Michael Phelps holds three individual and two team Olympic swimming records.
The
International Olympic Committee recognises the fastest performances in pool-based
swimming events at the
Olympic Games. Men's swimming has been part of the official program of the Summer Olympics since the Games' modern inception in 1896; it was not until 1912 that women's events were held. The swimming events at the
1896 Olympic Games were held in a bay in the
Aegean Sea with swimmers being required to swim to the shore—Hungarian swimmer
Alfréd Hajós won two gold medals that year, saying "My will to live completely overcame my desire to win."[1][2] The
1900 Summer Olympic Games in Paris had the swimming events take place in the
River Seine, and the events at the
1908 Summer Olympics were held in a 100-metre pool surrounded by an athletics track in the
White City Stadium in London.[3]
Races are held in four swimming categories:
freestyle,
backstroke,
breaststroke and
butterfly, over varying distances and in either individual or
relay race events.
Medley swimming races are also held, both individually and in relays, in which all four swimming categories are used. In the
Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, both men and women competed in eighteen events in the pool. Of the 35 pool-based events, swimmers from the United States hold fourteen records, Australia seven, China four, Hungary three, Great Britain and South Africa two each, and one each to Ukraine,
Russian Olympic Committee and Sweden. Twenty of the current Olympic records were set at the 2020 Summer Olympics, seven in 2016, three in 2012, and five in 2008.[4]
Men's records
Caeleb Dressel set Olympic records in 3 individual events at the 2020 OlympicsSun Yang set Olympic records in two events at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
♦ denotes a performance that is also a current
world record. Statistics are correct as of the end of the 2020 Olympics and include only those events which are currently recognised by the
IOC as Olympic events.
Emma McKeon holds the Olympic record in the 50 and 100 m freestyle.Katie Ledecky set the Olympic records in the 400 and 800 m freestyle in 2016.
♦ denotes a performance that is also a current
world record. Statistics are correct as of the end of the 2020 Olympics and include only those events which are currently recognised by the
IOC as Olympic events.
♦ denotes a performance that is also a current
world record. Statistics are correct as of the end of the 2020 Olympics and include only those events which are currently recognised by the
IOC as Olympic events.