Cameron Gray Breaks New Zealand 100 Freestyle Record (48.26) & Qualifies For Paris Olympics

2024 NEW ZEALAND SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, April 9th – Saturday, April 13th
• Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre
• LCM (50m)
• Olympic Selection Criteria 
• Meet Central
• Entries/Live Results
• Livestream
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap
• Day 3 Recap

During the fourth day of the 2024 New Zealand Olympic Swimming Trials, 20-year-old rising sprinter Cameron Gray broke the New Zealand national record in the 100 freestyle. He touched the wall in a time of 48.26 during his preliminary heat to clip his own previous record of 48.29. He set his previous benchmark almost exactly a year ago at last year’s National Championship meet.

Gray spoke to Swimming New Zealand after his performance: “I can’t quite believe it. I was feeling pretty good down the first 50m, in the last 50m I knew it was going to be close, knew I was going to be on, so just went for it. I’m looking forward to a bit of a rest after this and then I’ll be back into getting ready for a big few months.”

In addition to garnering a new national standard, Gray also dipped under the Olympic qualifying time (48.34) in the process, and even though it was done in prelims, he still booked an automatic ticket to the Paris Olympics. He went on to win the final a few hours later in 49.02.

En route to the record, Gray opened his race 0.23 under his old pace before hanging on by 0.03. See a full comparison of the record swims below.

Splits Comparison:

In addition to the 100 freestyle, Gray also holds the long course New Zealand record in the 50 butterfly (23.27). He touched the wall in 23.79 to win that event earlier this week after going 23.69 in his preliminary heat.

You can watch the national record performance at the 13:30 mark in the following livestream.

Race Video: