100 m freestyle, men

What to remember

Pan Zhanle stopped the clock at 46.40 s at the Olympic Games in Paris on July 31, 2024, and took gold in the 100 m freestyle. The Chinese freestyler was improving on his own mark: earlier that year, at the World Championships, he had clocked 46.80 s while leading off the 4×100 m freestyle relay, and he also won the individual 100 m there. At the same Games he also won the 4 × 100 metre medley relay, swimming the fastest freestyle split ever recorded.

In 1908 the record stood at 1 min 05.6 s, by Charles Daniels. Later came Duke Kahanamoku in 1918, Johnny Weissmuller with 57.4 s in 1924, Jonty Skinner with 49.44 s in 1976 and César Cielo with 46.91 s in 2009. Across the 116 years between the first and last marks, the time dropped by 29.3%. The explanations given are smarter training, changes in the sport and in swimwear, and goggles, which were not widely used until the 1970s and made much longer practice sessions possible.

Paris makes a fitting stage: at the 1900 Games, swimmers raced in the Seine rather than in a pool. The 2024 mark counts in the long course (50 metre) pool, where the international federation has recognised 100 m freestyle world records since 1905.