Two swimming world records fell in one extraordinary night at the United States short course trials on Friday, as Claire Curzan became the first woman ever to swim the 100 metres backstroke in under 54 seconds and Jack Alexy destroyed the men's 100 metres freestyle world record in Westmont, Illinois. The pair, both breaking their first individual world records, turned the third night of the trials at the FMC Natatorium into another record-breaking session, just 24 hours after three world records had fallen on Thursday.
Curzan struck first. The 22-year-old Virginia senior, swimming in the women's 100m backstroke final, surged to the front from the start, splitting 26.36 seconds for the first 50 metres, ahead of Katharine Berkoff on 26.57 and the former world record holder Regan Smith on 26.67. Where most races tighten over the second half, Curzan pulled away, covering the closing 50 metres in 27.56 seconds, more than half a second quicker than Berkoff and Smith, who both closed in 28.15. She touched in 53.92, Berkoff was second in 54.72 and Smith third in 54.82. Smith, who had held the record at 54.02 from 2024 and again in 2025, will not swim the event at the world championships in December.
Alexy's moment came later in the session, and it was even more emphatic. The 23-year-old California star, already the American record holder, had signalled something special in the morning heats, when he and Chris Guiliano broke the United States Open record in back-to-back heats. Guiliano went first, in 45.17, beating Caeleb Dressel's 2019 mark of 45.22. Minutes later Alexy answered with 45.09, just four hundredths outside his own American record of 45.05 from the 2024 world championships in Budapest. In the final, Alexy went out in 21.25 seconds, already 0.15 seconds under world-record pace, and came home in 23.39 to stop the clock at 44.64. Guiliano was second in 45.22 and the three-time Olympic champion Dressel third in 45.65. The old world record of 44.84 had been set by Australia's Kyle Chalmers at the World Cup in Kazan in 2021 and equalled by Russia's Egor Kornev in Baku only four weeks ago.
Both records were the first individual world records of their owners' careers, a fact that made the night feel like a changing of the guard in American swimming. Curzan, who swept the backstrokes at the 2024 long course world championships, had entered October with a lifetime best of 55.74 in the short course 100m backstroke, set in 2022. She improved that to 54.94 at a Virginia preparation meet two weeks before the trials, and then took another full second off it in Westmont. Alexy, the reigning short course world champion in the 100m freestyle and a gold medallist in the event at this summer's Pan Pacific Championships, is now the man to beat in Beijing.
The trials, staged from October 28 to 31 at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, are the first dedicated 25-metre trials USA Swimming has held to select its short course world championship team. Short course racing takes place in a 25-metre pool rather than the 50-metre Olympic pool, which means more turns, more underwater work and, usually, faster times. The American team for Beijing will number 40 swimmers, 20 men and 20 women, and the top two finishers in each event earn automatic places as priority-one selections.
Friday's session followed a remarkable Thursday. Kate Douglass tied Gretchen Walsh's 50m freestyle world record in 22.75, Katharine Berkoff broke the 50m backstroke world record in 25.21, taking two hundredths off Smith's 2024 mark, and Van Mathias broke the 100m breaststroke world record in 55.14. Three world records in one night would be a meeting in itself; Westmont then produced two more on Friday, taking the week's world-record tally to five before the final day.
The women's 100m backstroke has become one of the deepest events in American swimming. In long course racing in 2026, the United States had four of the six fastest women in the world: Smith ranked first, Isabelle Stadden second, Berkoff fourth and Curzan sixth. Only two can make an Olympic team, which makes every domestic final a contest of world-class depth. On Friday, Berkoff's 54.72 was the fourth-fastest performance in history, and Smith's 54.82 still left her outside the Beijing team in this event, a measure of how unforgiving the American system is.
For Alexy, the record also settles a long-running question about the men's sprint freestyle. In long course, he is the fourth-fastest man in history behind China's Pan Zhanle, the 2024 Olympic champion, Romania's David Popovici, the 2025 world champion, and Kornev. His short course record now gives him a global standard of his own, and it comes with the Beijing world championships only five weeks away, where he will defend his short course title at the Water Cube.
The rest of Friday's finals kept the record theme running. Douglass, already a world record holder in the 200m individual medley, won the event again in 2:01.66, just three hundredths outside her own world record of 2:01.63 from 2024, and lowered her own United States Open record. Alex Walsh was second in 2:04.54 and Torri Huske third in 2:07.83. Douglass had been almost eight tenths ahead of world-record pace at the halfway stage before falling slightly off the pace on the breaststroke leg, but she still finished three seconds clear of the field.
