On this day, July 11

Americans Walter Laufer and Lance Larson set World records this day in history.

Two years before he claimed gold in the 4x200m free alongside Johnny Weissmuller, George Kojac and Austin Clapp, and silver behind another U.S.teammate, George Kojac, in the 100m back at the Amsterdam 1928 Olympics, Walter Laufer celebrated a bull run of backstroke standards on tour in Germany in just 24 days: one over 100m, the other three over 200m.

Lance Larson, better known as the first man to break the minute in the 100m butterfly, and for the controversy of the 1960 Olympic 100m freestyle that granted him silver not the gold some clocks suggested he merited, held the world best in the 200m medley during his career. His 2:24.7 was clocked on July 11, 1959, in Santa Clara. World records in the event only counted from 1954 onwards, when a minimum time of 2:13.0 was set. The first official global long-course standard was the 2:12.4 swum in Lincoln, USA, by Greg Buckingham on August 21, 1966.

When Walter Laufer Set 4 Backstroke World Records In 24 Days

Two years before he claimed gold in the 4x200m free alongside Johnny Weissmuller, George Kojac and Austin Clapp, and silver behind another U.S.teammate, George Kojac, in the 100m back, Walter Laufer celebrated a bull run of backstroke standards on tour in Germany

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Lance Larson – Sub-Minute ’Fly Pioneer Who Triggered The Birth Of The Timepad

Into our SOS Hall of Fame goes Lance Larson, as we add the profiles of the pioneers, the American’s role including a pioneering 59.0 100 ’fly sub-minute debut, the Olympic judgement of the naked eye & a role in butterfly’s breakout from its breaststroke cocoon - a rich thread of swim history…

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

On this day, July 10

When Matthes Broke the 7th Of His 9 200 Back Marks

Today is the day in history when Roland Matthes broke the seventh of his nine World records over 200m backstroke. When he swam a 2:02.82 just under two months later in Munich to retain the Olympic title, the electronic delivery of a 0.82 ending meant that his swim was considered a match of there World record timed at a manual .8 in Leipzig at GDR trials.

Here's the list of other World records set this day throughout history, including the second of Leisel Jones' four 200m breaststroke records, one that lasted just two days, Amanda Beard breaking the standard at U.S. Olympic trials a year before Jones struck back with the first sub-2:22, and then the first sub-2:21 in history.

SOS Hall of Fame profiles related to the standards set on July 10:

Roland Matthes - The Rolls Royce Of Backstroke

“His patients in Bavaria have no knowledge of his swimming achievements, Matthes believes. Erfurt is his home town and in 2011 they named a pool there in his honour – it took that long.

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Lethal Leisel Jones, Her 1:05.09, 2:20.54 & A Fat Slap n The Face Of ‘6:1.20’

The Australian’s stellar career masked some lessons that every program in the world should learn from, the details set out candidly in her 2015 autobiography, Body Lengths

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

When Butterfly Took Flight & Breaststroke Regained Its Independence

A tale of two strokes that were once one: how breaststroke evolved into a form of butterfly before a 1952 decision to divide two techniques on one into two distinct strokes: “Orthodox Breaststroke” and “Butterfly Breaststroke”

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

(subscribers have access to the full Timeline content in our daily trawl of pioneering moments in swimming history - and the accompanying profiles in our SOS Hall of Fame as we build the library).