times Broken | % |
| M 400 Free | 3:40.08 | 3:39.96 | 2 | -0.05% |
| M 1500 Free | 14:34.56 | 14:30.67 | 3 | -0.44% |
| M 800 Free | 7:39.16 | 7:32.12 | 2 | -1.53% |
| M 200 Free | 1:44.06 | 1:42.00 | 3 | -1.98% |
| F 50 Free | 24.13 | 23.61 | 6 | -2.15% |
| F 800 Free | 8:16.22 | 8:04.79 | 6 | -2.30% |
| F 100 Fly | 56.61 | 55.18 | 7 | -2.53% |
| F 200 Back | 2:06.62 | 2:03.14 | 7 | -2.75% |
| F 200 IM | 2:09.72 | 2:06.12 | 5 | -2.78% |
| M 200 Back | 1:55.15 | 1:51.92 | 9 | -2.81% |
| M 100 Free | 47.84 | 46.4 | 10 | -3.01% |
| F 200 Fly | 2:05.81 | 2:01.81 | 7 | -3.18% |
| F 1500 Free | 15:52.10 | 15:20.48 | 7 | -3.32% |
| F 400 IM | 4:33.59 | 4:24.38 | 8 | -3.37% |
| M 50 Free | 21.64 | 20.91 | 6 | -3.37% |
| F 400 Free | 4:03.85 | 3:55.38 | 12 | -3.47% |
| M 200 IM | 1:58.16 | 1:54.00 | 10 | -3.52% |
| F 100 Breast | 1:06.52 | 1:04.13 | 8 | -3.59% |
| M 200 Breast | 2:10.16 | 2:05.48 | 15 | -3.60% |
| M 400 IM | 4:11.76 | 4:02.50 | 9 | -3.68% |
| M 200 Fly | 1:54.58 | 1:50.34 | 8 | -3.70% |
| M 100 Back | 53.6 | 51.6 | 9 | -3.73% |
| F 200 Breast | 2:22.99 | 2:17.55 | 12 | -3.80% |
| F 100 Free | 53.77 | 51.71 | 11 | -3.83% |
| F 200 Free | 1:56.78 | 1:52.23 | 10 | -3.90% |
| F 50 Fly | 25.57 | 24.43 | 4 | -4.46% |
| M 100 Fly | 51.81 | 49.45 | 10 | -4.56% |
| F 50 Breast | 30.57 | 29.16 | 12 | -4.61% |
| F 50 Back | 28.25 | 26.86 | 14 | -4.92% |
| M 50 Fly | 23.44 | 22.27 | 6 | -4.99% |
| F 100 Back | 1:00.16 | 57.13 | 15 | -5.04% |
| M 100 Breast | 59.94 | 56.88 | 12 | -5.11% |
| M 50 Breast | 27.39 | 25.95 | 10 | -5.26% |
| M 50 Back | 24.99 | 23.55 | 10 | -5.76% |
The men’s 400 free has seen by far the least motion. Most of these records have fallen by more than 3% in the same time frame. 3% off of Thorpe’s record is a hard-to-fathom 3:33.47. Interestingly, the only records that have not dropped by more than 2% are the men’s freestyle events, 200 and up.
Ultimately, I’m happy to see this record broken for two reasons. First, because it’s always nice to see super-suit records fall. But second, because of the specific way in which Biedermann split that race. The 3:40.07 record was massively negative split — 1:51.02 / 1:49.05. The consequence of that is that in any given major international final, most of the field is under world record pace at the 200m mark. And, given that Biedermann’s last 100 was a ridiculous 52.90, many people will be under world record pace at the 300m mark. At the Paris Olympics, six men in the final were under pace at the 200m and four men were under pace at the 300m. In contrast, Märtens split his race 1:47.55 / 1:52.41, with his last 100m more than three seconds (not a typo — three seconds) slower than Biedermann’s. Nobody in the Paris Olympic final was out under 1:48. Finally, we can stop hearing about people being under world record pace who will not even come close to challenging the record!
All of this does make me wonder how long it will take for these records to hit the same 3% drop-off that we’ve seen in all the other events. I think it will likely be a very long time. Perhaps another 23 years?
