Noe Ponti Has Conquered Short Course 50 Fly, Now Set to Aim Bigger
Long before Noe Ponti became a world-record holder, he was the unknown bronze medalist in an Olympic final defined by a high-profile showdown between Caeleb Dressel and Kristof Milak, which resulted in a world record for Dressel and Milak becoming the second-fastest swimmer ever. Ponti had not even competed at the World Championships two years earlier, and a huge personal best at the Tokyo Games allowed him a podium moment along with two of history’s great swimmers.
Three years later, Ponti came into the Paris Games as a decorated international performer, a European champion and multi-time medalist at the Short Course World Championships, and his best time of 50.16 had made him the second-fastest performer of the year and seventh-fastest ever. Moreover, he had moved himself into the outer fringes of medal contention in the 200 fly.
However, Ponti would leave Paris without a medal but largely thanks to the exceptional results of other swimmers, not his own poor swims. Ponti tied his best time in the 200 fly as he clocked 1:54.14, finishing fifth in a race where it took sub-1:53 to reach the podium. Three days later, Ponti could not stick with speedier swimmers on the front end of the race, and although he closed well, he ended up fifth in 50.55, a tenth behind bronze medalist Ilya Kharun.
Noe Ponti — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Even without that hardware, though, this year has been the most successful of Ponti’s life. That’s because of his collection of best times and Olympic-final appearances prior to a breakout run on the World Cup circuit in Asia. In each of the three stops, Ponti won the 100 fly and 50 fly, with each win by comfortable margins. His Shanghai time 100-meter time of 48.40 made him the third-fastest swimmer ever, trailing only Dressel and Chad le Clos. As for the 50 fly, he turned that event into his own personal domain.
In his first World Cup heat swim, Ponti took down the world record in the event with a time of 21.67, wiping eight hundredths off the mark shared for years by Szebasztian Szabo and Nicholas Santos. Two weeks later, he annihilated his own record in Singapore, clocking 21.50 to move a quarter-second ahead of what the mark had been at the start of the circuit, more than a 1% improvement. Ponti now five of the top eight performances in history, all recorded at World Cup meets.
In Singapore, the Netherlands’ Nyls Korstanje swam a time of 21.74 to move ahead of Szabo and Santos for No. 2 all-time in the event, but he is still more than two tenths back, an enormous margin in such a short event.
Now, Ponti will try to back up his results with a collection of global medals, perhaps even reaching that elusive gold-medal level. Given his early success this season in short course meters, Ponti will be favored to win gold in the 50 and 100 fly at the upcoming Short Course World Championships, although we will need to see which of his global-level rivals choose to attend that meet in Budapest.
And if Ponti backs up his success with gold medals next month, he will enter long course season with some serious momentum, with a real chance at taking command in the long course 50-meter event just as he has in short course. As for the all-important two-lap Olympic race, Ponti started the year on the verge of cracking the 50-second barrier, which only five men have ever reached. The pieces are in place for Ponti, now 23, to turn this World Cup success into a global assault on men’s butterfly.