Coming out of the 2019 World Junior Championships, FINA’s World Junior records have been a hot topic of conversation, especially the fact that they don’t always reflect the fastest junior swim in history.
When FINA started tracking world junior records in 2014, previous swims were not retroactively awarded world junior record status. That had much to do with FINA’s policy of only ratifying world junior records if the swim had been properly verified – the pool checked for legal distance and the swimmer drug tested after the swim.
Swimming fans have noted plenty of pre-2013 swims by juniors that are actually faster than the standing world junior records. More and more of those marks have started to fall, but a few still remain. What follows is our best attempt at putting together ‘true’ world junior records – or the fastest swims our research could dig up by athletes who fit the WJR age brackets:
- For girls: age 14-17 as of Dec. 31 in the year of the swim
- For boys: age 15-18 as of Dec. 31 in the year of the swim
FINA tracks its juniors ages by birth year – that means if a boy turns 19 in December, his swims that year are not eligible for world junior record status, even if they are technically done while he is still 18. Same goes for a girl turning 18 at some point after her swim, but before the start of the next year.
It’s possible we’ve missed some in here – if that’s the case, please let us know in the comment section, and we’ll do our best to update these records to get the most comprehensive list possible. In some cases, national age records do not qualify, though, given FINA’s way of calculating ages compared to some federations.
You can see the official world junior records here, for boys and girls.
‘True’ World Junior Records, Long Course Meters
*Swims in bold are current official world junior records.
Girls
| Swimmer | Nation | Time | Year | |
| 50 free | Cate Campbell | Australia | 23.99 | 2009 |
| 100 free | Penny Oleksiak | Canada | 52.70 | 2016 |
| 200 free | Missy Franklin | USA | 1:55.06 | 2011 |
| 400 free | Katie Ledecky | USA | 3:58.37 | 2014 |
| 800 free | Katie Ledecky | USA | 8:11.00 | 2014 |
| 1500 free | Katie Ledecky | USA | 15:28.36 | 2014 |
| 50 back | Fu Yuanhui | China | 27.22 | 2013 |
| 100 back | Regan Smith | USA | 57.57 | 2019 |
| 200 back | Regan Smith | USA | 2:03.35 | 2019 |
| 50 breast | Ruta Meilutyte | Lithuania | 29.48 | 2013 |
| 100 breast | Ruta Meilutyte | Lithuania | 1:04.35 | 2013 |
| 200 breast | Viktoria Zeynep Gunes | Turkey | 2:19.64 | 2015 |
| 50 fly | Rikako Ikee | Japan | 25.46 | 2017 |
| 100 fly | Sarah Sjostrom | Sweden | 56.06 | 2009 |
| 200 fly | Jiao Liuyang | China | 2:04.72 | 2008 |
| 200 IM | Ye Shiwen | China | 2:07.57 | 2012 |
| 400 IM | Ye Shiwen | China | 4:28.43 | 2012 |
Boys
| Swimmer | Nation | Time | Year | |
| 50 free | Michael Andrew | USA | 21.75 | 2017 |
| 100 free | Kyle Chalmers | Australia | 47.58 | 2016 |
| 200 free | Danila Izotov | Russia | 1:43.90 | 2009 |
| 400 free | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 3:40.59 | 2000 |
| 800 free | Mack Horton | Australia | 7:45.67 | 2013 |
| 1500 free | Franko Grgic | Croatia | 14:46.09 | 2019 |
| 50 back | Kliment Kolesnikov | Russia | 24.00 | 2018 |
| 100 back | Kliment Kolesnikov | Russia | 52.53 | 2018 |
| 200 back | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:54.77 | 2008 |
| 50 breast | Nicolo Martinenghi | Italy | 26.97 | 2017 |
| 100 breast | Nicolo Martinenghi | Italy | 59.01 | 2017 |
| 200 breast | Akihiro Yamaguchi | Japan | 2:07.01 | 2012 |
| 50 fly | Michael Andrew | USA | 23.22 | 2017 |
| 100 fly | Kristof Milak | Hungary | 50.62 | 2017 |
| 200 fly | Kristof Milak | Hungary | 1:52.71 | 2018 |
| 200 IM | Michael Phelps | USA | 1:55.94 | 2003 |
| 400 IM | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 4:08.94 | 2012 |
Ariarne Titmus and Taylor Ruck, both 1.54 200 Freestyle swimmers at age 17
Both swimmers turned 18 in the year they went 1:54, so are age-ineligible. Remember: these ages are as of December 31 of the year of the swim, not as of date of the swim.
It isn’t the true WJR but it amazes me that MTMs 200 fly would beat the current official WJR from 1981.
Call: Mens 50 & 100 free ‘true’ WJRs will both go down in the next few years. 200/400 will stand for another decade.
BTW all the respect in the world to Jiao Liuyang, she is an Olympic gold medalist after all, but if we were to go textile for the list I think Mary T would hold the record right? She was so amazing…
Milak’s 200 shouldnt be bold, fine recognises his 1.53 from 2017
BTW, I know there is a logical fallacy in the fact that swimmers born on or close to December 31st get screwed by FINAs system while those born on January 1st get a huge advantage but if you think about it’s not to different from high school sports with kids born in late August/early september being nearly a year older then those born in early August or June who will be the youngest in there class by a decent amount. You got to keep a coherent season for these athletes, so unfortunately an arbitrary cutoff is needed, even if it cheapens the records a bit.
No it isn’t. You can just to birthdays, like every country does.
Some countries do, some don’t.
A concept discussed in great detail in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers.” Think the example used was Canadian Junior Hockey players, there’s been more NHL players coming out of that system that were born in the earlier months of the year.
Yes & do not get born between Dec 20 -Jan 5 because your presents suffer from Xmas . Its a thing !
I don’t think you know what a logical fallacy is
Ian Thorpe’s time in the 400 is crazy but let’s not forget that at the 2001 World Championships in one of his few swims over 800 he went 7.39.16 which would be over six seconds faster than the official junior record had he not turned 19 later that year. It’s also amazing his time would have won gold at the most recent WC’s
Thorpe’s time is mindboogling!