2026 U.S. Nationwide Championships
The Isabelle Stadden transformation on the College of Virginia rolled on Thursday night in Irvine, the place she posted yet one more finest time in a backstroke race.
Her 27.09 ties her because the Sixth-fastest performer in historical past and comes as her second US Nationwide title this week.
High Performers All-Time, Ladies’s 50m Backstroke
Kaylee McKeown, Australia – 26.86 (2023)
Katharine Berkoff, USA – 26.97 (2025)
Xiang Liu, China – 26.98 (2018)
Jing Zhao, China – 27.06 (2009)
Sara Curtis, Italy – 27.07 (2026)
(TIE)
Letian Wan, China – 27.09 (2025)
Isabelle Stadden, USA – 27.09 (2026)
(TIE)
Kira Toussaint, Netherlands – 27.10 (2021)
Regan Smith, USA – 27.10 (2023)
The College of Virginia all the time appears to discover a solution to flip swimmers into *no matter they want*, and that’s proving true this summer season within the 50 again. Sara Curtis swam 27.07 on the Sette Colli, which ranks her fifth all-time; on Thursday, Bryn Greenwaldt received the B-Last in 27.83; and since the wealthy get richer, the 18 & Beneath remaining winner Alyssa Sagle (28.03) will be part of that group in a month.
As for Stadden, this continues a torrential run since becoming a member of the Cavaliers in December 2025 after finishing her diploma at Cal. That is now her 4th finest time within the 50 again in simply over 7 months (earlier PB: 27.14 from Professional Swim in Indy). That joins with 2 finest instances within the 100 again, which she is going to swim later this week, and a couple of finest instances within the 200 again, although she didn’t fairly hit one in that race earlier this week.
The backstrokes are all the time brutal fields to emerge from for American ladies, however Stadden’s trajectory makes her onerous to rely out for LA28.
