Jack Alexy swam 44.64 in the men's 100m freestyle final at the U.S. Short Course World Championship Trials, setting a world record. The race was held on the Friday night of the meet, the third of four nights, at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Illinois.
Out fast, home clear by half a second
Alexy went out in 21.25 at the turn and came home in 23.39. At the halfway mark he was already more than a tenth ahead of the old world-record pace.
He won the final by more than half a second, touching ahead of Chris Guiliano in 45.22. Caeleb Dressel took third in 45.65, with Matt King fourth in 46.03.
Earlier that day, in the prelims, Guiliano had set a U.S. Open mark of 45.17 before Alexy answered with 45.09, going out in 21.59 and home in 23.50. The final was a qualifying swim, with Alexy aiming to secure the 50 and 100 freestyle individually.
After the race, Dressel swam over and told Alexy to climb onto the lane line, something he had rarely done. Alexy said he had looked up to Dressel since his days at the Bolles swim camp. "I tried to ride the adrenaline of the crowd," he said after the final.
A record that had stood since 2021
The previous mark of 44.84 was shared by Kyle Chalmers, who set it at the World Cup in Kazan in 2021, and Egor Kornev, who equalled it at the World Cup stop in Baku about four weeks earlier. Alexy took 0.20 off it, going faster than Chalmers over both lengths.
The swim also lowered his own American record of 45.05, set in 2024 leading off the U.S. at the short-course World Championships in Budapest. Alexy is the reigning short-course world champion in the event and won the 100m freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships earlier in the summer. He now holds three world records, counting two relay marks.
The short-course World Championships are held in Beijing at the start of December, and he said he is hoping to go even faster there.
