17-year old high school senior Claire Curzan threw down a monster double on Thursday at the North Carolina 4A High School State Swimming & Diving Championship. She broke the National High School Records in both the 100 yard back and 100 yard fly, and set the American Record (any age, any meet) in the 100 fly as well.
She won the 100 fly in 49.24 and the 100 back in 49.61, joining her in rare company of just three swimmers in history who have been better than 50 seconds in both events.
The other two are both current collegian swimmers: Maggie MacNeil is a senior at Michigan, the defending NCAA Champion in the 100 fly, the defending Olympic Champion in the 100 fly in long course, and the World Record holder in the 50 backstroke in short course meters.
The other on this list is Stanford freshman Regan Smith, who is the fastest swimmer ever in the 100 yard back, 200 yard back and 200 meter back. She won bronze in the 100 back at the Tokyo Olympic Games and silver in the 200 fly, showing her multi-stroke versatility.
Of those three, Curzan ranks as the 2nd-fastest “aggregate performer in history, two-tenths behind MacNeil and about the same gap ahead of Smith.
The two events in short course have a lot of overlap, and the best swimmers in these races are, for the most part, swimming pretty close to 15 meters off each wall. At the same time, there’s still fairly few swimmers who have been super-elite in both races.
Even if we expand to sub-51 seconds, only 13 different women have been there in both events.
Curzan’s combo is especially unique because she did the times in the same session. MacNeil’s times were both at the same meet (her backstroke was a 400 medley relay leadoff), but Curzan’s were in the same session.
Below, we’ve clocked out the top 100 performers in history in a combined 100 yard fly + 100 yard back.
Note: no data set in swimming is perfect. This data is primarily from the USA Swimming database, and we’ve done our best to compare them to other sources, but if we’ve missed someone, let us know in the comments below.
Top 100 Women All-Time, 100 Yard Fly + 100 Yard Back
| Rank | Name | Back Time | Fly Time | Total Time |
| 1 | MacNeil, Maggie | 49.76 | 48.89 | 98.65 |
| 2 | Curzan, Claire | 49.61 | 49.24 | 98.85 |
| 3 | Smith, Regan | 49.16 | 49.88 | 99.04 |
| 4 | Nelson, Beata | 49.18 | 50.65 | 99.83 |
| 5 | Coughlin, Natalie | 49.97 | 50.01 | 99.98 |
| 6 | Hansson, Louise | 50.74 | 49.26 | 100 |
| 7 | Brown, Erika | 50.88 | 49.38 | 100.26 |
| 8 | Hu, Janet | 49.93 | 50.38 | 100.31 |
| 9 | Howe, Ally | 49.69 | 51.03 | 100.72 |
| 10 | White, Rhyan | 50.02 | 50.75 | 100.77 |
| 11 | Ivey, Isabel | 50.42 | 50.68 | 101.1 |
| 12 | Bray, Olivia | 50.93 | 50.19 | 101.12 |
| 13 | Moffitt, Hellen | 50.94 | 50.37 | 101.31 |
| 14 | Douglass, Kate | 51.84 | 49.55 | 101.39 |
| 15 | Bootsma, Rachel | 50.03 | 51.4 | 101.43 |
| 16 | Tetzloff, Aly | 50.92 | 50.61 | 101.53 |
| 17 | Lee, Felicia | 50.75 | 50.89 | 101.64 |
