Following the ban on the rubberized suits at the end of 2009 it seemed as though it would be a long time before world records would become commonplace at world class competitions again.
Out of all the world records broken since the suit ban began on January 1st, 2010, several world records have been broken, but it hasn’t been extremely commonplace to see multiple all broken on the same day.
Prior to tonight on only five occasions over the last seven-years have two or more world records been broken on the same day. On only two occasions were three world records broken on the same day, and on only one occasion were three world records broken in three seperate events on the same day.
On August 3rd, 2015, Katinka Hosszu broke the 200m IM world record, Sarah Sjostrom broke the 100m butterfly world record, and Katie Ledecky broke the 1500m freestyle world record. A completely rare occurrence ever since the suit-ban.
Now, the 2016 Olympic Games opened with three world records in three different events. Adam Peaty of Great Britain swam to a stunning 57.55 performance in the 100m breaststroke, Katinka Hosszu gutted the 400m IM world record, and the Australian women bettered their own mark in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
With such an incredible opening to the games, and only the second time in six and a half years that three records were broken in three separate events on the same day, it only bodes well for the future of the sport.
It seems as though finally the records from 2008 and 2009 are in range for today’s athletes. It seems that the sport of swimming has finally gotten over the hurdle that was the ruberized-suit era, with world records once again ripe for the picking and the progression of the sport inevitable.
Really three World Records are great and if they didn’t have another one this year it be great too. Record are meant to be broken but not all of them at once they will in about 5 years weed out more of those records but there will be like that one that might hold on for like 25-30 and people would say it wasn’t fair put a * on it but then a guy will break it because more people will be trying to break that record and will do it the suit era will one day all be broken.
I’d like to see when a man will swim under 1:42 in 200 free.
Even the softest one of 3:40.07 in 400 free has not been approached since 2012.
I’m not even gonna talk about the 2:01 or the 7:32.
Yeah, as others have mentioned, it’s the same World Records that are being broken repeatedly, meaning that those specific supersuit world records were likely just weak to begin with. We need to see new records on the men’s side before we can officially declare ourselves as becoming cured of this curse.
Practically all world records on the men’s side are from 2008-2009 era. Much better situation is with women’s records. Only six suits records left and there are good chances that three of them will gone this week (50 free, 800 relay and 100 back) . With such significant improvement at sprint by Ledecky I think that Pellegrini’s record at 200 free is also in danger. So we can finally forget about this high tech suits circus.
Exaggerates the truth – all 3 were textile world records. One wonders when some of those super suit world records will go – what about the women’s 200m butterfly? With today’s women struggling to break 2:05 how do you expect them to get down to 2:01?
I certainly hope you’re right, but it seems a little too early to say for sure. It’s worth noting that all the world records broken tonight were not previously held by supersuit athletes.
It is harder beating the PED and swimsuits both that is hard I don’t think we going to see many more records.
Do you think Fina should expunge all nonTextile WR’s from 2009? I think dressel can take down the Free and Fly sprint times but the rest seem distant realities..