{"id":507412,"date":"2022-06-22T15:44:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T22:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=507412"},"modified":"2022-06-22T15:45:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T22:45:28","slug":"the-teflon-record-how-100-freestyle-world-mark-of-cesar-cielo-keeps-on-surviving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-teflon-record-how-100-freestyle-world-mark-of-cesar-cielo-keeps-on-surviving\/","title":{"rendered":"The Teflon Record: How 100 Freestyle World Mark of Cesar Cielo Keeps on Surviving"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Teflon Record: How 100 Freestyle World Mark of Cesar Cielo Keeps on Surviving<\/strong><\/p>\n

The feeling should\u2019ve been familiar to swim watchers with certain experience.<\/p>\n

David Popovici<\/strong> entered Wednesday\u2019s final in the men\u2019s 100 freestyle with big hopes. His semifinals time of 47.13 mounted a brief charge at the world record set in 2009 by Cesar Cielo<\/strong>. With the eighth-fastest time in history, the sixth-fastest textile swim and all the momentum in the world, surely this was it.<\/p>\n

Surely Wednesday was the day that the Brazilian\u2019s enduring record would somehow bite the dust.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t. Again<\/a>. And while Popovici\u2019s gold in the 100 free<\/a>, in 47.58, was more than deserving, it reinforced again how hallowed the number 46.91 set by Cielo 13 years ago continues to be.<\/p>\n

Cesar Cielo\u2019s record is increasingly an oddity, though maybe not for the reasons you\u2019d think. Eleven long-course world records remain from the techsuit era<\/a>. Nine are individual records, plus the two men\u2019s freestyle relays. Nine are on the men\u2019s side, and seven date from the legendary carnage at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.<\/p>\n

(Of note: Michael Phelps\u2019<\/strong> 400 IM mark and the 400 free are holdovers from the 2008 Olympics; Cielo set the 50 free mark later in 2009, as did Chinese swimmer Liu Zige<\/strong> in the 200 fly.)<\/p>\n

The Rome Worlds included a wholesale rewriting of the men\u2019s freestyle records that still stands \u2013 Cielo in the 100 free, Paul Biedermann<\/strong> in the 200 and 400 free, Zhang Lin<\/strong> in the 800 free. Each record has traced unique journeys.<\/p>\n

No one has touched the 200, at a nice round 1:42.00. Yannick Angel<\/strong> came closest in 2012 at 1:43.14, and it\u2019s firmly in the sights of Popovici after a 1:43.21 in Budapest.<\/p>\n

Sun Yang\u2019s<\/strong> Olympic time in 2012 swiped within .07 of Biedermann\u2019s 400 mark, though that isn\u2019t exactly un-problematic<\/a>. By going 3:41.22 in Budapest<\/a>, Elijah Winnington<\/strong> is within 1.15 seconds of the record, renewed hope that its days night be numbered.<\/p>\n

The textile-best time in the 800 belongs to Sun at 7:38.57, 6.5 seconds shy of Lin. That comes with the caveat, of course, of the 800 not being part of the 2012 or 2016 Olympics.<\/p>\n

That leaves Cielo, whose record has absorbed blow after blow yet somehow lived to tell the tale. A sampling:<\/p>\n