Luca Urlando is 200 Fly World Champ, However Marchand, Milak and Others Looming
He equipped the lone superb second for the American males eventually 12 months’s World Championships, dominating the 200 butterfly ultimate. The medal was the primary Luca Urlando has captured at a serious worldwide competitors and the primary within the occasion by any American since Michael Phelps retired. The win was the spotlight of an unlimited 12 months that additionally included an NCAA title within the 200-yard fly and three record-setting swims within the brief course occasion.
Urlando entered 2026 because the king of the occasion, though he has not competed in a number of months after withdrawing from the NCAA Championships as a consequence of damage. The 1:51.87 he clocked throughout his world-title run made him the fourth-fastest performer in historical past and put him inside 4 tenths of the American document. That mark, in fact, belongs to Phelps at 1:51.51 from 2009, and Phelps has been atop that record since setting his first world document within the occasion in 2001. His world mark stood till 2019.
The 2 different males with faster occasions stay lively, with one sitting out the World Championships completely whereas the opposite prioritized totally different occasions. Hungary’s Kristof Milak stays the quickest swimmer in historical past. He shocked the world by beating Phelps’ world document on the 2019 World Championships, and three years later, he swam a blinding time of 1:50.34 in entrance of a house crowd in Budapest on the 2022 World Championships.
However Milak, now 26, has not competed on the World Championships since. Most just lately, he pulled out of the Singapore meet in 2025 after lacking intensive coaching time. He’s anticipated to focus on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and it stands to cause that Milak will goal to be prepared when the World Championships return to Budapest in 2027. Nonetheless, he could be higher positioned for fulfillment within the 100 fly at this stage of his profession.
Leon Marchand — Picture Courtesy: Emily Cameron
That leaves Leon Marchand, who received the 2023 world title in Milak’s absence after which surprised the Hungarian within the Paris Olympic ultimate. Milak led for the primary 150 meters of that race earlier than Marchand’s unimaginable underwater kickout put him on prime. Marchand’s time of 1:51.25 made him the second-fastest time in historical past. That was the entrance finish of a shocking double as Marchand would return to dominate the 200 breaststroke ultimate, turning into the primary man to win two Olympic gold medals in swimming in the identical day.
For the follow-up on the Singapore World Championships, Marchand opted to deal with the person medley races, a call that paid off with one other medley sweep and a shocking world document of 1:52.69 within the 200 IM. That kind suggests Marchand might have gone no less than a second faster in a butterfly race, which might have been sufficient to beat Urlando.
Shifting ahead, the brand new Olympic schedule for the 2028 Video games suggests Marchand can have the chance to renew his traditional four-event slate and return to the highest of the rostrum within the 200 fly. He did swim as quick as 1:52.57 in December, making him the second-fastest performer in 2025 behind Urlando.
If Milak returns to the occasion and comes near his greatest whereas Urlando and Marchand stay at or close to their peaks, it will require a time underneath 1:52 to succeed in the Olympic podium in LA. However absolutely there can be others concerned by the point 2028 rolls round. One apparent candidate is Ilya Kharun, the bronze medalist behind Marchand and Milak in Paris at age 19 whereas representing Canada. Kharun had an up-and-down 2025, falling to fourth within the 200 fly in Singapore, however he did win a medal within the 100 fly earlier than performing properly all through his junior season at Arizona State College. Kharun is presently within the technique of switching his sporting nationality to america.
Don’t overlook about Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski, the silver medalist on the 2023 and 2025 World Championships. Chmielewski, presently in his junior season at USC, closed the hole on Urlando on the final lap of this 12 months’s ultimate, and he ended up clocking 1:52.64 to develop into the sixth-fastest swimmer in historical past.
Solely 5 swimmers went underneath 1:54 in 2025: Urlando, Marchand, Chmielewski, Kharun and Carson Foster, who went 1:53.70 at U.S. Nationals. Foster and third-place American Thomas Heilman each went quicker than the 1:54.17 posted by eventual Worlds bronze medalist Harrison Turner of Australia. Swift performances have been few to this point in 2026, with Marchand the one swimmer underneath 1:54 together with his 1:53.08 from April.
Anybody from that group will want one other vital bounce to have any shot at a top-three end in a full-strength discipline. That mentioned, there is no such thing as a one posing an apparent risk to the world document, an fascinating improvement after a four-year stretch when Milak appeared poised to develop into the primary swimmer to interrupt the 1:50-barrier. Now, the occasion is certainly one of many in Marchand’s wheelhouse of profitable whereas the presence of Urlando and shortly Kharun makes this a uncommon vivid spot for the American males.
