This text (information solely) initially appeared within the 2024 Olympic Preview version of SwimSwam Journal. Subscribe to the SwimSwam Journal right here.
As an entire, swimming has continued to progress and get sooner within the three years since Tokyo—we’ve already seen 5 world information go down thus far in 2024, and eight others (in Olympic occasions) have been damaged in 2023.
Nonetheless, beneath the intense lights of the Olympics, with all the exterior noise that comes together with it—to not point out the normally less-than-ideal situations athletes take care of on the Video games—the profitable occasions can generally be a bit slower than we’d anticipated.
In Tokyo, solely two particular person occasions have been received in world file style: the boys’s 100 fly and ladies’s 200 breast.
Caeleb Dressel‘s mark of 49.45 within the 100 fly remains to be on the books three years later, whereas Tatjana Smith‘s (Schoenmaker) 200 breast file of two:18.95 has been obliterated by Evgeniia Chikunova in 2:17.55—although Chikunova, a Russian, received’t be racing in Paris.
Simply within the final six months, we’ve seen swimmers log sooner occasions than what received gold in Tokyo in 16 of the 28 particular person Olympic occasions, displaying us simply how a lot sooner issues have gotten lately.
And whereas we count on issues to be faster as an entire in Paris than they have been in Tokyo—in some occasions, by quite a bit—how a lot sooner issues get relative to what we’ve seen within the final 18 months stays to be seen.
Beneath, discover the occasions required to win gold, bronze, and what it took to closing (eighth within the semis, or prelims of occasions 400 and up) on the Tokyo Video games. What do you assume will probably be required to win, attain the rostrum, and make the ultimate in Paris?
MEN – TOKYO OLYMPICS
| EVENT | GOLD MEDAL | BRONZE MEDAL | TO FINAL |
| 50m Freestyle | 21.07 | 21.57 | 21.78 |
| 100m Freestyle | 47.02 | 47.44 | 47.82 |
| 200m Freestyle | 1:44.22 | 1:44.66 | 1:45.71 |
| 400m Freestyle | 3:43.36 | 3:43.94 | 3:45.68 |
| 800m Freestyle | 7:41.87 | 7:42.33 | 7:47.73 |
| 1500m Freestyle | 14:39.65 | 14:40.91 | 14:52.66 |
| 100m Backstroke | 51.98 | 52.19 | 53.20 |
| 200m Backstroke | 1:53.27 | 1:54.72 | 1:56.69 |
| 100m Breaststroke | 57.37 | 58.33 | 59.18 |
| 200m Breaststroke | 2:06.38 | 2:07.13 | 2:08.76 |
| 100m Butterfly | 49.45 WR | 50.74 | 51.30 |
| 200m Butterfly | 1:51.25 | 1:54.45 | 1:55.31 |
| 200m IM | 1:55.00 | 1:56.17 | 1:57.64 |
| 400m IM | 4:09.42 | 4:10.38 | 4:10.20 |
WOMEN – TOKYO OLYMPCIS
| EVENT | GOLD MEDAL | BRONZE MEDAL | TO FINAL |
| 50m Freestyle | 23.81 | 24.21 | 24.32* |
| 100m Freestyle | 51.96 | 52.52 | 53.11 |
| 200m Freestyle | 1:53.50 | 1:54.70 | 1:56.58 |
| 400m Freestyle | 3:56.69 | 4:01.08 | 4:04.07 |
| 800m Freestyle | 8:12.57 | 8:18.35 | 8:20.58 |
| 1500m Freestyle | 15:37.34 | 15:42.91 | 15:58.96 |
| 100m Backstroke | 57.47 | 58.05 | 59.30 |
| 200m Backstroke | 2:04.68 | 2:06.17 | 2:08.76 |
| 100m Breaststroke | 1:04.95 | 1:05.54 | 1:06.59 |
| 200m Breaststroke | 2:18.95 WR | 2:20.84 | 2:23.73 |
| 100m Butterfly | 55.59 | 55.72 | 57.19 |
| 200m Butterfly | 2:03.86 | 2:05.65 | 2:09.07 |
| 200m IM | 2:08.52 | 2:09.04 | 2:10.59 |
| 400m IM | 4:32.08 | 4:34.90 | 4:37.37 |
*Tied for eighth, scratched led to no swim-off
The relays are a little bit of a unique story, as we noticed 4 world information fall in Tokyo, whereas the all-time marks have been critically approached in two others (males’s 400 and 800 free relays).
RELAYS – TOKYO OLYMPICS
| EVENT | GOLD MEDAL | BRONZE MEDAL | TO FINAL | |
| Males | 4x100m Freestyle Relay | 3:08.97 | 3:10.22 | 3:13.13 |
| 4x200m Freestyle Relay | 6:58.58 | 7:01.84 | 7:07.73 | |
| 4x100m Medley Relay | 3:26.78 WR | 3:29.17 | 3:32.38 | |
| Ladies | 4x100m Freestyle Relay | 3:29.69 WR | 3:32.81 | 3:35.93 |
| 4x200m Freestyle Relay | 7:40.33 WR | 7:41.29 | 7:56.16 | |
| 4x100m Medley Relay | 3:51.60 | 3:52.60 | 3:57.70 | |
| Blended | 4x100m Medley Relay | 3:37.58 WR | 3:38.95 | 3:43.94 |
The world information within the girls’s 400 and 800 free relays have been lowered considerably by the Australians in 2023, whereas the boys’s medley relay file (USA) and the blended medley mark (Nice Britain) stay on the books at this time.
