2026 U.S. Short Course World Championship Trials Records Roundup

2026 U.S. Short Course World Championship Trials

With the recently concluded U.S. Short Course World Championship Trials in the books, it’s time to take a look back at all of the records that were broken. Considering this edition of the championships was the first ever, and the U.S. rarely hosts SCM competitions, the numbers are quite large.

Some swimmers broke multiple records over the course of a day, so each record is highlighted below. For grouping, the swims are separated by the day on which they were contested, as well as the record type.

Day 1

None

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

By The Numbers

29

Over the four-day meet, a total of 29 records were set across the World, American and U.S. Open levels. With the overlapping American and U.S. Open marks removed, here is how the numbers break down:

• World Records: Six (four on the women’s side, two on the men’s side)
• American Records: Eight, excluding overlapping World Records (two on the women’s side, six on the men’s side)
• U.S. Open Records: 15, excluding overlapping World and American Records (two on the women’s side, 13 on the men’s side)

5

Katharine Berkoff, Van Mathias, Claire Curzan, Jack Alexy, and Kate Douglass were the five World Record breakers, with each swimmer claiming one except Douglass, who walked away with two.

12

12 swimmers set or tied an individual record over the first four days of the meet. Besides the World Record setters, Luca Urlando and Ilya Kharun added American and U.S. Open Records, while Liberty Clark set an American Record. Tyler Ray, Caeleb Dressel, Chris Guiliano, and Luke Hobson rounded out the group with U.S. Open Records.

9

Van Mathias set the most total records at 9, and did so across just four breaststroke swims: one World Record and four American and U.S. Open Records.

• Day 1 prelims, 50 breast: American and U.S. Open Record
• Day 1 final, 50 breast: American and U.S. Open Record
• Day 2 prelims, 100 breast (55.48): American and U.S. Open Record
• Day 2 final, 100 breast (55.14): World Record, which also counts as American and U.S. Open

2

Two of the four women’s World Records came in backstroke events, and all three women’s backstroke American Records went down as well. Two of the records broken were held by Regan Smith, Team USA’s go-to backstroker for nearly the past decade.

Katharine Berkoff set the scene by clipping two one-hundredths off her own mark in the 50 back to kick things off on night two. On night three, Claire Curzan became the first woman ever to break 54 seconds in the 100 back. She followed that by taking down the American Record in the 200 back on the final night, coming within striking distance of the Kaylee McKeown‘s 1:57.33 World Record.

Short course and long course backstroke are two completely different things, but with Isabelle Stadden’s monumental leap over the past 12 months, particularly in LCM, events that didn’t seem like they could get any more competitive continue to deepen.

4

With the World Cup circuit hosting two of its three legs in the U.S. last season, the U.S. Open Record book took a beating. Even so, those two meets and this past weekend’s Trials never offered a major opportunity to take down the relay records, four of which still stand from 2004: one from that year’s Short Course World Championships and three from the NCAA Championships, which were contested in SCM instead of SCY that Olympic year.