{"id":601995,"date":"2024-12-14T13:36:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=601995"},"modified":"2024-12-20T12:40:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T19:40:03","slug":"budapest-2024-jordan-crooks-noe-ponti-find-special-meaning-in-breaking-caeleb-dressels-world-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/budapest-2024-jordan-crooks-noe-ponti-find-special-meaning-in-breaking-caeleb-dressels-world-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Budapest 2024: Jordan Crooks, No\u00e8 Ponti Find Special Meaning in Breaking Caeleb Dressel’s World Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budapest 2024: Jordan Crooks, No\u00e8 Ponti Find Special Meaning in Breaking Caeleb Dressel’s World Records<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the sun rose Saturday morning in Budapest, Caeleb Dressel<\/strong> held more world records in swimming than any other man when combining his achievements in long course and short course. He has held the long course mark in the 100 butterfly since 2019, breaking it at the World Championships in Gwangju and then lowering it on his way to Olympic gold two years later, and Dressel also set world records in three short course events: 100 IM, 100 fly and 50 freestyle.<\/p>\n

Now, Dressel’s record total has been halved thanks to efforts by Jordan Crooks<\/strong> and No\u00e8 Ponti <\/strong>at the Short Course World Championships. Crooks, who scared the world record in the 100 free earlier in the week, knocked eight hundredths off Dressel’s 50 free record in Saturday’s prelims, clocking 20.08<\/a>. That evening, as Ponti won his third individual gold of the week, he snuck eight hundredths under Dressel’s 100 fly time with a 47.71 clocking<\/a>. Less than an hour later, Crooks roared through his 50 free semifinal and hit the wall in 19.90<\/a>, becoming the first man to ever eclipse 20 seconds.<\/p>\n

More than 20 world records have fallen over the first five days of the meet, but some were old records that had survived primarily because the world’s best long course swimmers rarely or never competed in the 25-meter course. These were ripe for demolition. Not the case with the Dressel sprint records; his power off starts and turns was superior to any other swimmer in history, making him even more successful in short course than the long course format in which he has won nine Olympic gold medals (a six-way tie for second all-time).<\/p>\n

It would take special swimmers recording special performances to beat those times, and in the aftermath of their swims, both Crooks and Ponti recognized the significance of their achievements as they lauded Dressel’s all-time great credentials.<\/p>\n