With three men under 51.0, tonight’s 100 fly final at the 2015 Worlds Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, was the fastest textile final ever in major international competition.
Chad le Clos, Lazslo Csesh, and Joseph Schooling all finished under 51.0 to take the medals. As far as we can tell, the only two other men to ever break 51.0 in textile are Michael Phelps and Ian Crocker.
How fast was this final tonight? Schooling’s bronze medal time of 50.96 would have won gold at both the 2013 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
However, it wasn’t just the top end of this final that was impressive. For instance, Pawel Korzeniowski took seventh place tonight with a time of 51.46. Two years ago in Barcelona, that time would have tied Konrad Czerniak for the bronze medal.
Here’s a chart showing medal-winning times at the Olympics and World Championships dating back to 2005:
Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
2015 World Championships | le Clos | Cseh | Schooling |
50.56 | 50.87 | 50.96 | |
2013 World Championships | le Clos | Cseh | Czerniak |
51.06 | 51.45 | 51.46 | |
2012 Olympics | Phelps | le Clos | Korotyshkin |
51.21 | 51.44 | 51.44 | |
2011 World Championships | Phelps | Czerniak | McGill |
50.71 | 51.15 | 51.26 | |
2009 World Championships | Phelps | Cavic | Munoz |
49.82 | 49.95 | 50.41 | |
2008 Olympics | Phelps | Cavic | Lauterstein |
50.58 | 50.59 | 51.12 | |
2007 World Championships | Phelps | Crocker | Subirats |
50.77 | 50.82 | 51.82 | |
2005 World Championships | Crocker | Phelps | Serdinov |
50.40 | 51.65 | 52.08 |
Two years ago, in the wake of Phelps’s retirement, it looked like butterfly times had stagnated, both within the USA and internationally. In fact, Phelps alluded to the lack of progression in these events as he explained his reasoning behind both his comeback in general and his more recent decision to pursue the 200 fly.
Three days ago, the 29 year-old Cseh swam a 1:53.48 in the 200 fly to beat defending Olympic champion le Clos for the gold medal here in Kazan in an event that many thought should remain in the domain of younger swimmers.
The 30 year-old Phelps responded yesterday by breaking 1:53 to post the fastest time in the world since 2009.
Tonight, Phelps will swim the 100 fly final at USA Summer Nationals. He swam a 52.12 in preliminaries this morning. Having had a few hours to see the times that were thrown down in Kazan and to listen to comments by both Cseh and le Clos after their race, you know Phelps is going to be gunning to exceed their times and probably Crocker’s 50.40 from 2005 that is still the fastest time ever in textile.
If Phelps doesn’t surpass that mark tonight, then that’ll just heighten the tension for next summer’s Olympics in Rio, where most likely Phelps, Cseh, le Clos, Schooling, and one other American, perhaps Tom Shields or Jack Conger, will be squaring off in what seems sure to be a race for the ages.
A few months ago we were talking about how men’s butterfly had stagnated internationally. In the past few days we’ve witnessed some incredible progression, both in terms of times and of the ages of the competitors involved, that are stretching the limits of what many thought could happen.
Like Phelps said last night in his post-race interview, “anything is possible,” and the road to Rio over the next year sure looks like it’s going to be an exciting ride.
The federation says ”during a giant slalom training run, Cook crashed causing ligament damage to his right knee.” It adds that the 26-year-old Cook will need surgery and misses Sunday’s season-opening World Cup giant slalom. Cook is the second skier to damage his knee ligament b9d s in a training crash Wednesday after women’s overall champion Anna Fenninger
I find it interesting that Le Clos’ 100 time would’ve beat Phelps’ ’08 100 time by .02, just like Phelps’ time yesterday would’ve beat Le Clos’ ’12 200 time by .02. Can’t wait for tonight!
Schooling continues to amaze me. I didn’t think he would crack a 51 this year, but I’m happy for him. Now Conger has to respond to Schooling 🙂
Well done Joseph Schooling . You indeed made Singapore proud . Delivered a bronze medal for the 100 fly at the fina world championship. Am very proud of you. Thanks for the present to Singapore SG 50 celebration. We will definitely remember your gift.
fs2 legskin vs these new jammers. I don’t know. I don’t think there is much difference. Crocker is still the best.
I understand your point about the tech involved, but having competed in each at championship meets I can say that the extra compression on the calves honestly benefits the legs hugely. The difference in fatigue at the end of a 100 or 200 y/m race is insane. Others might disagree, that’s fine. There’s really no objective conversion, and I hate to admit it because I like Ian Crocker a hell of a lot more than Chad Le Clos, but as far as I’m concerned this 50.56 is the better swim and should be the “true” textile WR.
Yeah, but le Clos had a little fin at the back of the blocks.
There’s always technological advancements that’re gonna favor more recent swims.