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17.63s
My older brother sent this to me last night.
This is a 25-yard pool. For this reason it will be more relatable to most Americans since almost all of you, when you've visited an official pool, have swam in a pool of that length. While meters are the standard everywhere else in the world, 25m pools are rare here (usually found indoors), and 50m pools are easily identifiable for their Olympic size, but are extremely rare.
This time is unfathomable.
The Men's 50-yard Freestyle record was one of the longest standing records ever in swimming: Cal Ripken-esque. It only fell, initially, due to the rise of non-textile suits (that have now been banned). The stallion Tom Jager set the record back in 1990 at 19.05, and there it stood for 15 years before finally NCAA-trained French champion Frederick Bousquet became the first man in history to break 19 seconds, for Auburn, with an 18.74 back in 2005:
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.c...st-man-under-19-seconds-in-50-yard-freestyle/
However, both his time, as well as the matching time by Anthony Ervin from 2002 cited in the above article, were made in non-textile suits, and were retroactively expunged from the textile progression of records on January 4th, 2010. Nevertheless, that year would see three swimmers break the mark in textile suits, including the legendary Nathan Adrian, at the 2010 NCAA Championships championship, with respective times of 18.93, 18.97, and 18.99.
Twenty years. That's a dozen lifetimes for a swimming record.
Caeleb has been a rising superstar for years, now, since he became the first junior swimmer in history to break the 19s barrier. He already held this record; he had taken it from USC's Vlad Morozov who swam the fastest textile time ever in 2013 with an 18.63.
But nobody ever expected anything like this. This is incomprehensible. This is like cold fusion. I don't have the data set to extrapolate the sigma shift, here, since SCY record-keeping is an afterthought, but I'm pretty sure this is the most impressive single swimming record in history. His dominance in this distance exceeds even Katie Ledecky at 800m, now.
Listen in the video. He completes that first lap in 8.48 seconds. That's his feet hitting the touchpad, too, off the flipturn. Now go try to do that in your local pool. Time yourself.
He's the Usain Bolt of the pool. In fact, Usain could only dream of ever being this far out in front...
FASTEST 50 YARD FREESTYLE IN HISTORY*
- 17.63 - Caeleb Dressel (2018)#
- 18.47 - Cesar Cielo (2008)#
- 18.52 - Matt Targett (2009)
- 18.56 - Ryan Held (2018)
- 18.63 - Vladimir Morozov (2013)#
- 18.64 - Kristian Gkolomeev (2015)
- 18.66 - Nathan Adrian (2011)#
- 18.69 - Bowen Becker (2018)
- 18.71 - Ryan Hoffer (2016)
- 18.72 - Adam Brown (2011)
- 18.74 - Frederick Bousquet (2005)#
- 18.76 - Simonas Bilas (2016)
- 18.76 - Joseph Schooling (2017)
- 18.80 - Brad Tandy (2014)
- 18.80 - Paul Powers (2017)
- 18.82 - Marcelo Chierighini (2013)
- 18.82 - Zachary Apple (2018)
- 18.82 - Alex Righi (2009)
- 18.83 - Cesar Cielo (2014)
- 18.84 - James Feigen (2009)
- 18.86 - Bradley Debord (2014)
- 18.87 - Alex Coville (2009)
- 18.87 - Ben Wildman-Tobriner (2007)
- 18.88 - Matt Grevers (2013)
- 18.88 - Michael Andrew (2018)
- 18.89 - Jacob Andkjaer (2009)
- 18.92 - Pawel Sendyk (2017)
- 18.93 - Josh Schneider (2010)#
- 18.93 - Blake Peroni (2018)
- 18.94 - Ali Khalafalla (2017)
- 18.95 - Derek Toomey (2014)
- 18.95 - Tate Jackson (2018)
- 18.96 - Brett Ringgold (2017)
- 18.96 - Justin Ress (2018)
- 18.96 - Austin Staab (2009)
- 18.97 - Michael Chadwick (2017)
- 18.97 - James Feigen (2010)
- 18.97 - Seth Stubblefield (2014)
- 18.98 - Santo Condorelli (2018)
- 18.98 - George Bovell (2009)
- 18.99 - Gideon Louw (2009)
- 19.00 - Frederick Bousquet (2010)
- 19.01 - Alex Coville (2011)
- 19.01 - Duje Draganja (2009)
- 19.03 - Ryan Shane (2017)
- 19.03 - Adam Small (2011)
- 19.04 - Corey Bolleter (2017)
- 19.04 - Dylan Carter (2017)
- 19.04 - Paul Murray (2014)
- 19.05 - Anthony Ervin (2002)#
- 19.05 - William Copeland (2008)
- 19.05 - Tom Jager (1990)#
*Note: Only the personal record for each individual swimmer is shown (ex. Nathan Adrian, for example, has broken the 19s barrier nearly every year since 2010) except for those swimmers who crossed eras, and have both a textile and non-textile PR (ex. Cesar Cielo)
#This time has been the record at some point; even if it is no longer recognized because non-textile times were thrown out.
- 19.05 - Tom Jager (1990)
19.05 - Anthony Ervin (2002)18.74 - Frederick Bousquet (2005)18.47 - Cesar Cielo (2009)- 18.93 - Josh Schneider (2010)
- 18.66 - Nathan Adrian (2011)
- 18.63 - Vladimir Morozov (2013)
- 18.39 - Caeleb Dressel (2016)
- 18.20 - Caeleb Dressel (2016)
- 17.63 - Caeleb Dressel (2018)
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