| 18 | Baker, Kathleen | 49.8 | 51.85 | 101.65 |
| 19 | Dressel, Sherridon | 50.64 | 51.2 | 101.84 |
| 20 | Tran, Cindy | 50.31 | 51.62 | 101.93 |
| 21 | Dahlia (Worrell), Kelsi | 52.53 | 49.43 | 101.96 |
| 22 | Alons, Kylee | 51.76 | 50.35 | 102.11 |
| 23 | Bacon, Phoebe | 50.39 | 51.75 | 102.14 |
| 24 | Walsh, Alex | 50.88 | 51.31 | 102.19 |
| 25 | Ochitwa, Ann | 51.21 | 51.02 | 102.23 |
| 26 | Walsh, Gretchen | 50.61 | 51.73 | 102.34 |
| 27 | Tiltmann, Reilly | 50.49 | 51.88 | 102.37 |
| 28 | Thompson, Sarah | 51.07 | 51.44 | 102.51 |
| 29 | Gastaldello, Beryl | 51.73 | 50.87 | 102.6 |
| 30 | Laemmler, Nadine | 50.54 | 52.2 | 102.74 |
| 31 | Miller, Paige | 50.7 | 52.07 | 102.77 |
| 32 | Agy, Ana | 51.13 | 51.67 | 102.8 |
| 33 | Huske, Torri | 53.17 | 49.7 | 102.87 |
| 34 | Adams, Claire | 50.51 | 52.37 | 102.88 |
| 35 | Stewart, Kylie | 51.39 | 51.58 | 102.97 |
| 36 | Hanselmann (Connolly), Jenny | 51.34 | 51.64 | 102.98 |
| 37 | Sticklen, Emma | 52.27 | 50.76 | 103.03 |
| 38 | Mack, Linnea | 50.56 | 52.48 | 103.04 |
| 39 | Dalesandro, Gia | 52.68 | 50.45 | 103.13 |
| 40 | Hersey, Kathleen | 51.78 | 51.4 | 103.18 |
| 41 | Stewart, Kendyl | 52.29 | 50.92 | 103.21 |
| 42 | Marsh, Alyssa | 52.18 | 51.05 | 103.23 |
| 43 | Corea, Sam | 52.39 | 50.86 | 103.25 |
| 44 | Degolia, Hailey | 51.67 | 51.59 | 103.26 |
| 45 | Gmelich, Caroline | 51.43 | 51.94 | 103.37 |
| 46 | Moldenhauer, Lily | 51.48 | 51.92 | 103.4 |
| 47 | Sheridan, Calypso | 51.31 | 52.1 | 103.41 |
| 48 | Britt, Chelsea | 52.54 | 50.93 | 103.47 |
| 49 | Seidt, Asia | 50.68 | 52.83 | 103.51 |
| 49 | Small, Meghan | 51.46 | 52.05 | 103.51 |
| 51 | Berkoff, Katharine | 49.74 | 53.81 | 103.55 |
| 52 | Li, Liz | 53.08 | 50.48 | 103.56 |
| 53 | Hynes, Haley | 50.7 | 52.87 | 103.57 |
| 54 | Zubkova, Kate | 51.15 | 52.44 | 103.59 |
| 55 | Stevens, Hannah | 50.57 | 53.12 | 103.69 |
| 56 | Nordmann, Lucie | 51.44 | 52.31 | 103.75 |
| 56 | Powers, Mackenzie | 52.19 | 51.56 | 103.75 |
| 58 | Waddell, Tevyn | 51.76 | 52 | 103.76 |
| 59 | Eastin, Ella | 51.26 | 52.51 | 103.77 |
| 60 | Barbiea, Dani | 52.72 | 51.13 | 103.85 |
| 61 | Pelton, Elizabeth | 51.26 | 52.64 | 103.9 |
| 62 | Ruck, Taylor | 50.34 | 53.57 | 103.91 |
| 63 | Cook, Julia | 51.14 | 52.81 | 103.95 |
| 64 | Mohler (Descenza), Mary | 52.4 | 51.56 | 103.96 |
| 65 | Brooks, Caitlin | 51.51 | 52.57 | 104.08 |
| 65 | Hinds, Natalie | 52.78 | 51.3 | 104.08 |
| 67 | Cuomo, Lexi | 53.48 | 50.65 | 104.13 |
| 68 | Smoliga, Olivia | 50.04 | 54.12 | 104.16 |
| 68 | Engel, Lindsey | 52.57 | 51.59 | 104.16 |
| 70 | Lindner, Sophie | 51.56 | 52.62 | 104.18 |
| 71 | Merrell, Eva | 52.26 | 51.93 | 104.19 |
| 72 | Sim, Levenia | 51.03 | 53.17 | 104.2 |
| 73 | Lapshina, Polina | 52.07 | 52.16 | 104.23 |
| 73 | Banic, Madeline | 53.04 | 51.19 | 104.23 |
| 73 | McCawley, Margo | 51.63 | 52.6 | 104.23 |
| 76 | Toussaint, Kira | 50.85 | 53.46 | 104.31 |
| 77 | Smart, Lauren | 52.08 | 52.24 | 104.32 |
