Information courtesy of Barry Revzin and Daniel Takata
The final main worldwide competitors of the calendar yr—the 2024 Quick Course World Championships—noticed a bevy of world data damaged. And never simply damaged—data had been fully smashed because the likes of Gretchen Walsh, Noe Ponti, and Luke Hobson rewrote the report ebook.
Ponti scored 1061 factors within the males’s 50 butterfly last as a part of this report barrage, prompting a commenter to ask, “What’s the swim that’s scored probably the most FINA factors?”
Because it seems, Ponti’s swim wasn’t even the very best on the meet. Walsh’s 100 butterfly and 100 IM last swims earned 1078.2 factors. However the query continues to be worthwhile, even because it reveals an advanced train.
FINA factors—now known as Swimming Factors after the World Aquatics rebrand—evaluate outcomes throughout completely different occasions and swims towards the present world report. Swims are valued towards a base time outlined by World Aquatics yearly based mostly on probably the most not too long ago ratified world report. The sooner a swim is in comparison with the bottom time, the extra factors the swimmer earns. (You possibly can learn extra in regards to the factors calculation system on the World Aquatics web site.)
Including one other diploma of problem is the truth that the deadlines for base instances resetting are August thirty first for short-course meters and December thirty first for long-course meters.
We don’t truly know after they first began calculating FINA Factors swims, or when the present system was set, so all of that is based mostly on what the system is now, utilized to different years.
Simply monitoring lengthy and short-course meters swims, our information specialists Barry Revzin and Daniel Takata—who’re accountable for all of the numbers on this piece—remoted Claire Guttenstein’s 1910 long-course 100 freestyle world report efficiency because the swim that earned the very best level complete in historical past; she earned 1320 factors bringing the world down from 1:35 to 1:26. Nonetheless, within the early 1900s, data fell extra simply and in greater chunks—thus, it was extra frequent to have a staggeringly excessive rating.
With that in thoughts, our numbers specialists set a number of deadlines. To provide data sufficient time to “settle” after the preliminary flurry that comes from establishing an occasion, they selected 1980 for the 50 freestyle and 1968 for all different occasions. Contemplating all occasions however blended relays, listed here are the highest 20 highest-earning swims.
Desk of Highest-Incomes Swims
Observe: 1980 cut-off for 50 freestyle, 1986 for all different occasions. No blended relays.
Rank
Level Whole
Swimmer
Occasion
Time
Date
1
1114.8
Angela Kennedy
Feminine SCM 50 Fly
26.56
1995-02-12
2
1103.4
Ulrike Tauber
Feminine LCM 400 IM
4:42.77
1976-07-24
3
1098.8
Ulrike Richter
Feminine LCM 100 Again
1:02.98
1974-09-01
4
1093.7
Neil Walker
Male SCM 50 Again
23.42
2000-03-13
4
1093.7
Amy Van Dyken
Feminine SCM 50 Fly
26.73
1995-02-01
6
1089.9
Cameron van der Burgh
Male SCM 50 Breast
25.43
2009-08-08
7
1083.6
Therese Alshammar
Feminine SCM 50 Free
23.59
2000-03-18
8
1083.5
Jessica Hardy
Feminine SCM 50 Breast
28.80
2009-11-14
9
1082.4
Naber/Hencken/Vogel/Montgomery
Males’s LCM 4×100 Medley Relay
3:42.22
1976-07-22
10
1082.3
Ulrike Richter
Feminine LCM 100 Again
1:03.30
1974-08-23
11
1081.4
Cameron van der Burgh
Male SCM 100 Breast
55.99
2009-08-09
12
1081.2
Michael Burton
Male LCM 1500 Free
16:08.57
1968-09-03
13
1080.8
Ed Moses
Male SCM 200 Breast
2:03.17
2002-01-26
14
1080.7
Sarah Sjostrom
Feminine LCM 50 Fly
24.43
2014-07-05
15
1079.0
Alexander Popov
Male SCM 100 Free
46.74
1994-03-19
16
1078.2
Gretchen Walsh
Feminine SCM 100 IM
55.11
2024-12-13
16
1078.2
Gretchen Walsh
Feminine SCM 100 Fly
52.71
2024-12-14
18
1078.0
Inge de Bruijn
Feminine LCM 50 Fly
25.64
2000-05-26
18
1078.0
Grant Hackett
Male SCM 400 Free
3:35.01
1999-04-02
20
1077.9
Ed Moses
Male SCM 200 Breast
2:03.28
2002-01-22
One of many key issues to recollect with this desk is that the “base time” that units the system for what number of factors a swim earns solely resets yearly, not every time the world report will get damaged. That’s why, in February 1995, Angela Kennedy and Amy Van Dyken each earned such excessive scores within the occasion. At first of the yr, the world report stood at 27.54 from 1990—then Van Dyken lowered it to 26.73. However the base time didn’t reset when Van Dyken lowered the world report, so when Kennedy took the report lower than two weeks later with a 26.56, her factors complete was larger than Van Dyken’s; her swim was measured towards the preliminary world report, not Van Dyken’s swim.
Walsh’s world data within the 100 butterfly (52.71) and 100 IM (55.11) scored 1078.2 factors. These swims crack the highest 20 as a tie for sixteenth. Nonetheless, if this listing solely included swims from 2000 on, she’d rocket as much as seventh, showcasing how uncommon a efficiency like her meet in Budapest has turn out to be.
Ulrike Richter, Cameron van der Burgh, and Ed Moses all make the listing twice. Richter and Moses’ swims are in the identical yr and the identical occasion—highlighting once more that some swims factors are as excessive as they’re due to after they had been swum, not essentially as a result of they demolished a world report. Nonetheless, Van der Burgh’s two entries are from the identical yr however completely different occasions. He annihilated the 50 and 100 breaststroke world data in August 2009, sporting a super-suit as he swam 25.43 within the 50 breaststroke and 55.99 within the 100 breaststroke.
Analyzing van der Burgh’s instances emphasizes one of many quirks within the swimming factors system talked about earlier—the deadlines. The bottom instances for short-course meters swims are recalculated on August thirty first. Van den Burgh went sooner than these instances later within the yr, swimming 25.25/55.61 in November.
Nonetheless, by November, the bottom time had reset to his customary from August, so the swims aren’t price as many factors. His 25.25 earned 1021 factors but when he’d swum it earlier than the August 31 cut-off, he would’ve earned 1113 factors.
These wrinkles spotlight the troublesome nature of this train. Our numbers specialists set their chosen deadlines to weed out time from the early twentieth century when swimmers hacked seconds off world data as they made easy enhancements that made dramatic variations. However, a desk with completely different deadlines would yield completely different outcomes—whether or not you determined to develop the vary to 1900 or restrict it to 2000.
