Who Set The First World Record For The 50 Freestyle?

Photo Courtesy: Swimming World Magazine

Pre-Coverage of the World Championships is sponsored by Wylas Timing. Each week until the start of the swimming competition at the world championships, Swimming World will look back at a previous performance at the world championships that still carries significance.

By Jeff Commings, Swimming World Senior Writer

It might be difficult for the current generation of swimmers to believe that the 50 freestyle was once deemed an “outlaw” event on the swimming program, a race waiting to have its day in the sun.

Beginning in the 1970s, many of the world’s top swimming nations lobbied to FINA to include what was viewed as swimming’s equivalent to the 100-meter dash to the Olympic program, but the top brass at FINA refused to budge. USA Swimming, after breaking away from the Amateur Athletic Union in 1978, put the 50 freestyle on its nationals schedule in spring 1980, though the event was not officially recognized by FINA.

At the time, the fastest swim ever done in the event was called a “world best.” When USA Swimming debuted the race at the 1980 spring nationals, all eight men in the final beat the previous world best of 23.66. Jill Sterkel made mincemeat of her previous world best of 26.37 at the 1980 nationals with a winning time of 25.96.

In a bid to recognizing the growing popularity of the 50 freestyle around the world, FINA relented and allowed the 50 freestyle to become an official event at the 1986 world championships. This would be the meet where FINA would test the addition to the program before its debut at the 1988 Olympics.

None of the world bests in the 50 free that existed before the 1986 worlds would be recognized as world records. Instead, FINA set the time to beat as the world best minus one hundredth of a second. The right to be called the first official world record holder in the 50 freestyle was a bigger carrot for the sprinters in Madrid than the gold medal. They would forever be a part of history.

Romania’s Tamara Costache was the queen of sprint freestyle in 1986, having lowered the world best in the event three times in 1986 before the world championships down to 25.31. According to FINA rules, she would have to swim faster than 25.30 to have her name officially entered into the world record book. Hot on her heels was East Germany’s Kristin Otto, who had already claimed the 100 freestyle gold and was rapidly becoming the darling of the meet – despite being a part of the East German doping regime that was uncovered about a decade later. Jenna Johnson and Lisa Dorman were the American entries into the final, but were not expected to be a factor. The United States struggled greatly through the world championships, suffering from stomach viruses that kept many favorites off the medal podium.

Costache was one of a few non-East German women to win a gold medal, taking the win over Otto with a 25.28. She was the only swimmer under FINA’s established benchmark for the world record, making her the first person to own the 50 free world record. Otto was second with a 25.50, with Marie-Therese Armentero of Switzerland third with a 25.93.

“All the time I’ve been training, I’ve been thinking of breaking the world record,” Costache said after her victory. “I was sure I could win, and I was not nervous about it.”

Costache would hold on to that world record until 1988, when China’s Yang Wenyi started her six-year hold on the world record. Costache was unable to reach the medal podium in the inaugural 50 free final at the 1988 Olympics, finishing sixth.

Tom Jager might have had reason to be nervous about the men’s 50 free final at the 1986 world championships. The American men hadn’t been swimming very well, with only three gold medals won in five days. In the 50, Jager was flanked by Switzerland’s Dano Halsall and American teammate Matt Biondi, two of the fastest men in history at that point. Jager seemed to be the only person on the American men’s team not affected by the stomach virus, having swum a personal best in the 100 free to win bronze earlier in the meet. That gave him the advantage for gold in the 50 freestyle, but in an event that lasts 22 seconds, nothing is certain.

The race was held up by two false starts, which was allowed at the time. The official start was a tentative one, since a third false start would be charged to the person at fault. “I knew after the first false start that there was not going to be a world record,” Jager said. Biondi had set a world best 22.33 at the world championship trials, so everyone in the field was looking to surpass the FINA-set 22.32 for the first official world record.

The winning time was 22.49, which meant no name would be added to the FINA world record book in Madrid. Jager could take solace that he beat a solid field of competitors and was the first 50 freestyle world champion. As for the world record, he would finally get it the following year at the Pan Pacific championships with a 22.32, the first of many times he and Biondi would trade off on the world record.

The next world championship would not come until January 1991, when a new generation of sprinters was beginning to break through. But Jager and Biondi were still the best sprinters in the world, and they finished 1-2 in the event in Perth with two of the fastest times in history. Jager nearly got his amazing world record of 21.91 with a 22.16, with Biondi just a tenth of a second behind.

Previous world championships retrospectives:

Petra Schneider sets 400 IM world record in 1982

Ryan Lochte-Michael Phelps 200 IM from 2011

Le Jingyi and the Chinese women at the 1994 world championships

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Tracy Kiernan

8 years ago

Brings me back to the good ole days at Schroeder! Was that the 80 spring Nats Janeane?

Justin Slade

8 years ago

Peter Williams took it down though Waterborn Swimming

Justin Slade

8 years ago

Peter Williams took it down though Waterborn Swimming

Dennis Baker

8 years ago

Johnny Weismuller/Buster Crabbe

Scott Reeves

8 years ago

Tom Jaeger!

Donald P. Spellman

8 years ago

Robin Leamy?

Jim Johnson

8 years ago

Good try Dennis but no official WR inthe 50 LCM until 1985. Steve Crocker first SCM WR i think

Mark Prevot

8 years ago

Jaeger 4 sure from NM

Kara Lennon

8 years ago

Sprinters rule the pool

Jim Johnson

8 years ago

First AR short course Joe Bottom

Jim Johnson

8 years ago

Peter Williams South Africa

Scott Montgomery

8 years ago

Jaeger owned the 50 from what I remember. Now I feel old.

Louie Martin

8 years ago

Wat is the record time?

Kelvin Yew

8 years ago

Robin Leamy?

Geoff Blythe

8 years ago

Adam

Elvis Vereançe Burrows

8 years ago

Garvin from the Bahamas

Gernot Ziegaus

8 years ago

TOM JAEGER

Gernot Ziegaus

8 years ago

He is still my absolute favourite: 21.81 s

Jeff Commings

8 years ago

A lot of you are commenting that Tom Jager’s last name is spelled “Jaeger.” That is not true. Having grown up in the St. Louis area when Tom (who swam for Parkway Swim Club) was becoming famous, I am 100 percent correct in the spelling of his name. Plus, a Google search completely backs me up. And yes, Peter Williams was able to break the stranglehold Jager and Biondi had on the record for a while.

aswimfan

8 years ago

For some reason, 50s (free or strokes) do not excite me as much as 100 for sprint events.
50 dash is almost like a lottery this days (the one who has the best start and best finish wins), and it’s impossible to see who touches first.

Jeff Commings

8 years ago

Elvis Vereançe Burrows

8 years ago

Reply to Jeff Commings

I said Garvin because it’s urban legend in the Bahamas he swam heat one of the first time ever, making him technically the first world record holder… For a couple minutes

Swimming World

8 years ago

Reply to Jeff Commings

He was indeed the first heat winner of the first 50 freestyle at the world championships, but not the first world record holder. He needed to beat 22.32 to get the world record, which was the standard FINA set.

Swimming World

8 years ago

Reply to Jeff Commings

Vicente Rodriguez Delgado

8 years ago

Tom jeaguer