Could Longstanding American Records Fall at U.S. Selection Meet?
Short course meters meets in the United States are few and far between. Most swimmers follow the familiar pattern of short course yards from September through April, long course meters April through August. College and high school competition takes places in yards, as do most summer leagues around the country. The NCAA Championships took place in short course meters on a few occasions in the 2000s during Olympic years only, but that trend did not last.
The United Stats hosted the Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis in October 2024. Since then, the only major short course meters competitions held stateside have been the Duel in the Pool in 2011 and 2015, a handful International Swimming League competitions in 2019 and a smattering of World Cup meets. Indianapolis and Westmont, Ill., both played host to the World Aquatics circuit a year ago. But plenty of accomplished swimmers passed on all those opportunities, some finishing their careers without ever seriously contesting the 25-meter format.
Now, this week’s Short Course World Championships Trials will include most of the best swimmers in the United States, making it the highest-stakes short course meters held in the country in more than two decades. Rather than relying on long course times, USA Swimming will pick a short-course-meters-specific team for this winter’s global meet in Beijing. The lack of focus on the SCM format in the states means many swimmers that many have entered the meet using long course times.
That lack of racing opportunities means that plenty of short course meters American records have lasted for many years, three of them going back to the last decade. Ryan Lochte remains the American-record holder in both the 200 backstroke and 400 IM, both marks dating back to the 2010 Short Course World Championships.
Those will undoubtedly survive this upcoming meet. The 200 back is one of the weakest events for the U.S. men, and none of David King, Keaton Jones or Jack Aikins will race this week. Owen McDonald owns the top seed at 1:52.78, more than six seconds behind Lochte’s American record of 1:46.68. As for the 400 IM, where Lochte swam as fast as 3:55.50, only six men have entered the event this week, none with a short course meters entry time. However, the record could be under some pressure at Short Course Worlds as Carson Foster earned a wild card entry to the meet based on his World Cup performances, including a top mark of 3:57.21 in this event.
Another old record is in the 1500 free, where Connor Jaeger clocked 14:19.29 back in 2015. That mark, too, should be safe, with Bobby Finke not opting to attend this meet and only four men entered in the 1500.
A trio of men’s American records date back to the fall of 2020, the marks held by Caeleb Dressel in the 50 free, 100 butterfly and 100 IM, the latter of which doubles as the world record, plus the 200 fly mark of 1:46.66 belonging to Tom Shields. Marks surviving from 2021 include the men’s 50 back (Ryan Murphy), men’s 100 back (Coleman Stewart), men’s 100 breaststroke (Nic Fink) and men’s 50 fly (Shields). From that list, the 100 breast could be vulnerable as Van Mathias continues his career renaissance while Ilya Kharun owns lifetime bests quicker than the national records in the 50 and 200 fly.
The women’s record list, on the other hand, has received many more updates in the past few years thanks to the efforts of Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass, Regan Smith and Katie Ledecky, who combine to hold 14 out of 17 domestic marks in the format. The first three from that group will challenge their own relatively-young marks this week, but no one will come close to the best times of the absent Ledecky.
That leaves the time from Katie Grimes in the 400 IM plus the 2020 sprint breaststroke records set by Lilly King, 28.77 in the 50 breast and 1:02.50 in the 100-meter race. Perhaps Douglass could come close in the 100, but the chances of records falling are lessened with McKenzie Siroky, the top sprint breaststroker in the United States last summer, not in attendance at this selection meet.
