On This Day In History - The Day Evans & Thorpe Threw Barrier-Breaking Thunder At The Deeper End Of Distance
Timeline - The SOS Daily Trawl of official World long-course records (plus all pre 1954 standards, all pools and metrics) set this day throughout history.
March 16
On this day in history:
March 26, 1988: Janet Evans, of the USA, became the first women in history to race inside 16 minutes in the 1500m freestyle., And when she wrote that history, she did so not with the fine line of a pencil but with a big broad brush in Technicolor: 15:52.10. That thud of a moment would reverberate down the years, and remain the best there had ever been until June 17, 2007, when another American, Kate Ziegler, clocked 15:42.54 at Mission Viejo, where Evans had trained under the guidance of coach Mark Schubert all those years ago. On the way to her 15:52, Evans had set the world 1500 record at 16:00.73 on July 31, 1987 at trials for the Pan Pacs in Orlando. All of it was a precursor for triple gold at the Seoul 1988 Olympics: 400m, 800m freestyle and 400m medley. That story coming soon in the Janet Evans entry in our fledgling SOS Hall of Fame.
March 26, 1964: Georgy Yakovlevich Prokopenko, of Ukraine, set the first of his two World 100m breaststroke records on this day in 1964 to become the second of three Soviet swimmer who excelled in the event as pioneers of peace in the 1960s: Leonid Kolesnikov, was the first, in 1961. Then Prokopenko shaved 0.1sec off the 1:07.5 mark that had stood to American Chet Jastremski sinbcxe 20th August 1961. Prokopenko set his first standard in Baku, and then later that year, in September, became the first man inside 1:07, with a 1:06.9 in Moscow. Three years on in Leningrad, his Soviet teammate Vladimir Kosinsky took the mark off him in 1:06.7. Prokopenko competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics, at which he claimed silver medal in the 200m breaststroke and finished fourthwith teammates in the 4x100m medley. He won three European titles in those same events in 1962 and 1966. Between 1962 and 1964 he also set eight European records in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and medley relay. Born on 21 February 1937 in Kobeliaky, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine, Georgy passed away on 5 May 2021 at the age of 84, and never saw what the Russians would do to his country.
March 26, 2001: Ian Thorpe, of Australia, is best known for his Olympic golds in the 200 (2004), 400m freestyle (2000 and 2004), 4x100m free (2000) and 4x200m free 2000). He also claimed silver in the 200m free in 2000 and a bronze in the 100m in 2004. Less well remembered beyond his sport are his pioneering World records over 800m freestyle - one of which, the first sub-7:40 in history, was set almost 25 years ago. Thorpe clobbered Kieren Perkins' 7:46.00 global mark, set on his way to the 1500m free World record at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, with a 7:41.59 pin this day a quarter of a century ago at the Australian Championships in Hobart to set up a class of titans with teammate Grant Hackett at the World Championships later that same season and year.
What thrilling times those were, lucky all we who witnessed the Fukuoka 2001 Worlds as the young Aussie giants pressed the pace and made each race an epic: every gold 200 to 1500m took a World record to win.. The 800m delivered gold for Thorpe in the first sub-7:40 in history - and a 200-400-triple for him, too. In the 1500, Hackett was in a class of his own, his efforts and those of Thorpe contributing to the first Australian defeat of the USA on gold-medal count in World-Championship history - and Britain and Scotland's Graeme Smith on the podium in both the 800 and 1500m:
Craig Lord
Craig Lord
Craig Lord
