{"id":436104,"date":"2020-06-17T09:19:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T16:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=436104"},"modified":"2020-06-17T13:49:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T20:49:33","slug":"20-years-since-tom-malchow-set-the-last-pre-phelps-200-fly-world-record-career-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/20-years-since-tom-malchow-set-the-last-pre-phelps-200-fly-world-record-career-video\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Years Since Tom Malchow Set The Last Pre-Phelps 200 ‘Fly World Record (Career Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Malchow<\/strong>, it was written, “didn’t look at the big board. The crowd provided the proof”: with a 200m butterfly World record of 1:55.18, the American had finally got past the Russian, on the clock at least, who had claimed Olympic gold ahead of him at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Denis Pankratov<\/strong> had held the standard since June 14, 1995. Five years on – on this day 20 years ago, Malchow shaved 0.04sec off the global standard to set the first World record ever established in the then 16-year history of the Charlotte UltraSwim<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Malchow was on his way to bigger things: at Sydney 2000 three months later, he would also take Pankratov’s crown, in an Olympic record of 1:55.35, the Russian beyond his best days and back in seventh, the new champion’s 15-year-old teammate, a boy called Michael Phelps<\/strong><\/a>, home in fifth just 0.33sec shy of the podium and 1.15 adrift the prize he would go on to claim a record 23 times over the next four Olympics.<\/p>\n

Back in Charlotte on this day in 2000, Malchow was pushed by a capacity crowd at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center<\/a>: they stood and roared for the final 100 meters, the local Charlotte Observer<\/em> noted the next morning in the days when reports were not digital but next day. The new record holder told the paper:<\/p>\n

“I went out fast at the beginning, and I could hear the crowd pushing me during the race. I can’t tell you how much that helped. This puts me in an elite class of swimmers. There’s not many that can say they’ve set a world record.”<\/p>\n

Indeed not – and in the 200m butterfly, unbeknown to him and everyone else that day, young Phelps would take the standard in 1:54.92 on March 30 the following year and, in eight master strokes and through a roller coaster of two Olympic crowns won, one lost and then another regained, would own the standard for the next 18 years until Hungarian Kristof Milak<\/strong> took the pace below 1:51<\/a> for the World crown in 2019.<\/p>\n

Tom Malchow, after a prelims swim of 2:02.26, took the lead early in lane 4 of the final in Charlotte the day he joined the exclusive club of pace pioneers of the pool. He was wearing what was described as “one of the new full-body swimsuits”, a textile ankle-to-neck-and-wrist suit the world had got used to seeing courtesy of the exploits of Australian Ian Thorpe in Adidas compression.<\/p>\n

At 100m, Malchow’s 55.53 split was inside Pankratov’s pace and “the noise coming from the stands sent an electric jolt through the building,” reported the Observer. “It never stopped, working its way to a deafening climax when Malchow finished.\u00a0All eyes except Malchow’s looked for the time. He already knew.”\u00a0Malchow, who swam for Michigan and still lived in Ann Arbor said:<\/p>\n

“I didn’t look. I put my head down and listened, just took it all in. I knew. The crowd told me.\u00a0I could tell I was close near the end of the race, and those final 30 meters were painful, but I went after it. A lot of people were hyping this – they thought it could be done here.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UltraSwim officials had planned for it too: with world-class swimmers on the ticket –\u00a0Brooke Bennett, Tom Dolan, Cristina Teuscher, Maddy Crippen, Kristy Kowal, Ashley Tappin<\/strong> and\u00a0Neil Walker<\/strong> were all in the mix –\u00a0they’d had the pool surveyed to make sure nothing could stand in the way of ratification should a record fall on their watch. Drug-testing was provided, too, for the same reason.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tom Malchow<\/p><\/div>\n

For Malchow, the day and his achievement had an extra edge of emotion: he\u00a0dedicated his accomplishment to Ryan Weggenman<\/strong>, the brother of his girlfriend who was killed in a March car accident.<\/p>\n

Malchow, then 23, had been the baby of the men’s team in 1996. On the cusp of Sydney 2000, he was looking to be a leader, on the team and in the water for the USA. He said:<\/p>\n

“A gold medal would top off my career. Setting the world record makes the year special.\u00a0Winning in Sydney would make it perfect.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He would get his perfect ending – and more on that later in the year when we celebrate his Olympic victory.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Malchow entered the International Swimming Hall of Fame<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his induction speech, he spoke of “the people that I surrounded myself with, and have supported me throughout my career,” from the coaches who helped push him to the top of swimming’s highest honour to the teammates who challenged him.<\/p>\n

Watch the video of Tom Malchow career highlights, followed by his humbling speech, courtesy of ISHOF:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n