| 78 | Hoelzer, Margaret | 52.3 | 52.03 | 104.33 |
| 79 | Hart, Maddie | 52.71 | 51.64 | 104.35 |
| 80 | Jackson, Lara | 53.24 | 51.12 | 104.36 |
| 81 | Weitzeil, Abbey | 51.66 | 52.71 | 104.37 |
| 82 | Hyman, Misty | 53.04 | 51.34 | 104.38 |
| 83 | Ulett, Tristen | 52.39 | 52.01 | 104.4 |
| 84 | Boyce, Lisa | 52.85 | 51.57 | 104.42 |
| 85 | Carter, Olivia | 53.28 | 51.19 | 104.47 |
| 86 | Weiss, Hannah | 51.6 | 52.91 | 104.51 |
| 86 | Andrew, Caitlin | 52.83 | 51.68 | 104.51 |
| 88 | Ariola, Grace | 51.86 | 52.68 | 104.54 |
| 89 | Johnston (Ripple), Shelly | 53.05 | 51.5 | 104.55 |
| 90 | Dupre, Cora | 52.47 | 52.17 | 104.64 |
| 90 | McLaughlin, Katie | 54.67 | 49.97 | 104.64 |
| 92 | Stadden, Isabelle | 50.86 | 53.81 | 104.67 |
| 93 | Black, Haley | 54 | 50.68 | 104.68 |
| 94 | Bartholomew, Courtney | 50.01 | 54.69 | 104.7 |
| 95 | Nazieblo, Klaudia | 51.86 | 52.86 | 104.72 |
| 96 | Jones, Kaitlyn | 53.16 | 51.58 | 104.74 |
| 96 | Haruguchi, Saori | 53.41 | 51.33 | 104.74 |
| 98 | Noble, Kennedy | 51.51 | 53.24 | 104.75 |
| 98 | Campbell, Erin | 52.47 | 52.28 | 104.75 |
| 100 | Chiang, Marylyn | 52.36 | 52.4 | 104.76 |
Aly Tetzloff and Felicia Lee are both sub-51. So 15 swimmers in total. (#1-13, 16, 17)
Is Hosszu on this list?
In SCY. I believe US is the only country who competes in SCY. Hard to compare worldwide. But Hosszzu did compete for USC. There must be her times somewhere.
Katinka’s best are 55.59 back/52.33 fly.
Remember that she didn’t really develop as a backstroke until after college. Her short course meters best in the 100 back is actually faster than her short course yards best (55.03).
I think Peak Katinka would’ve been very high on this list. Probably top 10. I don’t know top 5, but top 10 probably.
Crazy that Curzan is only 17 and doing this! Love the data pull.
The crazy thing is she did 49.24 (100 Fly) / 21.40 (anchor 200 FR) / 49.61 (100 Back) / 46.76 (anchor 400 FR) all within a 1hr 45min window from her 100 fly to the end of anchoring that last relay.
How is Missy not on this?
Believe it or not, her best time in the 100 fly is 55.21. I’m 100000% confident that she was capable of faster than that, but she just very rarely swam the race in college.
How did y’all pull this data? I see Smoliga on there with a 54 fly. To go that deep do you pull top 1000+ performers and copy-paste to excel? Or is there an API to query the database directly?
Anybody can export data from SWIMS into a CSV using the public interface. It doesn’t always work great and takes a few tries to get success on huge pulls (sorry anyone who was trying to access the site yesterday while I was doing this).
I pulled 1000 in each event, and manually filled in the N/As for the top X in each event that were mathematically still possible to be in the top 100.
Can you make a short video about how to do this somewhere?
Maggie quakin in her winter boots
Yeah but with inflation Natalie had like 95 in today’s seconds.