Claire Weinstein Officially Ends the Era of America’s Weird “Suit Gap” Records.

15 years after the end of the infamous “super suit” era in swimming, the final chapters of one of the most intense record-breaking eras of the sport are just now being written.

That includes the conclusion of the so-called American “suit gap” records, which were records that were the fastest ever done by an American, but that were never recognized by USA Swimming as American Records because of a quirk in the rules.

With the 30 World Records set this week at the World Short Course Swimming Championships evoking memories of the 2009 World Championships when a record seemed to fall in almost every heat, it’s a fitting moment for this anomaly to finally recede into a historical footnote rather than a modern one that must be accounted for in every evaluation.

The Suit Gap

The infamous and now-banned neck-to-ankle polyurethane suits that led to over 200 World Records being broken in 2008 and 2009 were finally voted out of the sport in 2009. FINA, the world governing body, elected to eliminate the suits from competition beginning on January 1, 2010 – when most of the world considers the start of the ‘new season.’

USA Swimming, however, instead outlawed the suits on October 1, 2009 – coinciding with the start of its new season, driven mostly by the age group and scholastic calendars.

The problem with this, which may not have been the primary concern of the rule-makers, is that American swimmers were not limited to racing in USA Swimming meets, which meant that when they raced internationally, they would either be racing at a significant suit disadvantage, or they would be racing in suits no longer allowed by their home federation. For the most part, they chose to race in the suits, which resulted in some big swims that, in some cases, were marked as World Records, but not American Records, because USA Swimming wouldn’t acknowledge them as official swims.

The primary meet impacted was the 2009 Duel in the Pool, which for those who don’t remember was a prior series of meets that pitted USA Swimming in a dual meet against an international team (Australia from 2003-2007; a European all-star squad from 2009-2015). The FINA World Cup Series, which was held in October and November of that year, also would have been exposed to this pitfall. Generally, it would be short course meters swims impacted, and that’s part of why these records still stood a decade later when so many other super-suited records have fallen: Americans don’t swim short course meters that often, and when they do, they don’t often take it too seriously.

Many of these records for a period stood as World Records but not American Records, like Nick Thoman‘s 100 backstroke (48.94) and Rebecca Soni‘s 200 breaststroke.

2018 Until Now

When we examined these records in 2018, 11 of them still remained: five for men and six for women. Entering the World Short Course Championships over the last week, only one of those men’s records still stood and only two of the women’s records still stood after Kate Douglass blew away the World Record in the 200 breaststroke at the World Cup multiple times, simultaneously striking-down Lilly King‘s official record of 2:15.56 and Rebecca Soni‘s unofficial American best of 2:14.57.

The remaining men’s record for Budapest was the 100 free, where Nathan Adrian swam 45.08 on a 400 free relay leadoff at the 2009 Duel in the Pool. Caeleb Dressel tied that swim in his history-making 2020 ISL season, but it took Jack Alexy‘s 45.05 on the opening leg of the World Record setting men’s 400 free relay on the first day of SC Worlds to officially wipe the ambiguity from the books.

A pair of Sandpipers took care of the other two. First was 18-year-old Katie Grimes in the 400 IM, swimming 4:20.14 for silver on Saturday. That took out the official American Record of 4:24.15 done by Melanie Margalis during the 2019 ISL season and the American Best of 4:21.04 done by Julia Smit at the Duel in the Pool in 2009.

This was Grimes’ last meet before beginning competition at the University of Virginia in the spring.

The final blow to this bizarre book came on Sunday when 17-year-old Claire Weinstein took bronze in the women’s 200 free in 1:51.62 to earn her first major individual senior international medal. That swim was not only a World Junior Record, but it set an American Record in the event as well. Here, Mallory Comerford held the official mark of 1:51.81 from the 2018 Short Course World Championships, but Allison Schmitt swam 1:51.67 at the 2009 Duel in the Pool.

Combined with Luke Hobson breaking the last individual short course meters World Record standing from the supersuit era, the list of special super-suit acknowledgements that must be made is growing shorter-and-shorter, something that at a minimum will make our job easier at SwimSwam. Pending ratification, there are just eight (and sort of nine) records remaining from that era.

Now to deal with Ryan Lochte‘s U.S. Open (not) Record in the 200 IM from 2010 Pan Pacs…

Remaining Super-Suited World Records

The ninth is the French 200 SCM free relay time of 1:20.77 at the 2008 European Championships that was never ratified by FINA. The current World Record is a 1:21.80 by an American quartet at the 2018 World Championships.