Records tumble as short-course swimming world championships open

BUDAPEST – Records tumbled on the opening day of the world short-course swimming championships in Budapest on Dec 10, with Gretchen Walsh, Noe Ponti, Summer McIntosh, Kate Douglass and two United States relay teams breaking the old marks.

Walsh, a 21-year-old American, set three world records during the day.

She shattered the 50m short-course butterfly world record in her morning heat, swimming 24.02 seconds to slash 0.36sec off the record set by Swede Therese Alshammar in 2009 – in the era of the now-banned super-suits.

In the evening semi-finals, Walsh, who won two Olympic relay golds in summer, dipped under 24sec with a time of 23.94sec. She then wondered how she could go faster in the final on Dec 11, which started after press time.

“I don’t know what I am going to fix going into tomorrow, but I am going to have to find something!” she said.

In the next race, Swiss swimmer Ponti broke the men’s 50m fly record for the third time in 2024 when he won his semi-final in 21.43sec.

McIntosh, a triple gold medallist at the Paris Olympics, obliterated the women’s short-course 400m freestyle world record to take the first gold of the championships.

The 18-year-old Canadian won in 3min 50.25sec to take 1.05sec off the record set by China’s Li Bingjie in 2022. Australian Lani Pallister took silver, 3.48sec behind, with Canadian Mary-Sophie Harvey third.

American Douglass made it four world records in four races when she won the women’s 200m medley in a time of 2:01.63, 0.23sec inside the mark set by Hungarian Katinka Hosszu in 2014.

Alex Walsh, older sister of Gretchen, was second, 1.02sec back, with Briton Abbie Wood third.

Gretchen claimed a third world record, and Douglass a second, as the evening ended with the Americans sweeping the 4x100m freestyle relays.

Douglass led off and Gretchen swam the anchor leg as the US women came home in 3:25.01 to shave 0.42sec off the old mark of Australia, who were second, 3.24sec slower on the night. Canada, with Harvey and McIntosh swimming the first two legs, were third.

In the men’s race, the Americans won in 3:01.66, breaking the old mark by more than a second. Again the former record holders, in this case Italy, were second, 1.99sec behind. Poland were third.

In the night’s other finals, American Shaine Casas won the men’s 200m medley and Tunisian Ahmed Jaouadi edged out German former Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock to win the men’s 1,500m free

Separately, McIntosh won the Northern Star Award as Canada’s top athlete of 2024 on Dec 10, after a year in which she became the first athlete from her country to win three golds at a single Olympics.

At the Paris Games, the Canadian won gold in the 200m and 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly, as well as taking silver in the 400m freestyle. Her four podium finishes tied fellow swimmer Penny Oleksiak for the most medals won by a Canadian athlete at one Summer Games.

The 18-year-old was announced as the award winner shortly after she broke the world record in the 400m freestyle final in Budapest.

Among the other finalists for the award were 2023 winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the National Basketball Association’s Oklahoma City Thunder, National Hockey League player Connor McDavid and Olympic hammer throw gold medallist Ethan Katzberg.

Previously known as the Lou Marsh Trophy, the Northern Star Award is handed out annually by the Toronto Star newspaper and is voted on by a panel of Canadian sports journalists.

Past winners include Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies (2020), former US Open tennis champion Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Oleksiak (2016). AFP, REUTERS