Gretchen Walsh, the world record holder in the 50m butterfly, won that event on Friday, eight hundredths outside her own world record. Liberty Clark won the women's 200m freestyle in an American record, Piper Enge won the women's 100m breaststroke, and on the men's side Luca Urlando set an American record in the 200m butterfly while Van Mathias added an American record in the 100m breaststroke. Josh Bey won the men's 400m individual medley in 4:00.05, the sixth-fastest time in the world this year, and Ryan Erisman completed a distance double by winning the 1500m freestyle after his 800m victory on the opening night. Adam Chaney, who had only just scraped into the men's 50m backstroke final in eighth place after slipping on his start in the heats, won from lane eight in 22.71.
The depth of the American team was on show in almost every final. In the women's 100m backstroke, Isabelle Stadden was fourth in 56.33, while in the men's 100m freestyle final, the gap from Alexy's world record to Dressel in third was more than a second, yet all three medallists would be contenders for medals anywhere in the world. That is the paradox of American swimming: the hardest team in the world to make, and one of the strongest teams in the world once made.
NBC Sports, reporting from Westmont, described Curzan and Alexy as breaking "their first individual world records" on Friday, and noted that Curzan and Berkoff had both made the team for Beijing. SwimSwam's live recap called Curzan's swim "an absolutely massive performance" and noted that her second 50 metres was "more than half-a-second faster" than her rivals. Of Alexy, Swimming World magazine wrote that he "blasted a performance of 44.64 over four laps, a mark that cut .20 off the previous world record" and "positioned himself as the man to beat when the World Champs are held in Beijing at the beginning of December."
The numbers themselves tell much of the story. Curzan's 53.92 made her the first woman in history under 54 seconds in the event, a barrier that had stood as a psychological as well as a physical target since Smith's 54.02. Alexy's 44.64 took two tenths off a record that had survived five years, and he did it by more than half a second over the second-placed swimmer, a margin almost unheard of in a sprint final at this level.
World records in short course swimming matter beyond the record books because they are a form guide for the long course season and, ultimately, for the Olympic Games. The Beijing short course world championships in December are the last major global meeting of 2026, and the American team that leaves Westmont will be expected to dominate the medal table there. Performances like Curzan's and Alexy's also matter for the athletes themselves: a first world record changes how a swimmer is seeded, sponsored and talked about, and it changes how rivals plan their own races.
For American swimming, the week in Westmont is also a statement of depth. Five world records in three days, with American records falling alongside them, suggests a programme that is not relying on one or two stars but producing contenders across strokes, distances and both sexes. With the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 on the horizon, that depth is the story USA Swimming will want to carry into the new year.
The trials finish on Saturday, live on Peacock and NBCSN at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, with the remaining places on the Beijing team to be filled. Curzan and Alexy will head to Beijing as world record holders and among the favourites in their events, with the Water Cube hosting the world short course championships from December 1 to 6. For Smith, the disappointment of missing the 100m backstroke team is softened by her 200m butterfly victory earlier in the week, which keeps her on the Beijing roster. For Berkoff, Friday's silver confirmed a remarkable week after her own world record on Thursday.
The focus will then turn to how these short course times translate to the 50-metre pool in 2027, when Olympic qualification begins in earnest. If Curzan can carry her backstroke speed into long course, and if Alexy can do the same in the freestyle, both will arrive at the next Olympic trials as the swimmers everyone else has to beat.
Curzan broke the women's 100m backstroke world record with 53.92 seconds, beating Regan Smith's 54.02. Alexy broke the men's 100m freestyle world record with 44.64 seconds, beating the 44.84 shared by Kyle Chalmers and Egor Kornev.
Both records were set on Friday, October 30, 2026, at the United States Short Course World Championship Trials at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Illinois.
Short course swimming takes place in a 25-metre pool, rather than the 50-metre Olympic pool. The extra turns generally produce faster times than long course racing.
Yes. Their victories earned them automatic places on the 40-strong United States team for the World Short Course Championships in Beijing, from December 1 to 6, 2026.
Five before the final day: three on Thursday, from Kate Douglass, Katharine Berkoff and Van Mathias, and two on Friday, from Curzan and Alexy.
Related coverage: Swimming world records fall as Douglass, Berkoff and Mathias star at USA trials, Stephen Curry perfect night powers Warriors past Nuggets 134-114, USA vs Canada women's hockey Olympic rematch tonight in Windsor.
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