In the span of one week, two 50-meter world records weren’t just broken, but were absolutely demolished.
At the 2021 Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi, Canadian Maggie MacNeil torched the world record in the women’s 50 backstroke by 33 one-hundredths of a second, clocking 25.27 to down Kira Toussaint‘s old mark of 25.60 en route to winning the world title.
Seven days later, Turkey’s Emre Sakci broke the men’s 50 breaststroke record by a similar margin, producing a time of 24.95 to shatter the previous record of 25.25, held jointly by Cameron van der Burgh (2009) and Ilya Shymanovich (2021).
When a world record is broken, period, it’s something special. When one falls by a big margin, that’s next level. Along with MacNeil, one of the other world records set in Abu Dhabi came in the men’s 1500 freestyle, where Florian Wellbrock crushed the mark by 1.18 seconds in 14:06.88.
While that swim was sensational, the race is 30x longer than the events in which MacNeil and Sakci broke their world records, and his WR margin was less than 4x as big as theirs.
It’s apples and oranges, to an extent, but Wellbrock’s world record swim would be similar to MacNeil clocking 25.56 in the 50 back and Sakci going 25.21 in the 50 breast, instead of what their actual swims were.
50m Records Broken By Similar Margins
Looking at 50-meter races specifically, breaking the world record by a margin of three-tenths or more is a very rare feat, though it has happened a few times in the last decade.
Outside of MacNeil and Sakci’s swims, two other current world records were broken by a margin greater than three-tenths, both from 2014.
In July 2014, Sarah Sjostrom lowered the women’s 50 butterfly world record by 53 one-hundredths, from 25.07 to 24.43, which has not been broken since.
Five months later at the Short Course World Championships, Florent Manaudou took out the men’s 50 back all-time mark by 39 one-hundredths, clocking 22.22 to extinguish Peter Marshall‘s previous mark of 22.61.
Other recent examples of 50-meter world records getting broken by relatively significant margins include:
- At the 2017 Long Course World Championships, Adam Peaty broke his world record in the men’s 50 breaststroke by .32 in the prelims, taking the mark down from 26.42 to 26.10. Then, in the semi-finals, he re-lowered that time down to 25.95, giving him a total of .47 off the record in one day.
- At the 2013 Worlds, a similar situation arose in the women’s event. Yuliya Efimova broke the world record by .02 in the heats, clocking 29.78, and then Ruta Meilutyte knocked three-tenths off of that in the semis in 29.48, meaning the all-time mark had been lowered by .32 in one day.
- The world record in the men’s 50 fly was demolished in both long course and short course meters in 2009. Rafael Munoz broke the LCM record by .53, from 22.96 to 22.43, and Steffen Deibler bettered the SCM mark by .38, 22.18 to 21.80.
Prior to Sakci, the last time the world record in the men’s SCM 50 breast was broken by a margin of three-tenths or greater came in 2009, when Cameron van der Burgh took his own record down from 25.94 to 25.43.
In the women’s SCM 50 back, Zhao Jing brought the record down by a total of 35 one-hundredths across two swims (26.17 to 26.08 in prelims, 26.08 to 25.82 in the final) in 2009, while the last time it was done in a single swim came from Sanja Jovanovic in December 2007 (26.83 to 26.50).
So while breaking a 50-meter world record by the margins that MacNeil and Sakci did is extremely rare, it’s not unheard of, it just takes an exceptional talent (and sometimes a super-suit aid) to do so.
FINA Points Perspective
Diving into the FINA points table, both Sakci and MacNeil’s swims were off the charts. Not literally, because the tables go way up to levels much quicker than humans are currently capable of, but still, when contextualized across other events, the results are significant.
MacNeil’s 25.27 in the 50 back earned 1039 FINA points, narrowly edging out Sakci’s 1036.
To give you an idea of how MacNeil’s swim stacks up in this scoring system, here’s a look at the times required to score 1039 FINA points in women’s SCM events, along with the current world record and what it took to win gold at the SC Worlds.
Along with the 50 back, the FINA points table has not been updated since the world record was broken in the women’s 200 free.
| Event | Current WR | 1039 FINA Points Swim | |
| 50 free | 22.93 | 22.64 | 23.08 |
| 100 free | 50.25 | 49.61 | 50.98 |
| 200 free | 1:50.31 | 1:49.03 | 1:50.31 |
| 400 free | 3:53.92 | 3:50.95 | 3:55.83 |
| 800 free | 7:59.34 | 7:53.26 | 8:02.90 |
| 1500 free | 15:18.01 | 15:06.37 | – |
| 100 back | 54.89 | 54.19 | 55.20 |
| 200 back | 1:58.94 | 1:57.43 | 2:01.58 |
| 50 breast | 28.56 | 28.19 | 29.34 |
| 100 breast | 1:02.36 | 1:01.57 | 1:03.47 |
| 200 breast | 2:14.57 | 2:12.86 | 2:17.85 |
| 50 fly | 24.38 | 24.07 | 24.44 |
| 100 fly | 54.59 | 53.91 | 55.04 |
| 200 fly | 1:59.61 | 1:58.09 | 2:03.01 |
| 100 IM | 56.51 | 55.79 | 57.8 |
| 200 IM | 2:01.86 | 2:00.31 | 2:04.29 |
| 400 IM | 4:18.94 | 4:15.65 | 4:25.55 |
Here’s the same chart for men, but with Sakci’s 1036 score instead of MacNeil’s 1039.