Cool stats, although it does skew heavily toward shorter events. Ledecky comes most to mind where she bullied world records but her events are some of the least changed.
The women’s 50 fly record was lowered by 4 different people, 3 of those were Swedes (including the original 25.57).
It would be interesting to expand that information over additional 20-25 year spectrums, and see how the improvement % compare. I would say from a training and technology standpoint, the year 2000 and 2025 more closely resemble each other than say 1975 and 2000. And obviously even greater changes from say the year 1925 to 1975 versus 1975 to now
Before the 1990’s there were not to much interest in the 50 distances as they were only considered world best and not swum that often in Long course. Going back pre-1999 and the long course world records for the 50’s will probably show the biggest improvements percentage wise.
I find it fascinating that going down the list of least to most WR improvements made since 2002, the events seem to have no particular order at all, with the giant exception that the top 4 events are all men’s middle- to long-distance freestyle events, and, except for the 400, are in order from longest to shortest.
I wonder what is it about men’s distance that makes it seem like we’ve made the least progress since 2002
I also wonder if it might be less so that we didn’t improve as much in those events and more like the other events have seen a more dramatic shift compared to how they were done or trained for back then
I think part of the answer is the legendary talents that Grant and Ian really were. Literally decades ahead of time. Ian barely even dolphin kicked on turns and seemed like his hands were even slightly apart?😂 let alone the 2 foot start, and it’s taken up until now to beat him in textile.
And I suppose freestyle maybe has had the least changes of efficiency from then as well?
I really wonder how much is mental vs physical, like swimmers thinking that around a 3:40.0 is the best that can be done right now so they don’t try to push for more. Feels like it was kinda like that on the women’s side until Ledecky opened the floodgates for Titmus and McIntosh to come through
One thing I should’ve added but didn’t think to. Even this I think undersells how little the 400 free has moved. Because right now, Thorpe’s 3:40.08 is still the #3 performance all time. Still would’ve won gold in Paris. By a lot.
The mile, for instance, has dropped a bit more — a whole 0.44% — but Grant Hackett’s 14:34.56 is now just the #11 performance (#6 performer). Thorpe’s 7:39.16 in the 800 free from 2001 makes him just the #9 performer (although interestingly still the #10 performance — only Bobby Finke has gone faster than that twice). Both old records would have won bronze in Paris.
Meanwhile the 59.94 in the men’s 100 breast and the 1:00.16 in the… Read more »
Interesting article. Somewhat surprising that the two super-suited records generally thought to be the most unapproachable, the women’s 200 fly and the men’s 800 free, are so low on the list. The fact that the men’s and women’s stroke 50s are so high is attributable to the fact that those events are taken as seriously in 2002. But many of the other differences can be explained by timing of the ascension of generational talents like Thorpe and Ledecky. In Thorpe’s case, it explains why the 400 free has moved so little, and with Ledecky, why the records have improved so much.
Just took a second look; I overstated the improvement of the Ledecky records (must have noted the 32 second drop in time in the 1500 but not the percentage change, 3.3%, which is actually in the middle of the pack.
It is very odd that all 3 of Ledecky’s WR events are in the bottom half of most improved.
But it could also just come down to the fact that women’s distance is the least popular discipline, so part of Ledecky’s dominance is just that there aren’t that many good female distance swimmers (compared to other disciplines)
The women’s 2 fly is not as insane as the men’s 800 free. The men’s 2-fly world record is more impressive. The difference between men’s and women’s 100 fly records is 5.7 seconds. The difference between the 200s is 11.5 and we know that as the distance increases the gap between men and women gets lower (percentage-wise). We just haven’t had a female Milak yet.
You need to change your username
Thorpe and Hackett were something else. It’s also worth mentioning that Janet Evans’s 8:16.22 is from 1989 and Egerszegi’s 2:06.62 is from 1991. The outlier on the other end of the spectrum is Peaty.
Yeah I think many commenters on Swimswam don’t remember how impressive Thorpe’s (and Hackett’s) 2001 was. Those 200/400/800/1500 times have barely improved in 24 years
Hackett beat SECOND place by 24s at the 2001 world champs, and I think in the 2001 Goodwill Games, was LAPPING people in the final of the 1500m
I keep saying this^^^^^^^