2021 FINA SHORT COURSE SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
- Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- SCM (25m)
- Prize Money
- Meet Site
- Psych Sheet
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- FINA Live Results
- Omega Live Results
Alberto Razzetti became the first Italian man to ever crack 4 minutes in the 400 IM to claim 4th at the 2021 Short Course Swimming World Championships. Razzetti posted a 3:59.57 to improve upon his own former record of 4:00.34 from earlier this year at the European Short Course Championships.
Prior to this year, the record stood at a 4:01.71, which Luca Marin swam back in the 2006 European Short Course Championships. That makes Razzetti the fastest 400 IMer in Italian history by more than 2 seconds.
Splits Comparison
| Razzetti – 2021 Short Course Worlds | Razzetti – 2021 European Championships | Marin – 2006 European Championships | |
| Butterfly | 54.54 | 54.73 | 58.17 |
| Backstroke | 1:02.03 | 1:02.30 | 59.83 |
| Breaststroke | 1:07.63 | 1:07.85 | 1:08.19 |
| Freestyle | 55.37 | 55.46 | 55.52 |
| 3:59.57 | 4:00.34 | 4:01.71 |
Razzetti has been under Marin’s record a total of 4 times in 2021, having also swum a 4:01.57 and a 4:01.59 during the ISL season. Razzetti’s PB heading into 2021 in the short course 400 IM was a 4:08.41 from back in 2018, meaning that he’s dropped nearly 10 seconds in the event this year.
Razzetti saw an even more dramatic improvement in his long course 400 IM PB this year, which was a 4:21.60 heading into the season from 2018. He first swam 4:14.57 at the European Championships in May 2021 but got down to a 4:09.91 in Tokyo during prelims. He was a bit slower in the Olympic final with a 4:011.32 for 8th overall. That swim got him within 0.03 seconds of Luca Marin‘s national record of 4:09.88 from 2007.
In addition to his 400 IM improvements, Razzetti has also reset the 200 butterfly and 200 IM Italian records both in the short course pool and the 200 IM in long course.
Despite missing the podium in the 400 IM at Short Course Worlds, Razzetti had a top 3 finish in both the 200 fly and 200 IM earlier this week. He picked up those two medals in Italian record fashion just a few events apart during day 1 of the meet.
Alberto Razzetti now sits at #12 in the all-time rankings for the men’s short course 200 and 400 IMs, and 5th overall in the 200 butterfly.
Honestly thought he could’ve done more in this 400 but still a great performance regardless.