Regan Smith Breaks American Record in 200 SCM Backstroke to Narrowly Win Incheon Top Prize

2024 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – INCHEON

• Thursday, October 24th – Saturday, October 26th
• Prelims at 9:30am local (8:30pm previous night ET)/Finals at 7:30m local (6:30am ET)
• Munhak Park Tae-Hwan Swimming Pool, Incheon, South Korea
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Central
• Event Schedule
• Entered Athletes
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Finals Recap
• Results

A day after breaking the World Record in the women’s 100 meter backstroker, Regan Smith came up just shy of the same in the 200 meter distance – but she did take down the American Record in the event.

Smith swam 1:59.60 to win the race over two seconds by Belarusian Anastasiya Shkurdai. That makes Smith the first American woman under two minutes in the race and breaks the record previously held by the legendary Missy Franklin. Franklin swam 2:00.03 at the 2011 World Cup in Berlin, Germany, a notably fast pool on this tour historically.

At the time, that swim by Franklin was a World Record, which stood for over two years before it was eventually broken by Katinka Hosszu. The current World Record of 1:58.94 belongs to Smith’s rival Kaylee McKeown from 2020. McKeown started racing this series on the first day in Shanghai, but pulled out citing the need to focus on her mental health.

Splits Comparison

Smith’s previous best of 2:00.42 was done at the World Cup in Shanghai last week. While she opened up with nearly-identical splits on Saturday in her record-setting performance, she actually accelerated in the back-half, negative-splitting her last three 50s to put eight-tenths between her and the record.

Smith led most of the race, save for the first 65 meters or so where her American teammate Beata Nelson was ahead before fading to 4th in the final tally.

With that swim, Smith now has the 9th-best performance and is the 6th-best performer in the history of the event. The World Cup Record holder Daryna Zevina (1:59.35) is also ahead of her.

Top 10 Women All-Time, SCM 200 Backstroke

1. Kaylee McKeown, Australia – 1:58.94 (2020)
2. Katinka Hosszu, Hungary – 1:59.23 (2014)
3. Minna Atherton, Australia – 1:59.25 (2019)
4. Daryna Zevina, Ukraine – 1:59.35 (2016)
5. Emily Seebohm, Australia – 1:59.49 (2015)
6. Regan Smith, USA – 1:59.60 (2024)
7. Missy Franklin, USA – 2:00.03 (2011)
8. Shiho Sakai, Japan – 2:00.18 (2010)
9. Beata Nelson, USA – 2:00.27 (2020)
10. Claire Curzan, USA – 2:00.53 (2022)

Smith’s previous personal best ranked her 9th all-time. McKeown holds three of the seven times that are faster than Smith.

Looking more wholistically, that swim by Smith gave her just-enough points to nudge ahead of her U.S. teammate Kate Douglass for the meet-win in Incheon and the overall series lead heading into the final stop in Singapore. The winner of each stop receives $12,000 while the runner-up receives $10,000. The gap for the overall series winner swings from $100,000 for 1st to $70,000 for 2nd.

Douglass previously won the top series honor in Shanghai last week.