Olympian Tom Shields flew to a new American and U.S. Open Record in the men’s 100-yard butterfly while swimming in finals of the men’s 2016 AT&T Winter National Championships.
Shields dashed to a time of 43.84 in the fly to become the first man to ever post a sub-44 second swim. The previous American and U.S. Open records were split between Austin Staab (44.18) and Joseph Schooling (44.01) respectively.
Comparative splits:
- Tom Shields (Dec 2016): 20.57/23.27 – 43.84
- Joseph Schooling (Mar 2016): 20.46/23.55 – 44.01
- Austin Staab (Mar 2009): 20.56/23.62 – 44.18
After the race Shields commented that he felt his chance at becoming the first swimmer under 44-seconds was dwindling as he watched NCAA stars Joseph Schooling, Jack Conger, and Caeleb Dressel edge closer to the existing records.
Watch the full race here:
After the race, Shields spoke with Swimming World’s David Rieder about his swim and how it felt to finally break the record that he had pursued for so long. He also previewed what might be to come at next week’s Short Course World Championships.
Awesome?? congrats Tom!! ⭐️
Go Tom!!!
Unreal! Congrats Tom.
Thats fast!
Holy cow! Awesome
Awesome!
Gary Dodd step up bud ?
Tim Shields your boy’s rockin!
Absolutely awesome. What a phenomenal swim.
So, I know I’m not fast but Matt Nahrstedt and Nick Zeckets you would be better contenders! ?
Yikes. That is FAST.
Dig it brother, “Rocket Man”…..I thought I was fast with a 50.07 back in 1972……
Super impressive. Well earned and deserved! Great job, Tom.
How widespread are SCY meets? Is it mostly just the US? Most of our pools are either SCM or LCM.
Mostly USA traditionally all NCAA pools are 25yards. All College, University and school historically have 25yrd pool. Other parts of the world is metric and most pools for competition are 25m or 50m internationally. Some pools in USA have movable bulkheads that can make 25yd, 25m or 50m pools. So yes 25yds racing is mostly an American thing and not international
In UK back in the 70’s most of the pools were 25yds, when I was racing there. Now mostly replaced by the 25m
Peter Scott are you kidding? We had a school meet in 1979 in a 33 1/3 yard pool, lol. Built in central London in the 1800’s. There were other pools with really strange measurements too. I think we won the London Schools relay championships in a 45 yard pool too.
However, our school had a 25m tank.
Thanks for the memories I hadn’t thought about this for a long time.
We had a 33&1/3 yard, a 25 yard, a 25 meter, 50 meter, and a 44 yard pool on our circuit. You never knew how your times were going to correlate. The 44 yard pool was supposed to be 50 yards but the city council thought they could save a buck and shortened the pool and building on the plans prior to construction
I swam in Scotland in those days. Yes there was a 33 and 1/3 pool in Dundee. You swam 3 lenths for a 100. Now in fact the trend is sometimes to build useless play pools that you can’t race or train in.
In the 70’s most of my training was in 20yard pool (approx)??.
70’s back in the day all indoor pool training. Now my training in 25 and 50m pools all outdoor??. Also open water training in the sea year round and no need for wet suit…it is a big difference????
Peter Scott this is happening in Canada. 24m pools so the city won’t have to host swim meets!
Peter Scott we had a 20 yard pool too. It had 2, 5 yard shallow ends and the deep end was in the middle?
Yes and kidney shaped pools as well.??
We used to use the comparison tables that approximately converted times from different pool lengths. Unfortunately they don’t cater for 24m pools, kidney shapes, and wave pools with artificial beaches etc????
What a picture of power on the go. In my day they were still trying to break a minute
This is really awesome! Congrats Tom! ?
I’m just thinking if it would make the difference in the 50m long pool…
Roll on you Bears!
Wow !
Beast mode???
Wow! Tom! Outstanding!??
Awesome!!
Wow… that is sick! Way to go Tom!!
Congrats
WOW!
Stupid fast
Michael Zagorov
Parker!
Annette Wiles,
Fernando Medina
WOWZY!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6se4_rHyBc
Sienna Prowse Mustafa Ali Orcun ummmmm wtf?
oh nevermind its 9m difference in america so doesnt count
Sammy Gregory yeah i was about to say doesn’t count
theyre so dumb tho like wtf??? just swim in a 50m pool cause thats what it is at the olympics???
yeh aha
im pre sure its feet
they swim in yards
oh yeah thats it
if that isnt the dumbest thing idk what is
Wow!! May not last log with Schooling and Conger waiting in the wings, but FIRST is FIRST…congrats, Tom Shields!! Amazing!!
Wow
Wow! So incredibly freaking fast!
Wow. Super impressed.
LOL Anthony C-Castonguay comment ça va ton fly toi ?
Pas de stress 44 secondes… sur 25m peut-être
Jake Fisher Colin MacQuarrie Erik Hamsteak McCague Matt Koken
I would have been first if I hadn’t partied so much
Wasted talent
Lol “wasted” talent, get it
I wouldn’t mind that time doing freestyle especially all the disappointment over the last 4 years. I hate all of you
Rik Doornenbal
Cristian Corbett
Chris Hernandez
Arin Wiegand
George Dorrington
V fast
Jorge Da Costa Pinto Neves Filho
My excitement will be tempered until I see that he doesn’t have platinum blond-dyed hair.
Daaang! That’s phenomenal
So fired up! This is awesome!
Yea, HB guy.
Nabil Fadhil
Devynn Bessette
That’s fast
Hayley O’Brien i can do that
Ok. Do it
W.O.W.!