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Gabi Brito Blasts 25.71 50 Free at Age 13, Breaks Dara Torres’ LSC Record From 1982

2024 NOVA SPEEDO GRAND CHALLENGE

At just 13 years old, Gabi Brito can already hang with some of the best swimmers in the country.

The Beach Cities Swimming standout placed 3rd in the 50-meter freestyle at the Speedo Grand Challenge on Friday in Irvine with a personal-best 25.71. She reached the wall behind recent USC graduate Caroline Famous (25.58) and 27-year-old Olympic champion Simone Manuel (24.69), but ahead of recent USC graduate and Ecuadorian Olympian Anicka Delgado (25.81).

Brito now becomes the fastest 13-year-old in the U.S. ever, sitting just ahead of Kate Douglass’s 25.80 from 2015. She also is now tied for the 12th in the U.S. girls’ 13-14 national age group (NAG) rankings and just .02 seconds shy of the U.S. Olympic Trials cut (25.69).

Earlier in the day on Friday, Brito broke a legendary Southern California Swimming LSC record belonging to 12-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres from 1982. She dipped under 26 seconds for the first time in prelims with a time of 25.97, erasing Torres’ standard of 26.04 that had stood untouched for 42 years. Before today, Brito’s best time was 26.51 from last month.

Making Brito’s huge drop even more impressive was the fact that she did it on the back half of a 200 IM/50 free double. She clocked a personal-best 2:17.86 in the 200 IM to start her night, lowering her previous-best 2:18.38 from prelims this morning. Her best time before today was 2:21.68 from March.

Brito is entered in the 100 fly and 200 back on Saturday as well as the 100 back and 100 free on Sunday. In March, she posted a 57.32 in the 100 free to become the 13th-fastest 13-year-old American girl in the history of the event.

Gabi’s older sister, Bella Brito, is committed to USC beginning in the 2025-26 school year. Bella is ranked 14th on the Way-Too-Early List of top recruits from the high school class of 2025.

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JMax
5 months ago

Yeeaa, Gabi!
🔥🔥💪💪

berimbolo
5 months ago

GABI BRITO! just incredible

Proud Mama Aki
5 months ago

YAS Gabi! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Who would’ve known that from your 2nd grade presentation about Simone Manuel, you’ve come this far to actually race her! WAY TO GO
💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

Swimmerfromjapananduk
5 months ago

For anyone reading these comments and for future reference, this page shows you all the fastest official times of swimmers up to the age of 19, and is a good reference when fact-checking.

http://age-records.125mb.com/swim.htm

Summer in Paris
Reply to  Swimmerfromjapananduk
5 months ago

THANK YOU!

I’ve been looking forever for this.

Bookmarked!

BingBopBam
5 months ago

I’m very confused about almost all of this

David S
5 months ago

Not flexing, but I can beat that time.

swammer
5 months ago

The info in this article seems off

Summer in Paris
5 months ago

“since Allison Sheppard (25.00 in 2001)”

Are you sure this is correct?

There was a very fast sprinter named Allison Sheppard, but she’s British and in 2001 she was 28 yo and she swam 25.00 in 2001.

I am sure there was no 13 yo American girl swimming 25.00 in 2001.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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