Mary Sophie-Harvey Breaks Canadian & Western Hemisphere Record in 200 Free, #6 All-Time

2024 SC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 10-15, 2024
• Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
• SCM (25m)
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• Prelims Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6
• Finals Live Recap: Day 1  | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

Mary Sophie-Harvey set a new Canadian and Americas Record in the women’s 200 meter freestyle final on Sunday in her silver medal-winning performance. This marks the third-straight edition of the World Short Course Championships in which a Canadian woman has earned silver in this event after Rebecca Smith did so at the prior two in 2022 and 2021.

Harvey swam 1:51.49 in the final, which broke Smith’s former Canadian Record of 1:52.15 from the 2022 championships. The previous Americas Record was a 1:51.67 done by American Allison Schmitt at the 2009 Duel in the Pool, though that was never officially the United States Record because of a quirk in the rules. The Americas Record is an official AQUA-recognized continental record that accounts for most of the Western Hemisphere.

Splits Comparison:

Harvey has had an interesting career progression; a very good swimmer, including in this 200 free as a junior, but she largely stalled out between 2017 and 2023 in many events.

In 2023, though, she began to catch fire again, really signifying a resurgence when she went best times in the 200 free and 100 fly at a local meet in Quebec in February 2024. Since then, she re-broke her best time in the long course 200 free at five different meets to land at 1:55.29; she followed that with a 1.7 second drop in short course at the Shanghai stop of the World Cup in October.

Now her short course 200 free has fallen by almost two seconds again, making a drop of 3.56 seconds in under two months for this silver medal.

This is her second individual medal of the meet after finishing 3rd in the 400 free (3:54.88). She was close in a number of other events, finishing 4th in the 100 IM and 200 IM. She also picked up a bronze medal in the women’s 400 free relay, silver on the mixed 200 free relay, and bronze in the women’s 400 medley relay in what has been a busy six days for the 25-year-old.

All-Time Rankings, Women’s 200 SCM Freestyle

1. Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong – 1:50.31 (2021)
2. Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden – 1:50.43 (2017)
3. Federica Pellegrini, Italy – 1:51.17 (2009)
4. Katinka Hosszu, Hungary – 1:51.18 (2014)
5. Ariarne Titmus, Australia – 1:51.38 (2018)
6. Mary-Sophie Harvey, Canada – 1:51.49 (2024)
7. Junxuan Yang, China – 1:51.61 (2022)
8. Camille Muffat, France – 1:51.65 (2012)
9. Emma McKeon, Australia – 1:51.66 (2015)
10. Allison Schmitt, USA – 1:51.67