On This Day In History - When Federica Pellegrini Set The 4th Of Her 6 WRs In The 200 Free
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.
On this day in history...
March 8, 1957: Dick Hanley, a 4x200m free Olympic silver medallist with the USA in 1956, broke one 200 free World record during his career, this day 69 years ago. The standard would also be the last ever held under old rules that allowed global marks to be set in what are known today as 'short-course' pools (25m - or then, also 25y long). His time of 2:01.5 was no longer recognised as the World record from January 18, 1958, the day Australian John Konrads became the standard bearer with a long-course yards effort of 2:04.8, inside the 2:05.2 'standard time' to beat under the new rules that meant swims were only eligible for World-record status if set in a 50m, or yards equivalent pool. Konrads set his mark over 220 yards, which is 1.168m longer than 200m.
March 8, 2009: Federica Pellegrini (ITA) set the fourth of her six World records over 200m freestyle, and the first of her three established in shiny suits in 2009. She clocked 1:54.47 at Italian Nationals in Riccione - but there was much more to come ...
Our SOS Hall of Fame Profile On Pellegrini will be posted as we build our legends section throughout the coming months - and La Fede pioneers the the sub-1:53... The Italian would end her career as the queen of 200m racing, with Olympic gold, and a record eight World long-course podiums, four of them golden, in the mix.
March 7 - No World records set long-course or under pre-1954 eligibility rules
March 6
When Weissmuller Pioneered The Sub-5-Minute 400 Free
On this day....
Johnny Weissmuller, on his way to fame as the Olympic 100m freestyle champion of 1924 and 1928 and 'Tarzan' actor beyond his racing days, set the second of his 400m (440y) freestyle world records when he wiped 9.6sec off his own standard to become the first swimmer ever to race inside 5 minutes over the distance.
The American's progress between June 1922 and March 1923 can largely be put down to where the sport was on its evolutionary voyage: Weissmuller's 1922 mark was set in a 50 pool in Honolulu, while his 4:57 unfolded in what would become known as a 'short-course' pool (25, though also worth noting that 440 yards is a 2.3m longer than 400m). Short-course marks have been and are still almost always significantly faster than long-course records because of the more-numerous underwater propulsive opportunities at off the walls at speeds faster than the pure swim and the 'temporary reprieve' offered to specific energy systems by the larger number of turns.
On this day in 1923:
Craig Lord
