Liendo 1st Black Swimmer & 2nd Canadian Since Gery in 1990 To Claim S/C 100 ' Fly World Record
At the home and last round of the 2025 World Cup in Toronto, Josh Liendo goes 10.26sec, 22.28 at half-way & is still 0.2 shy of Swiss ace Noe Ponti's WR pace at the last turn. He then nails a 12.86 homecomer for his first World mark as 11th Canadian man to hold a world swim record
Josh Liendo became the first Canadian since 1990 and the first black swimmer ever to own the World short-course record in the men's 100m butterfly when he clocked 47.68sec for victory on the first day of action at a home World Cup in Toronto this evening.
Liendo was one of two world-record setters to celebrate debut global marks on day 1 in Toronto:
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Born in the same city 23 years ago, Liendo, Canada's Male Olympic Swimmer of the Year in 2024 after silver in the 100m butterfly at the Paris Games, was out in a rippling 10.26sec, turned in 22.28 at half-way and was still shy of Swiss ace Noe Ponti's World-record pace at the last turn, on 34.82. He then finished the job with a sizzling 12.86sec homecomer for the win and ownership of the short-course high bar.
That made him the 11th Canadian man ever to hold a World swimming record and, at a glance (happy to stand corrected when time allows) the first Canadian man to hold an individual World swimming record, long- or short-course since Brian Johns clocked 4:02.72 in the 4oom medley on 23 February 2003 at the short-course Canadian University Championships in Victoria (see full list of all Canadian male World swim records at the foot of this file).
The swim also earned him $12,500: 10k for the World record, 2.5k for the 'crown buster' - he blocked Ponti from the 2025 series triple crown and a 10k prize for winning the same event at all three legs of the Cup in North America this season.
The standards had stood to Ponti since he claimed the World title in Budapest last December in 47.71 (10.19, 22.16, 34.62). Today, Ponti's 48.38 was good for third, Liendo's teammate and fellow Olympic 'fly medallist Ilya Kharun second on 48.35 to give the home Toronto crown a 1-2 punch on the first of three concluding days of the 2025 Cup tour.
#SWC2025 (25M) - TORONTO 🇨🇦 :
— MR.CARTER (@NelsonCarterJr) October 23, 2025
🏊♂️ 100M PAPILLON
1. Josh Liendo 🇨🇦 47.68 WR
2. Ilya Kharun 🇨🇦 48.35
3. Noè Ponti 🇨🇭 48.38
🚨 NOUVEAU RECORD DU MONDE !! #Natation pic.twitter.com/bKdpNPxxTO
Liendo, who celebrated his world record by slapping the water, climbing on the lane ropes and raising his hands to the crowd of 1,200, spoke through Swimming Canada. He said:
“It was a lot of fun. I’m super happy. I just wanted to come in, have fun and race. To have that result was the cherry on top. Off the start I knew I was having a good swim and from there I didn’t look back. I saw world record and I would have been happy if I saw 48 up there so that’s when I slapped the water. The crowd got me hyped up. I was looking around before my race. I saw everyone cheering loud and getting hyped so it got me hyped too.”
Liendo was especially happy to edge Kharun and Ponti, who beat him at the first two rounds of the cup when he finishing fourth two weeks ago and third last week. Said Liendo:
“They kinda cooked me at the beginning of the (World Cup tour) but I got a little bit of rest under my belt and was feeling good this stop. Obviously home pool and I know it pretty well training in it. I told Ilya, ‘You went 20.7 last week, I’m gonna have to take it back man, I’m sorry.’ It’s great racing him, we push each other and I feel like it’s good having someone like that in Canada as well to push me.”
The very first official World short-course mark in the 100 'fly dates back to 1 February 1990 at the Paris round of the World Cup, Marcel Gery the history maker that day.
This day, Liendo became the first black swimmer to own the standard, the first Canadian to set the mark at home and the second swimmer to do so in Canada, the first having been Chad Le Clos, of South Africa, who clocked 48.08 for the 2016 World title in Windsor.
The Toronto 2025 Cup Final:
Not content with all that, Liendo was back in the fray within half a hour, thundering to a 20.31 win in the 50m free to take down the World Cup record dating back to 2018, when US-based Russian Vladimir Morozov clocked 20.48 held by.
Once again, Liendo shared the podium with Kharun, who took third, American Jack Alexy in second:
100m Butterfly World S/C Record Progression Since Global Pace Went from Over to Under 50sec:
Liendo was born in Toronto to Trinidadian parents, and spent his early childhood in Trinidad and Tobago, where he first learned to swim as a member of the Silver Sharks Swim Club.
His family relocated to Scarborough when he was 9, and young Joshua began club swimming with the Toronto Olympian Swim Team, before moving to the North York Aquatic Club. He would later cite Olympic legend Michael Phelps, of the USA, as his inspiration to focus on 'fly.
Liendo claimed Olympic silver in Paris last year behind Hungary's Kristof Milak and shared the podium with Kharun, the 100 and 200m bronze medallist at the Games.
That marked the first time two Canadian men stood on the podium together in an Olympic swimming event. It was also the first time a black Canadian had claimed an Olympic swimming medal for Canada, 36 years after Anthony Nesty became the first black swimmer ever to win an Olympic title in any swimming event when he took gold for Surinam at Seoul 1988.
Full circle: Liendo trains under Nesty's guidance at the University of Florida, having been developed by coach Ryan Mallette at the High Performance Centre –Ontario. Newsty is the Florida Gators head coach who guided American legend Katie Ledecky to gold in the 800m and 1500m free at Paris 2024 after her six golds, 400, 800 and 1500m, at the 2012, 2016 and 2020ne Games.
When honoured with Canada's Olympic program swimmer award last year, Liendo said:
“From the standpoint of me and Ilya, and me being the first Black Canadian (swimmer) to medal at an Olympics, I feel like it is just motivation for the rest of the country and people coming up. Hopefully we can inspire the next generation, keep this momentum moving forward in the sport in Canada. I feel like swimming has a lot of room to grow and should be a bigger sport in the country.”
That followed a year in which Canada's men finally started to turn around years of struggle on the biggest of occasions. At his second Games, Liendo also finished a fingertip away from the podium in the 50m freestyle, finishing fourth, just 0.02 behind France’s Florent Manaudou when the crown went to Australia's Cameron McEvoy.
Liendo was also was a member of both the men’s and mixed 4x100m medley relays that placed fifth and the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay that was sixth, as Canada's relays continued to finish with striking distance of the biggest of podiums in the pool.
Recalling his Paris campaign, Liendo focussed on the belief he'd built in himself, in his races and in his status as a team co-captain:
“It’s an Olympics, it’s not going to be perfect. I ended up getting sick right at the beginning of the meet, but a bunch of people in Paris were sick. The way I handled myself, I just kind of kept going. I feel like I’ve accepted that role a little more as I’ve gotten into it. Before, I feel like I was just trying to find my place. I feel like I’ve embraced that role a bit more. I’ve learned a lot and been a sponge to information. I understand there’s still stuff I have to learn but it’s a testament to how much I’ve learned and how I keep applying that to getting better.”
Toronto today delivered just that.
Liendo previously received Canada's Male Swimmer of the Year award in 2023 and 2022 after winning medals at both the world championships and Commonwealth Games. The first to win it three times in a row since Ryan Cochrane’s run of eight awards from 2008 to 2015, Liendo, who was also was the Male Junior Swimmer of the Year in 2019 and 2021, is a candidate for a fourth shot at the top-man prize.
In other action on day 1:
Craig Lord
Below.... Table of Canadian men who have held World swimming records:
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