Swimming: All long course world records at a glance

Swimming world records rarely stand for too long.

The improvement of coaching, equipment, and science mean that athletes regularly redefine what the human body is capable of in the water.

Currently, the oldest long course swimming world record is Team USA's men's 4x100m freestyle relay record (3:08.24) set at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.

The men’s 800m freestyle and women’s 1500m freestyle made their Olympic debuts at Tokyo 2020 (in 2021), so expect to see many improvements in these world records over the coming years.

However, with the top-10 fastest 1500m free times on the women's side, USA’s Katie Ledecky looks set to own that record for quite some time.

Super-suit world records now being broken

There was a moment when technology went too far.

Between February 2008 and December 2009, a whole host of records were broken due to the advent of bodysuits or ‘super-suits’ - swimsuits made of polyurethane or other non-textile materials that were sanctioned by the sport’s governing body.

These were eventually banned because they were seen to provide a greater advantage to larger athletes.

Many at the time feared that world records would not be broken again for a long time, but just over a decade later only six remain on the men's side, while there are two in the women's ranks.

Below we take a closer look at all long course swimming world records.

Nb. *Denotes a record where a super-suit was used