Editorial content for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships is sponsored by FINIS, a longtime partner of Swimming World and leading innovator of suits, goggles and equipment. Thomas Heilman Crushes National Age Group Record in Fourth-Place 200 Fly Finish at Worlds Already considered one of the most talented teenage swimmers in the country after a deluge of National Age Group records, Thomas Heilman shocked many when he annihilated his personal-best times in the butterfly races at U.S. Nationals to earn a spot on the World Championships team with a pair of second-place finishes. Now, the 16-year-old Heilman has brought those talents to the world stage in impressive fashion. And in his senior-level international debut, Heilman snuck into the men’s 200 fly final in 1:54.57, just three hundredths shy of his personal best. After claiming lane one, swimming right next to short course world-record holder Tomoru Honda, Heilman put a scare into the favorites in the big heat. Fifth at the final turn, Heilman accelerated down the stretch and finished with a 29.70 split, third-best in the field, and he ended up only 0.16 away from a podium finish. “I felt like that was one of my strengths, being able to close the last 50, 100 meters,” Heilman said. “I was just trying to get out and utilize my strength at the end and just came up a little short of getting a medal.” The charging Heilman touched in 1:53.82, knocking a further seven tenths off his previous National Age Group record from Nationals. In that runnerup effort in Indianapolis, Heilman broke a 22-year-old mark owned by Michael Phelps, a time of 1:54.58 that Phelps set while winning his first world title in 2001, a meet also held in Fukuoka. Now, Heilman sits three-quarters of a second quicker than Phelps did in the first of his 26 World Championships gold medals, and he actually surpassed the 17-18 NAG record of 1:53.84 held by Luca Urlando. The teenager is now the 16th-fastest swimmer in history in the event and fourth-fastest American ever behind Phelps, Tyler Clary and Carson Foster. Heilman finished only three hundredths off the world junior record of 1:53.79 set by Kristof Milak in 2017. Two years after that, Milak would go on to knock Phelps out of the world-record books in the 200 fly at the World Championships. No one is expecting Heilman to follow a career trajectory like that, but given his recent improvement, including a drop of almost three seconds in the 200 fly within the last month, Heilman should certainly be contending for medals in this event for years to come. Heilman tied for fourth in the final, with Canada’s Ilya Kharun coming home even quicker in 29.15 recording the exact same time. France’s Leon Marchand won his second gold medal of the meet in 1:52.43, with Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski taking silver and Honda ending up with bronze.
