American Armstrong sets swimming world record in 50 back

Hunter Armstrong, the American swimmer, has achieved a new world record in the men’s 50-meter backstroke. During the International Team Trials at Greensboro, North Carolina, held on Thursday night, Armstrong clocked an impressive time of 23.71 seconds in this non-Olympic event.

This competition aims to select the U.S. team for the upcoming world championships in Budapest, Hungary, scheduled for this summer. The addition of this event to the calendar followed the postponement of the 2021 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, twice due to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. The rescheduled competition is now set to take place in 2023.

Armstrong, a 21-year-old student at Ohio State, had previously secured a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer as part of the 4×100 medley relay, contributing significantly with his backstroke leg. Despite this achievement, he expressed astonishment at his latest performance in the 50 back, surpassing the previous record of 23.80 set by Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov in 2021.

Notably, Armstrong had already established an American record in the morning preliminaries, and he managed to further improve upon it in the evening. Reflecting on his achievement, he commented, “It was a complete shock. My best time before this was a 25.50, and in prelims, I was able to throw down a 24.00, and that gave me hope. But you know Kolesnikov is one of the fastest backstrokers and freestylers in the world. To be up there with him is just incredible.”