[RACE VIDEO] Tom Shields Becomes First Man To Break 44 Seconds In 100 Fly SCY

tom-shields
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Olympian Tom Shields flew to a new American and U.S. Open Record in the men’s 100-yard butterfly while swimming in finals of the men’s 2016 AT&T Winter National Championships.

Shields dashed to a time of 43.84 in the fly to become the first man to ever post a sub-44 second swim. The previous American and U.S. Open records were split between Austin Staab (44.18) and Joseph Schooling (44.01) respectively.

Comparative splits:

  • Tom Shields (Dec 2016): 20.57/23.27 – 43.84
  • Joseph Schooling (Mar 2016): 20.46/23.55 – 44.01
  • Austin Staab (Mar 2009): 20.56/23.62 – 44.18

After the race Shields commented that he felt his chance at becoming the first swimmer under 44-seconds was dwindling as he watched NCAA stars Joseph Schooling, Jack Conger, and Caeleb Dressel edge closer to the existing records.

Watch the full race here:

After the race, Shields spoke with Swimming World’s David Rieder about his swim and how it felt to finally break the record that he had pursued for so long. He also previewed what might be to come at next week’s Short Course World Championships.

106 Comments
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Awesome?? congrats Tom!! ⭐️

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6 years ago

Go Tom!!!

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6 years ago

Unreal! Congrats Tom.

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6 years ago

Thats fast!

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6 years ago

Holy cow! Awesome

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6 years ago

Awesome!

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6 years ago

Gary Dodd step up bud ?

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6 years ago

Tim Shields your boy’s rockin!

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6 years ago

Absolutely awesome. What a phenomenal swim.

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6 years ago

So, I know I’m not fast but Matt Nahrstedt and Nick Zeckets you would be better contenders! ?

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6 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Hardman

Yikes. That is FAST.

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6 years ago

Dig it brother, “Rocket Man”…..I thought I was fast with a 50.07 back in 1972……

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6 years ago

Super impressive. Well earned and deserved! Great job, Tom.

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6 years ago

How widespread are SCY meets? Is it mostly just the US? Most of our pools are either SCM or LCM.

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

Mostly USA traditionally all NCAA pools are 25yards. All College, University and school historically have 25yrd pool. Other parts of the world is metric and most pools for competition are 25m or 50m internationally. Some pools in USA have movable bulkheads that can make 25yd, 25m or 50m pools. So yes 25yds racing is mostly an American thing and not international

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

In UK back in the 70’s most of the pools were 25yds, when I was racing there. Now mostly replaced by the 25m

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

Peter Scott are you kidding? We had a school meet in 1979 in a 33 1/3 yard pool, lol. Built in central London in the 1800’s. There were other pools with really strange measurements too. I think we won the London Schools relay championships in a 45 yard pool too.
However, our school had a 25m tank.
Thanks for the memories I hadn’t thought about this for a long time.

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

We had a 33&1/3 yard, a 25 yard, a 25 meter, 50 meter, and a 44 yard pool on our circuit. You never knew how your times were going to correlate. The 44 yard pool was supposed to be 50 yards but the city council thought they could save a buck and shortened the pool and building on the plans prior to construction

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

I swam in Scotland in those days. Yes there was a 33 and 1/3 pool in Dundee. You swam 3 lenths for a 100. Now in fact the trend is sometimes to build useless play pools that you can’t race or train in.

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

In the 70’s most of my training was in 20yard pool (approx)??.

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

70’s back in the day all indoor pool training. Now my training in 25 and 50m pools all outdoor??. Also open water training in the sea year round and no need for wet suit…it is a big difference????

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

Peter Scott this is happening in Canada. 24m pools so the city won’t have to host swim meets!

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

Peter Scott we had a 20 yard pool too. It had 2, 5 yard shallow ends and the deep end was in the middle?

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

Yes and kidney shaped pools as well.??

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6 years ago
Reply to  Neil Morgan

We used to use the comparison tables that approximately converted times from different pool lengths. Unfortunately they don’t cater for 24m pools, kidney shapes, and wave pools with artificial beaches etc????

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6 years ago

What a picture of power on the go. In my day they were still trying to break a minute

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Helena Pastierova
6 years ago

This is really awesome! Congrats Tom! ?
I’m just thinking if it would make the difference in the 50m long pool…

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6 years ago

Roll on you Bears!

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6 years ago

Wow !

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6 years ago

Beast mode???

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6 years ago

Wow! Tom! Outstanding!??

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6 years ago

Awesome!!

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6 years ago

Wow… that is sick! Way to go Tom!!

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6 years ago

Congrats

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6 years ago

WOW!

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6 years ago

Stupid fast

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6 years ago

Michael Zagorov

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6 years ago

Parker!

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6 years ago

Annette Wiles,

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6 years ago

Fernando Medina

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6 years ago

Sienna Prowse Mustafa Ali Orcun ummmmm wtf?

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

oh nevermind its 9m difference in america so doesnt count

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

Sammy Gregory yeah i was about to say doesn’t count

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

theyre so dumb tho like wtf??? just swim in a 50m pool cause thats what it is at the olympics???

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

yeh aha

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

im pre sure its feet

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

they swim in yards

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

oh yeah thats it

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6 years ago
Reply to  Sammy Gregory

if that isnt the dumbest thing idk what is

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6 years ago

Wow!! May not last log with Schooling and Conger waiting in the wings, but FIRST is FIRST…congrats, Tom Shields!! Amazing!!

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6 years ago

Wow

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6 years ago

Wow! So incredibly freaking fast!

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6 years ago

Wow. Super impressed.

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6 years ago

LOL Anthony C-Castonguay comment ça va ton fly toi ?

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6 years ago
Reply to  Gabriel Lebeuf

Pas de stress 44 secondes… sur 25m peut-être

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6 years ago

Jake Fisher Colin MacQuarrie Erik Hamsteak McCague Matt Koken

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6 years ago
Reply to  Ian Ballantyne

I would have been first if I hadn’t partied so much

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6 years ago
Reply to  Ian Ballantyne

Wasted talent

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6 years ago
Reply to  Ian Ballantyne

Lol “wasted” talent, get it

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6 years ago
Reply to  Ian Ballantyne

I wouldn’t mind that time doing freestyle especially all the disappointment over the last 4 years. I hate all of you

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6 years ago

Rik Doornenbal

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6 years ago

Cristian Corbett

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6 years ago

Chris Hernandez

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6 years ago

Arin Wiegand

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6 years ago

George Dorrington

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6 years ago
Reply to  Finn Speirs

V fast

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6 years ago

Jorge Da Costa Pinto Neves Filho

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6 years ago

My excitement will be tempered until I see that he doesn’t have platinum blond-dyed hair.

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6 years ago

Daaang! That’s phenomenal

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6 years ago

So fired up! This is awesome!

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6 years ago

Yea, HB guy.

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6 years ago

Nabil Fadhil

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6 years ago

Devynn Bessette

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6 years ago

That’s fast

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6 years ago

Hayley O’Brien i can do that

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6 years ago

Ok. Do it

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6 years ago

W.O.W.!