2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

After breaking her own World Junior Record in the heats of the women’s 200 back this morning with a 2:06.01, 17-year-old American Regan Smith dropped almost another 3 seconds, breaking the 2012 World Record held by Missy Franklin. Smith swam a 2:03.35, shattering the record by .71 seconds. Franklin’s record had seemed like one that would stand for a while longer, since the fastest non-Franklin swim since she set the record in 2012 was Australia’s Emily Seebohm, who clocked a 2:05.68 at the 2017 World Champs.

With the swim, Smith now holds the World Record, World Junior Record, American Record, and 17-18 NAG for Americans. Franklin was also 17 when she set her World Record. Going by age, Franklin’s WR would have also been a World Jr Record, however, FINA did not yet recongize WJRs in 2012. Here is a split comparison between Smith’s WR swim, Missy Franklin‘s WR swim, and Smith’s WJR swim this morning.

REGAN SMITH 2019 WORLD CHAMPS SEMIFINALS REGAN SMITH 2019 WORLD CHAMPS PRELIMS MISSY FRANKLIN 2012 OLYMPIC FINAL 29.06 29.44 29.53 31.31 (1:00.37) 31.50 (1:00.94) 30.97 (1:00.50) 31.47 (1:31.84) 32.34 (1:33.28) 31.66 (1:32.16) 31.51 32.73 31.90 2:03.35 2:06.01 2:04.06

Smith was under WR pace the enitre way through the race, even outsplitting Missy’s race on every 50 except the 2nd. Smith stayed incredibly consistent on the last 3 50s, with those 3 coming in at a range of only .20 seconds.

Here is video of the end of Regan’s race:

Regan Smith, 18 years old, wipes Missy Franklin's 200m backstroke world record off the books. Brings it down from 2:04.06 to 2:03.35. pic.twitter.com/Zl2uEPcmZk — Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) July 26, 2019

Fastest Women’s 200 Meter Backstrokers in History: