Philip Heintz set a new German record in the 200m IM (LC) in 1:55,76 on Thursday at the German National Championships. He now is one of the few swimmers who have been able to clock a time under 1:56.
To be precise, only Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps, Kosuke Hagino, Laszlo Cseh, Thiago Pereira and Eric Shanteau have yet been able to swim times between 1:54 and 1:56.
Ryan Lochte is the current world record holder in 1:54,oo, he established this time at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai and it was the first world record in the post-supersuit era. In the same race in the final in Shanghai, Michael Phelps set his personal best time in 1:54,16 and won the 200m IM four times in a row at Olympic Games.
Lochte and Phelps share the 15 top performances in this event and all of the sub 1:55 times.
Japan’s Kosuke Hagino (1:55,07), Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh (1:55,18), USA’s Eric Shanteau (1:55,36) and Brazil’s Thiago Pereira (1.55,55) are the only swimmers worldwide who have been faster than Philip Heintz. Cseh is the only European swimmer among them, logically Heintz is the second fastest in history in Europe.
Cseh, Shanteau and Pereira reached their best times at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, in a high tech swimsuit. That means that Philip Heintz is the 4th fastest performer in the 200m IM in a textile suit.
His split times at his race:
00:25,38 00:55,42 01:28,20 01:55,76
(25,38, 30,04, 32,78, 27,56)
Just as a comparison, Lochte’s world record splits:
24.89, 53.48, 1:26.51 , 1:54.00
(24,89, 28,59, 33,03, 27,49)
Heintz says that backstroke is his weakest stroke.
Video showing his German record-breaking race:
YouTube, courtesy of JDizzlebro
For an idea of just how much Phelps and Lochte dominated this event
All sub 1:55s
1. Lochte 1:54.00 Shanghai 2011
2. Lochte 1:54.10 Rome 2009
3. Phelps 1:54.16 Shanghai 2011
4. Phelps 1:54.23 Beijing 2008
5. Phelps 1:54.27 London 2012
6. Lochte 1:54.43 Irvine 2010
7. Lochte 1:54.56 Indianapolis
8. Phelps 1:54.66 Rio 2016
9. Phelps 1:54.75 San Antonio 2015
10. Phelps 1:54.80 Omaha 2008
11. Phelps 1:54.84 Omaha 2012
12. Lochte 1:54.84 Irvine 2010
13. Lochte 1:54.90 London 2012
14. Lochte 1:54.94 Omaha 2012
15. Phelps 1:54.98 Melbourne 2007
16. Lochte 1:54.98 Barcelona 2013
Amazing that Lochte only broke 1:55 one time at the Olympics. I know there’s some context there with the 200 back/200 IM double that he did in ’08, but still.
Lochte did the insane 2bk, 2im double in 2008 (gold, bronze), and in 2012 (bronze, silver).
That 1:54.9 2 IM in 2012 came less than an hour after Clary chased him down in the 200 bk.
How is that amazing? He never had to swim faster than 1:57.5 to make the final in the 200 IM, so why should he have swum faster than 1:55 in prelims/semifinal? Which leaves us with just two races where he could have broken 1:55 … and he didnt it in only one (50%) of it … really amazing indeed …
I like your writing very much. It is a great example to follow how to conduct the discussion. Learning from you.
Hah, i like you my friend, are you sure you are not from Hungary … ?
And by the way, Isabel Gose (born in 2002, who you predicted to go sub 1:57 soon) improved her 50 free PB to 25.51 yesterday. I think this really means that she has more in the tank this year (if we follow the logic, by which Kalisz should drop a lot of time in the 200 IM later on this year). Normally, if you improve your 50 free PB by more than 0.5s, you should improve your 200 free PB by more than 0.3s …
50 free: 26.1 -> 25.5
200 free: 1:59.1 -> 1:58.8 -> … ?
She has… Read more »
He swam it in 4 Olympics, broke 1:55 7 other times outside of Olympic competition, and only did it, barely, one time at the Olympics. Like I said in my post, there is context, but even still that’s a very odd distribution of results.
Can we appreciate how great that 1:54.0 was from Lochte?
