Olympic swimming records: An American splash and a superman called Michael Phelps!

The swimming events are the real big crowd pullers at any Olympics.

A sport with several different categories - including freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, medleys and relays - it offers a lot of Olympic medals.

At Paris 2024, there were 35 events (17 women's events, 17 men's events and 1 mixed event). As many as 19 Olympic records were broken at the Paris Olympics.

Legendary American swimmer Michael Phelps - with 28 Olympic medals - holds one individual Olympic swimming record and has been part of two Olympic record-making relay teams. French swimmer Leon Marchand has four individual Olympic records to his name, all set at Paris 2024.

Let’s have a look at all Olympic swimming records.

Freestyle Olympic swimming records

The stroke most synonymous with swimming, freestyle, has been omnipresent at the Olympics. It has been held in every edition except the 1900 Summer Games.

The freestyle events are held over six different distances - the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m. The 50m freestyle is the newest Olympic event, introduced at Seoul 1988.

Here are all the Olympic freestyle swimming record-holders:

Backstroke Olympic swimming records

The backstroke also has a long history with the Olympics, having been held in some form at every Games since 1904.

The women’s 100m backstroke was brought into the programme in 1924, while the men’s 200m backstroke has been held since Tokyo 1964 and the women’s 200m backstroke since Mexico 1968.

Breaststroke Olympic swimming records

The breaststroke is when a swimmer does not rotate his torso when swimming. The swimmer’s torso is still while the arms and legs move in a coordinated manner to propel ahead chest-on. After jumping in, a swimmer moves forward by pushing the water away with the outside of their palm in a circular motion.

It is the slowest style of swimming and has been held at the Olympics since 1908.

Butterfly Olympic swimming records

Originating from the breaststroke, the butterfly is a stroke where the swimmer’s hands move in a vertical, semi-circular motion while the torso is kept still.

Simultaneously, the legs perform the butterfly/dolphin kick - where they are always joined together and swimmers kick mainly from the knee down. The butterfly is considered the toughest of all strokes and demands a lot out of the swimmers.

The butterfly stroke has been held in some form at the Olympics since Melbourne 1956.

Individual Medley Olympic swimming records

A medley race is when the swimmer performs all four strokes - butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle (in that order) - in the same race.

In the 200m, swimmers perform one lap of each stroke while they do two laps of each stroke in the 400m individual medley.

The 400m individual medleys were the first to be introduced to the Olympic programme - at Tokyo 1964 - while the 200m medleys were held in 1968 and 1972 and have been held in every edition since Los Angeles 1984.

Freestyle Relay Olympic swimming records

As the name suggests, the freestyle relay consists of a team of four swimmers, each of whom does the freestyle stroke over different distances.

The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay has been part of the Olympics since 1908 while the newest entrant is the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, which was only introduced at Atlanta 1996.

Medley Relay Olympic swimming records

The medley relay is a team of four swimmers, each swimming different strokes over 100m (two laps of the pool). Swimmers are selected according to their strongest stroke and the order they follow are backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.

The 4x100m medley relay was first held at the 1960 Rome Olympics for men and women and has been held in every edition since.