A 2:02.62 from her, a 1:52.67 from him: Summer McIntosh (CAN, TX) and Léon Marchand (FRA, TX) added two more U.S. Open Championship records in the curtain-closing 200m butterfly finals on Saturday evening in Austin.

The last session also witnessed these championship records (base after country):

• Hubert Kos (HUN, TX) 1:54.21 - CR - 200m backstroke
• Kate Douglas (USA, UV) 2:20.86 - CR - 200m breaststroke
• Jack Alexy (USA, CAL) 47.40 - CR - 100m freestyle

December 7, 2025, the event horizon LA2028. The next multi-missions of wonder and awe in the Olympic pool are well underway for the top two turns at Paris 2024.

Those 'fly finals are splendid things in isolation, McIntosh's a US all-comers record to boot and one of the two she set, and anyone set, at the championships. In her first season at Texas with coach Bob Bowman, the work is a continuation of a development pathway that soared to 'best ever' on medley (200, 400), freestyle (400) and 'fly (200, even if in textile for the latter) under the guidance of coach Brent Arckey in Florida, after Ben Titley in Toronto, and, on the way to Paris, with the sssitance and altitude expertise of Fred Vergnoux, mentor to Spain's Mireia Belmonte, another multi-event ('fly, free and medley) Olympic medal winner.

The last efforts for McIntosh and Marchand in Austin are all the more impressive in context: it's a test-set training in the full light of day and at a pace that either no other swimmer has ever raced at in textile or a pace very few have ever swum at in any suit on any occasion.

We're far from the cauldron of title-chasing in national colours, the only pressure being piled on that perhaps felt by those in the next lanes wondering what they have to do next and those feeling the same way out in the wider world harnessing their own plans and processes.

A test set over three days, each result a significant drop in a waterfall of moments that will lead us to the moment, and the next and the next and the next at LA2028.

Here's a small glimpse of Texas Longhorns coach Bob Bowman's focus (without some heats and, of course, void of the stuff less talked about - was it the turn, the start, the underwater, a nuance of stroke, a tweak and turn of pace being tested at a particular place on a race, etc).

Spot the snap:

As noted in the day 1/2 piece yesterday, the surface is obvious, but there are details in the depths of those swims in the context of where all of it fits in to what's been learned/confirmed and the work that will now flow from that in the realm of Golden Rules:

Dazzling Dress Rehearsals From Super Squads Bowman & De Sorbo

Colour for a drab December day and a week of ploughing and sewing of winter seeds the gardeners of swimming aim to see in full bloom come summer 2028 in Los Angeles

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Here are the 'fly finals in full:

The other finals topped by championship records:

The Meet count of US and CR records:

In other finals on the last day of the championships:

50m butterfly

Women's 200m backstroke

Women's 100m free and Men's 200m breaststroke

800m freestyle

• RESULTS IN FULL AT OMEGA