Hong Kong swimmer Siobhan Haughey has swum under the national and Asian Records in the 200 meter freestyle, though neither swim is likely to count.
Racing at a time trial event in her home country on Friday, Haughey swam a 1:54.44 in the 200 meter free in long course. That breaks both her own Hong Kong Record of 1:54.98, set at last summer’s World Championships en route to a 4th-place finish; as well as the Asian Record of 1:54.85 that was set in 2018 by Japan’s Rikako Ikee.
Comparative Splits:
| Rikako Ikee | Siobhan Haughey | ||
| Old Asian Record | Old HK Record | New HK Record | |
| 1st 50 | 27.09 | 26.82 | 26.35 |
| 2nd 50 | 29.06 | 29.46 | 28.86 |
| 3rd 50 | 29.65 | 29.28 | 29.65 |
| 4th 50 | 29.05 | 29.42 | 29.58 |
| Final Time | 1:54.85 | 1:54.98 | 1:54.44 |
Haughey’s time is also the fastest in the world this season, eclipsing the 1:54.59 that was swum by American Katie Ledecky at the Des Moines Pro Swim Series in early March. The time would have been good for a silver medal at last year’s World Championships, and would have earned a medal at every swim meet in history.
That is significant because Hong Kong has never won an Olympic medal in swimming. In fact, they’ve only won 3 Olympic medals in history across all sports: a gold in sailing in 1996, a silver in table tennis in 2004, and a bronze in cycling in 2012.
The 22-year old Haughey completed her collegiate career at the University of Michigan in the spring of 2019 and has continued to train there as part of a post-graduate group since. She, like many other international swimmers training in the United States, returned home to train in Hong Kong amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
She is expected to return to American later this month along with other Hong Kong nationals based out of the University of Michigan like Jamie Yeung and Katii Tang.
Other Results from the Time Trial:
- Jamie Yeung swam 1:10.34 in the women’s 100 breaststroke and 2:20.37 in the 200 IM.
- National Record holder Ian Ho swam 22.72 in the 50 free.
Race Video
Haughey Swims 1:54.44 in the 200 free
Ian Ho Swims 22.72 in the 50 free
She is so impressive! Go Hong Kong !
who is downvoting everything lol
Probably someone who gets salty everytime he/she sees a swimmer not named Katie Ledecky succeed
Anything positive about a non-American gets down voted….if I ever post something mildly complimenting an Australian swimmer I get 20 down votes within minutes. (watch the down votes coming)! Not surprising, it is a mainly US forum…
Actually think bc she’s from Hong Kong. Chinese bots, political reasons
Agreed on the suggestion of Chinese bots and political reasons related to Hong Kong vs. China interaction. Normally, this type of post doesn’t have this much “voting traffic” (no offense, it was a terrific and rare swim!), and positive comments on fast swims generally receive 90+% upvotes, so there’s definitely an outside influence going on here. Probably tough for SwimSwam to do much about it though.
Great swim, Siobhan! This was really fun to watch.
That is… extremely petty.
Girl swims fast, is undermined for her nationality?
One of the fastest women’s 200 frees ever swum. And it was by herself in a time trial. Congrats Siobhan, and we’ll see you in Tokyo- looking real dangerous in this event.
Check out the All-Time Top Performances list in the women’s 200 meter freestyle on the USA Swimming website.
No explanation as to why this time won’t count for either record…?
No officials, no competitors, no backsplash, a one-off swim, with pool length, timing system and suit/equipment not ratified. Also, no official verification of the swimmer’s identity and/or that the video is authentic. At best, it is a nice practice/training swim.
Also, drug testing ratification, assessment of TUEs if needed, legality of inhaler type if used, etc. I suppose it would be nice if anyone could drive to a neighborhood pool at their tapered or rested leisure, shave, suit up, and throw down a nice singular practice time on a video and put themselves in the swimming record books, but things don’t work that way.
All of this is totally valid. We all know that the swim probably followed the rules, was probably legit, etc. But, the rules have to enforce those things, or it opens the door for abuse.
That being said, given that it’s almost probably legit, as a marker toward Tokyo, it’s still very exciting, even if it doesn’t go down as the official Asian Record.
I’ve found where all the downvotes are coming from
It’s really cool to see humanities grit and determination triumph in such chaotic times. Congratulations Siobhan!
(Fingers Crossed) The women’s 200 free at Tokyo 2021 is shaping up to be a race for the ages…
The final of the women’s 200 meter freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics resulted in the 4th fastest and 5th fastest All-Time Top Performances.
As for epic races, Ledecky vs Friis in the women’s 1500 meter freestyle at the 2013 FINA World Aquatics Championships resulted in the 1st fastest and 2nd fastest All-Time Top Performances.
Cameraman’s comment at the 100 flip: “holy sh*t!” really sums this whole swim up. Unbelievable swim!
This really shakes things up. That front end speed is impressive; Not long before she’s under 53s.
Will these time trial results be ratified as records? There are so many fast times in unofficial trials around the world.
I think it would need to be a licensed meet for record purposes? I know there were TTs around Britain before swimmers went on their summer breaks and those times won’t count.