How Do The World Records From 1981 Compare To Today?

By Barry Revzin on SwimSwam

Some events have progressed tremendously in the last decade. It took 55 and 57-point to make the U.S. Olympic team in the women’s 100 fly and 100 back, respectively. Those numbers are still difficult for me to understand, and seemed utterly unthinkable even a few years ago. Other events just seem remarkably stable.

The 200 fly is one such event. On the men’s side, it took just 1:55.08 to make the team this year. That is roughly the same as 2021 (1:55.34), 2016 (1:55.81), and 2012 (1:55.12). Our very own beret-ed and speedo-ed Mel Stewart (who is never a fan of when I write about him, yet here I go again on my own) won the 200 fly at Trials in a time of 1:55.72. In 1992. That’s consistency.

In contrast, Matt Biondi won the 50/100 free double in 22.12/49.31. The 49.31 would’ve finished 29th and the 50 free time would have finished 11th in prelims and seems pretty unlikely to make the final.

But on the women’s side, the numbers are even more stark. One of the most famous world records in swimming is Mary T. Meagher’s 2:05.96, swum in 1981. Still today, she is the #7 American performer of all time (Alex Shackell with her semifinal swim moving into the #8 spot, didn’t quite pass her in the final this evening).

1981 is 43 years ago. Yet it wasn’t even until the 2020(1) Olympic Trials that the winning time (a 2:05.85 from Hali Flickinger) was under Mary T’s record. Regan Smith was slightly faster tonight, winning in 2:05.70 on the front half of her double with the 200 back.

For how immense this gap is, I thought it’d be interesting to see how the other world records from 1981 would fare at this meet.

Event
WR
Result

F 200 FLY
2:05.96
2nd in finals

F 400 MEDLEY
4:36.29
3rd in finals

F 1500 FREE
16:04.49
3rd in finals

F 400 FREE
4:06.28
3rd in finals

F 200 BREAST
2:28.36
6th in finals

M 800 FREE
7:56.49
6th in finals

F 100 FLY
57.93
8th in finals

F 200 FREE
1:58.23
11th in semis

M 200 BACK
1:59.19
12th in semis

M 200 FLY
1:58.01
12th in semis

F 100 BREAST
1:08.60
15th in semis

M 400 FREE
3:50.49
11th in prelims

M 400 MEDLEY
4:20.05
16th in prelims

F 100 BACK
1:00.86
18th in prelims

F 200 BACK
2:11.77
18th in prelims

F 100 FREE
54.79
20th in prelims

M 100 FREE
49.36
29th in prelims

M 50 FREE
22.54
31st in prelims

M 200 FREE
1:49.16
34th in prelims

M 200 BREAST
2:15.11
40th in prelims

M 100 BACK
55.49
40th in prelims

M 200 MEDLEY
2:02.78
47th in prelims

M 100 BREAST
1:02.86
74th in prelims

The spread is fascinating. For some events (notably the men’s breaststrokes), the 1981 record isn’t remotely competitive. In the men’s 100 breast, it doesn’t even make the Trials cut! In the 200 breast, only just.

But for quite a few events, the record is still remarkably competitive. It would make semifinals in 4 events and it would even make the final in six. Particularly interesting to me is that the men’s breaststrokes seem to have improved significantly more than the women’s – with the men’s records finishing 74th and 40th while the women’s finishing 15th and 6th!

And Mary T. Meagher, 43 years ago, would have still made the U.S. Olympic Team today. It was only appropriate then that she was the one to present the awards for this event. Perhaps some day she will no longer make the Olympic team, but it was not this day.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: How Do The World Records From 1981 Compare To Today?