Molly Hannis Becomes 7th Woman Under 30 in 50 Meter Breaststroke

2018 TYR PRO SWIM SERIES – AUSTIN

American swimmer Molly Hannis moved to 4th in the all-time rankings in the 50 long course meters breaststroke on Saturday evening in Austin. She ranks now behind only Lilly King, Ruta Meilutyte, and Yulia Efimova on the all-time rankings in the event after a 29.71 to win the first-ever Pro Swim Series title in the shootout version of the event.

What makes Hannis’ swim so incredible is that it came at the end of a session where she swam three 50 breaststrokes consecutively. She played her hand perfectly, swimming 30.27 in the round of 8 for a new Meet Record, then a 30.35 in the semi-finals, and then her coup d’état in the final round to beat the Worlds bronze medalist in the event Katie Meili.

Hannis’ previous best was a 30.19 that she swam in June in Charlotte that had her ranked 12th all-time.

This is a follow-up to an early December swim where Hannis swam 56.64 in the 100 yard breaststroke, which was the 2nd-fastest swim in history in that event.

Hannis’ swim is also the 9th-fastest performance in history.

All-Time Fastest Performers, Women’s 50 LCM Breaststroke

  1. Lilly King, USA – 29.40
  2. Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania – 29.48
  3. Yulia Efimova, Russia – 29.52
  4. Molly Hannis, USA – 29.71
  5. Jessica Hardy, USA – 29.80
  6. Breeja Larson, USA – 29.95
  7. Katie Meili, USA – 29.99
  8. Jennie Johansson, Sweden – 30.05
  9. Rebecca Soni, USA – 30.11 (TIE)
  10. Alia Atkinson, Jamaica – 30.11 (TIE)

 

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MeatyPeaty
6 years ago

When did alia Atkinson go under 30?

bobo gigi
6 years ago

Great time. Molly Hannis is a model of perseverance. Happy for her.
Race video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUOXq5KBbUk

Yozhik
Reply to  bobo gigi
6 years ago

Look how much a body movement of Hannis resembles fly stroke. Last year Adam Peaty said that he finally learned how to swim breaststroke. Is it what he meant.

Swimtic
Reply to  Yozhik
6 years ago

Because she is putting a downward fly kick between each stroke (and a double fly kick off the start). It’s disgusting that they don’t call her for it… There is no reason to even have officials on deck if they are going to ignore everything.

N P
Reply to  Swimtic
6 years ago

To my eye she only did a single fly kick off the start, but it is an imperfect view and definitely hard to tell for certain.

But she does not do a downward kick between each stroke; she does an upward kick, which is allowed. I, too, was initially skeptical of the legality of her stroke, but I looked it up in the rule book and paid pretty close attention to all the underwater footage from OTs, and it appears to me that she does a really great job of maintaing a legal stroke by never doing a down kick.

Yozhik
Reply to  Swimtic
6 years ago

I’m not a breaststroke specialist to be a judge but i saw breaststroke races where swimmers kind of combine in one leg movement the horizontal (breaststroke) and downward (fly) kick. Is it just my imagination or there is indeed some grey area that cannot be called by officials?

tammy touchpad error
6 years ago

I hadn’t realized both Meili and Larson had gone under 30. Thats quite a big list and more than half are American. So much for not taking these events seriously.

Molly looked amazing tonight!

KNOW IT ALL
6 years ago

6 of top 10 are americans, 4 are active

Jmanswimfan
6 years ago

Wow

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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