Along with the 50 breast, the FINA points table has not been updated since the world record was broken in the men’s 100 free, 1500 free or 100 breast.
| Event | Current WR | 1036 FNA Points Swim | |
| 50 free | 20.16 | 19.92 | 20.46 |
| 100 free | 44.84 | 44.41 | 45.57 |
| 200 free | 1:39.37 | 1:38.20 | 1:41.60 |
| 400 free | 3:32.25 | 3:29.76 | 3:35.90 |
| 800 free | 7:23.42 | 7:18.22 | – |
| 1500 free | 14:06.88 | 13:58.12 | 14:06.88 |
| 50 back | 22.22 | 21.96 | 22.66 |
| 100 back | 48.33 | 47.76 | 49.23 |
| 200 back | 1:45.63 | 1:44.39 | 1:48.68 |
| 50 breast | 24.95 | 24.95 | 25.53 |
| 100 breast | 55.28 | 54.69 | 55.70 |
| 200 breast | 2:00.16 | 1:58.75 | 2:02.28 |
| 50 fly | 21.75 | 21.49 | 21.93 |
| 100 fly | 47.78 | 47.22 | 48.87 |
| 200 fly | 1:48.24 | 1:46.97 | 1:49.06 |
| 100 IM | 49.28 | 48.70 | 51.09 |
| 200 IM | 1:49.63 | 1:48.34 | 1:51.15 |
| 400 IM | 3:54.81 | 3:52.05 | 3:56.26 |
Looking at how far out of reach basically all of those times are speaks to the level MacNeil and Sakci rose to deliver those swims.
FINA points are assigned every year based on the current world record. You can read more on the formula here.
It may not be a perfect measurement of the significance of a swim, especially when there are world records out there that haven’t been seriously approached by this generation’s crop of swimmers in some time (the men’s LCM 200 and 800 free, and the women’s LCM 200 fly, for example). Though not exactly the same, Manaudou’s 50 back record could be lumped into that category, too.
But it does help provide context for how much a swimmer crushed the previous record, especially in a 50, where a margin of two or three-tenths might not sound all that significant to the non-hardcore fan.
Here’s a look at the same charts as above, but for long course meters and with the Tokyo Olympic winning swims.
Note that the world records in the women’s 100 back and 50 breast have been lowered since the last time the points tables have been updated.
| Event | Current WR | 1039 FINA Points Swim | |
| 50 free | 23.67 | 23.37 | 23.81 |
| 100 free | 51.71 | 51.05 | 51.96 |
| 200 free | 1:52.98 | 1:51.54 | 1:53.50 |
| 400 free | 3:56.46 | 3:53.46 | 3:56.69 |
| 800 free | 8:04.79 | 7:58.64 | 8:12.57 |
| 1500 free | 15:20.48 | 15:08.81 | 15:37.34 |
| 50 back | 26.98 | 26.64 | – |
| 100 back | 57.45 | 56.84 | 57.47 |
| 200 back | 2:03.35 | 2:01.78 | 2:04.68 |
| 50 breast | 29.30 | 29.02 | – |
| 100 breast | 1:04.13 | 1:03.31 | 1:04.95 |
| 200 breast | 2:18.95 | 2:17.34 | 2:18.95 |
| 50 fly | 24.43 | 24.12 | – |
| 100 fly | 55.48 | 54.77 | 55.59 |
| 200 fly | 2:01.81 | 2:00.26 | 2:03.86 |
| 200 IM | 2:06.12 | 2:04.52 | 2:08.52 |
| 400 IM | 4:26.36 | 4:22.98 | 4:32.08 |
Note that the world records in the men’s 50 back and 100 fly have been lowered since the last time the points tables have been updated.
| Event | Current WR | 1036 FINA Points Swim | |
| 50 free | 20.91 | 20.66 | 21.07 |
| 100 free | 46.91 | 46.36 | 47.02 |
| 200 free | 1:42.00 | 1:40.80 | 1:44.22 |
| 400 free | 3:40.07 | 3:37.49 | 3:43.36 |
| 800 free | 7:32.12 | 7:26.82 | 7:41.87 |
| 1500 free | 14:31.02 | 14:20.81 | 14:39.65 |
| 50 back | 23.80 | 23.72 | – |
| 100 back | 51.85 | 51.24 | 51.98 |
| 200 back | 1:51.92 | 1:50.60 | 1:53.27 |
| 50 breast | 25.95 | 25.64 | – |
| 100 breast | 56.88 | 56.21 | 57.37 |
| 200 breast | 2:06.12 | 2:04.64 | 2:06.38 |
| 50 fly | 22.27 | 22.01 | – |
| 100 fly | 49.45 | 48.92 | 49.45 |
| 200 fly | 1:50.73 | 1:49.43 | 1:51.25 |
| 200 IM | 1:54.00 | 1:52.66 | 1:55.00 |
| 400 IM | 4:03.84 | 4:00.98 | 4:09.42 |