Good newsThree World Records in Two Nights as US Swimmers Fire Up for Beijing
Katharine Berkoff, Claire Curzan and Jack Alexy each broke a short-course world record at the US trials in Illinois on 29 and 30 October. Curzan became the first woman under 54 seconds in the 100m backstroke.
This story runs on the good side only. The biggest stories of the day are told on both sides.
Three swimmers broke three world records in 25-metre pools in two nights. At the US trials for the short-course world championships in Westmont, Illinois, Katharine Berkoff, Claire Curzan and Jack Alexy each went faster than anyone in history. The team they are now part of travels to Beijing for the championships, which run from 1 to 6 December.
Berkoff went first, on Thursday 29 October. She won the 50m backstroke in 25.21, two hundredths under the mark Regan Smith set two years ago, Swimming World reports. It is her first individual world record, after four years of international sprint medals and a long-course world title last year. Curzan finished second in 25.26, three hundredths off Smith’s old time, and both qualified for the team.
Under 54 seconds for the first time
On Friday night Curzan returned for the 100m backstroke and won in 53.92. That made her the first woman to swim the distance in under 54 seconds. She took 0.10 seconds off Smith’s 2024 record of 54.02, and it is the first world record of her career, according to her university’s athletics site.
Alexy followed on the same night. The Cal swimmer, already the reigning short-course world champion, won the 100m freestyle in 44.64 and beat the previous record of 44.84 by 0.20 seconds. Australia’s Kyle Chalmers and Russia’s Egor Kornev shared that old mark, and Kornev had matched it only four weeks earlier at a World Cup meet, Swimming World notes. Alexy led at the halfway wall in 21.25 and came home in 23.39. Teammate Chris Guiliano was second in 45.22 and the veteran Caeleb Dressel third in 45.65.
Chart: GoodBad. Data from Swimming World and Virginia Athletics, 29 and 30 October 2026.
What the margins say
The margins differ a lot. Berkoff’s record is a sliver. Alexy’s is the biggest: 0.20 seconds off a mark that had been equalled only weeks earlier. Curzan’s 0.10 sits between them, but the 54-second barrier made it the headline.
The records came in an unusually fast meet. Kate Douglass, the former Virginia star, won the 200m individual medley on Friday in 2:01.66, the second-fastest time ever and 0.03 off her own world record, according to the same Virginia report. Gretchen Walsh won the 50m butterfly in 23.80, also the second-fastest ever.
Who goes to Beijing
The US team for the championships will have 40 swimmers, 20 men and 20 women. Winners of each event qualify automatically, and second-place finishers are expected to be named, along with third and fourth in the 100m and 200m freestyle, though those spots are not automatic. The trials ended on Saturday. Berkoff and Curzan are both medal favourites in Beijing, Swimming World says.
Does it matter beyond the stopwatch? Short-course racing, in 25-metre pools, rewards underwater kicking and turns, and it gives the sport a records season that sits apart from the Olympic cycle. Berkoff said she works on her underwater kick for the format. Alexy said he hopes to go even faster in Beijing, and the world championships are five weeks away.
One caution: these are trials swims, with a home crowd and no travel. The Beijing meet is the first chance for other nations, including Kornev’s, to answer.