Now that both Phelps and Lochte are gone, its incredible to see how much those two dominated this event. Hagino is the only person to have gotten close to joining the exclusive Sub 1:55.00 club.
That race was unbeleivably close , neck to neck , from the get go . The best WC for Lochte by a mile .
Lochte’s WR breaststroke split is incorrect. He was 33.03 rather than 32.03.
Great time and among the very elite in 200im but couldn’t think of worse time to drop. 26yrs old post Olympics and at German nationals.
29 in Tokyo I highly doubt he’ll be peaking then and is regards to this season I can see Hagino, wang and chase all beating him if he isn’t within 0.50 of this monster swim.
Either way 1.55.7 great swim and time just at a pointless part of a 4 year cycle to drop, let’s hope it wasn’t a once in a lifetime massive drop and he can pick up a medal in Budapest with a time like that.
What a “senseless” comment (to be polite). Heintz must be really stupid to peak this year, i mean he could have won silver at the olympics with a time like that, so why didnt he peak last year? Really stupid decision by him …
On a serious note: “Just a pointless part of a 4 year cycle to drop”: I hope i got you wrong here, because if you are really saying that its pointless for him to peak now, that would be insanely disrespectful and at the same time i couldnt believe that you have ever been an athlete yourself. If you have ever been an athlete, than you would have always tried to improve and get better… Read more »
Again, great time but I wonder if Heintz doesn’t swim too fast too early. It’s weird to hold national championships in mid-June. Same remark for French nationals in late May. Either it’s in late March/early April and swimmers have the time to start another big training period or it’s in early July like in USA and the best swimmers can qualify not fully tapered while the others try to hold their taper until worlds or olympic games. And in USA coaches and swimmers are very good at the double taper.
Back to the 200 IM, Chase Kalisz’ weakest stroke is also backstroke. Both have a big back-half. It could be interesting. But I don’t forget Hagino and Shun.
Going to be an interesting race between those four – as you say, Kalisz and Heintz swim fairly similar races, while Hagino and Shun are totally different. Hagino obviously a front half specialist, Shun with that wicked last 50.
Hagino is more of a 2nd and 4th leg specialist.
His best 200 IM time split 24.4/28.4/34.0/28.1 – though I suppose he is typically a bit more controlled in the first 50.
Having,s IM speed comes mostly in the second and fourth legs. He,s not really a front half specialist but among all active medley swimmers he had the best backstroke.
Wang shun has a pretty wicked last leg on freestyle especially in the 200IM. He,s much weaker in the 400IM.
Again, his best 200 IM time featured an opening 50 almost half a second faster than the world record’s.
Yes, he’s a complete IMer, but at his best, his opening two strokes are his strongest.
Last year the german championships were in early May and most german swimmers still didnt perform at their best at the olympics. The US trials last year were about a month before the olympics and the US did pretty good there, this year the german trials took place almost exactly one month before the world championships, so i dont get your reasoning here. Either it was bad last year for american swimmers also or it is also good for german swimmers this year. The time between national championships is exactly the same, so i dont see why it was good last year for american swimmers last year, but bad for german swimmers this year. There are also swimmers who can… Read more »
I think the reason Kalisz is talked about as a medal threat is because he swam a 1:57.2 200 IM with a 4:09 400 IM, when his best 400 IM is 4:06. So he should have some leeway. Is he the favorite? No. Is he in the conversation? Yes.
Though I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Prenot ended up better in the 200 IM.
Ok get it, although this doesnt have to be necessarily true. Often swimmers improve their speed but lose endurance or the other way round. In the mens 50/100 free this nearly always seems to be the case.
When did Periera and Cseh break 1:55? Those suits drop like 2 seconds from a legit time.
Phelps and Lochte own all 1:54 , Pereira and Cseh were sub 1:56. Phelps and Lochte went under 1:55 also in textile suits. But it is written like this in the article.
Great write up, but 2nd paragraph omits Shanteau
Swimmer? Both Cseh and Pereira were 1:56 low on Textile too
I know, but every time I hear those swims mentioned I just stomp around, wondering why FINA is so dumb.
Hopefully Chase gives this guy a race.