2022 Short Course Worlds Picks And Previews: Men’s Butterfly

2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
• Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• SCM (25m)
• Prize Money
• Meet Site
• Meet Schedule
• Meet Roster Index
• Meet Entries

With Hungarian ace Kristof Milak and Japanese dynamo Tomoru Honda both not competing here in Melbourne, the door has been opened for new blood in the men’s longer butterfly events.

And, although the dual World Record holders Nicholas Santos of Brazil and Szebasztian Szabo of Hungary are among the 50m butterfly contenders, in a race of just two laps anything can happen.

MEN’S 50M BUTTERFLY

2022 Long Course Worlds Finalists Participating:

#2 Nicholas Santos, Brazil
#3 Michael Andrew, United States
#4 Dylan Carter, Trinidad & Tobago
#5 Thomas Ceccon, Italy
#6 Szebasztian Szabo, Hungary
#8 Teong Tzen Wei, Chinese Taipei

2021 Short Course Worlds Finalists Participating:

#1 Nicholas Santos, Brazil
#2 Dylan Carter, Trinidad & Tobago
#3 Matteo Rivolta, Italy
#4 Szebasztian Szabo, Hungary
#6 Nyls Korstanje, The Netherlands

Last year reigning men’s 50m butterfly champion Santos broke his own record by becoming the oldest world champion in the history of swimming.

At 41 in Abu Dhabi, Santos took home the gold in this 50m fly in a time of 21.93, beating out runner-up Dylan Carter of Trinidad &. Tobago by just .05. Santos will be trying to outdo himself once again, coming into this meet as a 42-year-old with a season-best of 22.24 from September’s Jose Finkel Trophy.

Another veteran Matteo Rivolta of Italy rounded out the podium last year, with the then-30-year-old posting a bronze medal-worthy mark of 22.02 for a new Italian record. Rivolta’s PB still stands as the national standard while his best yet this season checks in at the 22.24 he produced at the FINA World Cup.

Szabo, Carter and Rivolta will be vying for the top prize in this test of speed and power but other would-be gold medalists are lurking amidst the field.

Among them is Hungary’s Szabo, who had to settle for 4th place in Abu Dhabi despite being a co-World Record holder. Already Szabo has clocked a time of 22.05 this season to enter this competition as the world’s 2nd fastest performer behind Carter’s 21.99.

For his part, Carter is coming off of a fantastic set of performances across the FINA World Cup where the former USC Trojan won this 50m fly event across all 3 stops of the tour.

Then there’s Chad Le Clos of South Africa, enjoying a career resurgence of sorts since seeking mental health help as well as pursuing a coaching change. Now under Dirk Lange in Germany, Le Clos crushed some of his best times in years while racing in the FINA World Cup, rendering the 30-year-old to dub himself ‘Chad 2.0’.

And his new mentality appears to be working as the South African enters Melbourne as the 3rd fastest 50m butterflier with a season-best of 22.21, his fastest performance in 4 years.

SwimSwam’s Top 5 Picks

MEN’S 100M BUTTERFLY

2022 Long Course Worlds Finalists Participating:

#4 Michael Andrew, United States
#5 Matt Temple, Australia
#6 Simon Bucher, Austria
#7 Jakub Majerski, Poland
#8 Noe Ponti, Switzerland

2021 Short Course Worlds Finalists Participating:

#1 Matteo Rivolta, Italy
#2 Chad Le Clos, South Africa
#4 Youssef Ramadan, Egypt
#5 Noe Ponti, Switzerland
#7 Simon Bucher, Austria
#8 Jakub Majerski, Poland

This men’s 100m butterfly has seen some solid performances put up around the world this year, meaning there is a plethora of talent who could pull out a big swim to take the gold in Melbourne. Aside from Le Clos’ world-leading time of 48.58 from the FINA World Cup, only about half a second separates the 14 next fastest performers in this 1fly event.

As mentioned earlier, Le Clos has been red-hot in his racing in the World Cup, including his big-time 48.58 from Berlin. That result marked the seasoned athlete’s fastest outing in 2 years and the 6th swiftest result of his entire career.

His 48.58 would have defeated the 48.87 Rivolta logged for the gold medal in Abu Dhabi. Instead, a year ago Le Clos clocked 49.04 to settle for silver behind the Italian.

Although off the podium a year ago, Switzerland’s Noe Ponti has been one to watch since stunning the world with his 100m butterfly bronze at the 2020 Olympic Games. Ponti followed that Tokyo swim up with a 5th place performance in this SCM 100 fly in Abu Dhabi. However, he has since surpassed that 49.59 result with a mark of 49.38 from this past October.

Host nation Australia will have Olympian Matt Temple as its key competitor, with the 23-year-old entering this meet with a season-best of 49.68.  That renders Temple the 5th fastest performer in the world this season as he looks forward to having the home crowd cheering him on this week.

Lurking among the field as well is Egyptian swimmer Youssef Ramadan. Ramadan finished 4th in Abu Dhabi and is right in the mix with a lifetime best and national record of 49.50 from that near-podium-level performance.

SwimSwam’s Top 5 Picks

MEN’S 200M BUTTERFLY

2022 Long Course Worlds Finalists Participating:

#4 Noe Ponti, Switzerland
#7 Alberto Razzetti, Italy

2021 Short Course Worlds Finalists Participating:

#1 Alberto Razzetti, Italy
#2 Noe Ponti, Switzerland
#3 Chad Le Clos, South Africa
#4 Trenton Julian, United States
#5 Kregor Zirk, Estonia
#6 Antani Ivanov, Bulgaria
#7 Jose Martinez, Mexico

The entire final from the 2021 Short Course World Championships is set to race this men’s 200m butterfly in Melbourne, save the 8th place finisher Tomoe Hvas. The Norwegian announced his retirement earlier this year at the age of just 22.

We mentioned earlier how both Kristof Milak of Hungary and Tomoru Honda of Japan are not competing, which means two of the top flyers in the world will not be vying for gold. Honda had the chance to potentially obliterate the field, as his World Record mark of 1:46.85 holds nearly a 3-second advantage over the next-fastest performer on the season.

The #2 swimmer on the year is China’s Chen Juner, the 18-year-old who fired off an unratified World Junior Record of 1:49.61 at the Chinese Nationals this past October. That checked in as a new national record and also rendered the teen Asia’s 4th fastest man in history.

However, Juner has been untested internationally and Chinese swimmers historically have put up some of their fastest times while competing on domestic soil.

Razzetti of Italy has the chance to repeat as the winner, carrying a big-time performance of 1:49.06 from Abu Dhabi which established a new national record.

But his 1:52.10 season best ranks him just 19th on the season, with the likes of Switzerland’s Ponti and South Africa’s Le Clos trying to upgrade from their respective silver and bronze medal performances from Abu Dhabi.

American Trenton Julian has been as quick as 1:49.69 this season, a time which would have taken the silver at last year’s competition. Julian’s time came at the FINA World Cup in Toronto and he was a late addition to the U.S. roster for Melbourne, replacing injured Luca Urlando.

Julian, who is currently under restrictions to his activities by the US Center for SafeSport, finished 4th in the 200 free, 3rd in the 100 fly, and 2nd in the 200 fly at the US International Team Trials in April behind only Urlando.

Also eyeing the prize in this men’s 200m fly is Daiya Seto, with the Japanese Olympian owning a lifetime best of 1:49.41 and season-best of 1:50.55. Seto has raced several times domestically this year and currently ranks 2nd this season in the SCM 400m IM, 3rd in the SCM 200m IM and 1st in the SCM 200m breast.

SwimSwam’s Top 5 Picks