200 m freestyle, men, 25 m pool

What to remember

In a short course pool, a 200 m race is swum turn after turn. On December 15, 2024, at the World Championships in Budapest, American Luke Hobson covered the distance in freestyle in 1 min 38.61 s, a world record for 25 m pools.

A University of Texas swimmer, Luke Hobson was coming off an Olympic season: at the 2024 Games he won silver with the US 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and bronze in the individual 200 m freestyle. He has also set the American and US Open records in the 200 yard freestyle.

The 200 m freestyle has a patchy Olympic history: contested by men as early as 1900, it then left the program until its return in 1968, the year the women's event was introduced. World Aquatics keeps long course and short course records separately.