2017 FINA World Championships

July 23-30, 2017
Budapest, Hungary
Dagály Aquatics Arena
SCHEDULE
LIVE RESULTS

With less than a week to go before the start of the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, we take a deep dive into all of the world records that could potentially go down over the course of the eight-day meet.

Adam Peaty (GBR)

WR: 50m Breaststroke -- 26.42, Adam Peaty (GBR), 2015
2017 Best: 26.48 (+0.06)

WR: 100m Breaststroke -- 57.13, Adam Peaty (GBR), 2016
2017 Best: 57.79 (+0.66)



Since taking the Commonwealth title in the 100m breaststroke three years ago in Glasgow, Scotland, ​Adam Peaty​ has been on a tear and hasn't been defeated in this event since. Not to mention, he has chopped a combined 1.33 seconds off the previous world record. His win at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio by an unprecedented 1.5-second margin to swim a 57.13 will go down as one of the greatest single performances of all time.

Peaty doesn't look to be slowing down at all in 2017, missing his own world record in the 50m breaststroke by a fingernail at the British Trials in April and swimming another 57 over the 100m distance. Throwing down 26s and 58s all over the world at in-season meets, look for Peaty to try and bring these marks down a little further come Budapest.

But don't sleep on South Africa's ​Cameron van der Burgh​ in the 50m distance. The previous world-record holder before Peaty in the 50m and 100m, the veteran van der Burgh​ is coming toward the back end of his career and looks to stand on top of the podium once again. A medalist in the 50m distance at every World Championship since 2007, including wins in 2009 and 2013, and also holding off Peaty at Glasgow 2014, van der Burgh is the only man to have beaten Peaty in the last three years. His 26.9s this year on the Mare Nostrum tour are the fastest in-season swims of his career, and if anyone can shape up to the presence of Peaty in a man-to-man battle, it's the 2012 Olympic champion.

Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA)

WR: 1500m Freestyle -- 14:31.02, Sun Yang (CHN), 2012
2017 Best: 14:37.08 (+6.06)



There is one thing left for Gregorio Paltrinieri to achieve in the 1500m freestyle -- the world record. 2016 Olympic gold? ​Check. 2015 LC world championship? ​Check. ​2014 SC world championship? ​Check. ​European champion (2012, 2014, 2016)? ​Check. Short course world record (2014)? ​Check.​

Having already swum 14:34 twice last year, and already posting a 14:37 early in 2017, there is no down time for the Olympic champion. Paltrinieri is dying for a match race with current world-record holder ​Sun Yang​ of China, but in 2015 Yang failed to show up for the final. In 2016, he missed it altogether. Can Paltrinieri be the first man under 14:30? We think so.

Joseph Schooling (SIN)

​WR: 100m Butterfly -- 49.82, Michael Phelps (USA), 2009
​2017 Best: 50.96 (+1.14)



The United States' ​​Michael Phelps​ and ​Michael ​(Milorad) ​Cavic​ of Serbia had a legendary battle of words -- and then followed it up in the pool -- at the 2009 World Championships in Rome. Long story short: Cavic was wearing Arena's seemingly unstoppable polyurethane X-glide. Phelps -- donning Speedo's allegedly lesser LZR Racer -- was unhappy with all of the records going down due to the suits, basically saying he didn't need one to swim fast. Cavic was talking a lot of trash -- even saying he would give Phelps the same suit so they could go head to head. Phelps denied. Phelps won the final, broke the world record, became the first man ever under 50 seconds. Cavic touched second in 49.95.​ End of story.

To this day, nobody else has dipped below the 50-second barrier. However, 2016 Olympic champ ​Joseph Schooling ​of Singapore has expressed clear intent that he is gunning for it. Schooling won in Rio with a 50.39 and less than 10 days ago went a 50.96 at the Sectional Championships in Austin, Texas. However, there is a big jump from 50.9 to 49.8 in that short of a timeframe.​

Schooling also won't go without any competition. Current world No. 1 ​Caeleb Dressel​ of the U.S. posted a 50.87 at nationals in June. Olympic medalists ​Chad le Clos ​of South Africa and ​Laszlo Cseh​ of Hungary will be hunting for the top spot on the podium as well.​

Regardless of a world record going down or not, this is one of the most highly anticipated races of the meet.
 

Men's 100m Backstroke

WR: 100m Backstroke -- 51.85, Ryan Murphy (USA), 2016
2017 Best: 51.86 (+0.01)



​China's ​Xu Jiayu ​was only 0.01 off the world record at Chinese Nationals in April. Off whose world record, you may ask? Olympic champion ​Ryan Murphy​, heir to the backstroke throne for the next generation. China's Xu has shaped up to be a consistent international performer, steadily improving each year. He earned gold at the 2014 Asian Games, fourth at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, and a silver medal behind Murphy at the Rio Olympics. Xu has again taken a step forward by becoming only the second man in a textile suit to break the 52 barrier.

Murphy is coming into Budapest with a sluggish season best of 53.02, being recently defeated by 2012 Olympic champion ​Matt Grevers​ at U.S. Nationals last month. He was also slightly off his best times earlier this year at the NCAA Championships. But Murphy has proven himself to be a big-time performer, and with his world record under threat look for both Murphy and Xu to bring their best to Budapest.

Men's 200m Breaststroke

WR: 200m Breaststroke -- 2:06.67, Ippei Watanabe (JPN), 2017
2017 No. 2: Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN) -- 2:07.18
2017 No. 3: Kevin Cordes (USA) -- 2:07.41
2017 No. 4: Anton Chupkov (RUS) -- 2:07.46
2017 No. 5: Erik Perrson (SWE) -- 2:07.85



This event has been looming to be crushed for a long time now, with as many as eight swimmers in the world being within one second of the world record for a number of years.

The 2015 World Championships in Kazan, Russia, two years ago proved to be somewhat of a surprise with Hungary's Daniel Gyurta being defeated for the first time since 2008 by Germany's Marco Koch and the USA's ​Kevin Cordes. Rio was another turning result, with defending Olympic champ Gyurta unable to get out of the heats and Japanese duo ​Ippei Watanabe​ and ​Yasuhiro Koseki​ almost breaking the world record in their respective semifinals. But in the end, it was lane eight outside smoke Dimitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan upsetting all picks to win the tense final -- surging to the lead in the final 50m and winning in a relatively tame time of 2:07.46.

The Japanese missed the medals altogether, swimming considerably slower in the final with the USA's Josh Prenot and Russia's Anton Chupkov picking up the silver and bronze, respectively. Prenot shockingly missed the cut for the U.S. team in a loaded field that saw a 2:07 and three 2:08s, but Chupkov has been on a tear this summer. He has already posted new personal bests in season on the Mare Nostrum tour in the 100m (59.39) and 200m (2:07.46) and looks to still have time to drop. But he will have to get past new world-record holder and pre-race favorite Watanabe to collect the gold.

What we know after watching the last few years is that anything can happen in a championship final of the men's 200m breaststroke.

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