History Lesson - Women's 200 Backstroke WR Progression - From Kristina Egerszegi to Regan Smith

14-year-old Kristina Egerszegi after winning gold in the 200 backstroke at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Most of you wouldn't stop to think twice if I mentioned the name "Kristina Egerszegi" - you probably do not even know who she is. And that is sad, because she's one of the greatest Olympic champions and quite possibly the greatest female swimmer of all-time - and no one discusses her as such. Let me qualify by saying I am not here to make her case as the G.O.A.T. - that may end up as an article for a different day. I am here to dive into the progression of the world record in the women's Long Course Meter 200 backstroke, and for that we must start with Miss Egerszegi, the greatest backstroker of all-time.

Who is Kristina Egerszegi? She came onto the world scene at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, as a 5'2, 95 lb 14-year-old, unknown to the rest of the world but affectionately referred to by her native Hungarians as "Little Mouse". She made her mark in a big way, finishing in second in the 100 backstroke, then winning the 200 backstroke in shocking fashion by breaking the Olympic Record and swimming right by Cornelia Sirch from East Germany, who hadn't lost the race internationally since 1982. Adding to the 'epicness' of the feat was that Kristina did not wear a cap, did no flip turns (no one did), and from the looks it, wasn't even shaved! And that was just the start of her amazing international career.

In 1991, at 17 years young, Egerszegi broke the world record in both the 100 and 200 meter backstroke events. By 1992, Egerszegi was the best swimmer in the world. At the Barcelona Olympics, she won gold medals in the 100 and 200 backstokes, as well as the 400 Individual Medley. While this might seem to pale in comparison to what Michael Phelps did, remember that she did not have the US relays to carry her to a potential three additional gold medals; nor was she was in an era where versatility was highly regarded or respected - competing in three or more individuals was rare and often frowned upon by the top athletes and coaches. Even still, her three gold medals were the most by any swimmer in the meet; and the 1 back, 2 back, 4 IM triple was by far the most impressive range displayed by anyone at the meet.

In 1996, Egerszegi, at the ripe "old" age of 22, won her third consecutive gold medal in the 200 backstroke with a Secretariat-like margin of victory of over 7 meters. And although she chose not to swim the 100 backstroke as a protest against the Chinese (whom she and most of the rest of the world suspected were doping), her 100 backstroke time as the lead off of Hungary's 4x100 medley relay would have won the individual gold medal.

I could go on about Egerszegi (and I might in another post), but let's get into the actual races! One of my favorite swimming races of all-time is Egerszegi's 200 meter backstroke from the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when, at 14-years, 41 days old, she won her first of three consecutive gold medals in the event. What makes the video special to me is the enthusiasm of the Hungarian announcer when he realizes Egerszegi is going to run away with the race - even though I can't understand a word he says, his genuine passion and excitement communicates everything we need to know about that special moment in time, when a true star was born.

To follow up this performance, Egerszegi went on to handily break the world record in the 200 meter backstroke at the 1991 European Championships, lowering the previous mark of 2:08.60 (set by the US's Betsy Mitchell in 1986) to 2:06.62, a record that would go on to stand for 17 years. To put in perspecitve, the time would have won her Olympic Gold in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, every other Olympic games prior; and would have taken Bronze in the most recent Olympic games in 2016. Considering the advancements in both suit and competition pool technology, that same 2:06.6 that was done in 1991 would have been significantly faster if swum in the same conditions and with the same technology we've had since 2008. We could be talking about a record that is still standing today.

Needless to say, we must watch the '91 world record race - this is what breaking a world record that is going to end up lasting for 17 years looks like - and yes, that actually happened - Egerszegi was doing Katie Ledecky things before Katie was even born, except she only needed a quarter of the distance to do it!

Although I won't embed the video clips here, I think it's worth noting her "Ledeckian" margin of victory in the 200 backstroke at both the '92 and '96 Olympics (perhaps we should call Ledecky's performances "Egerszegian", and not the other way around?)

I can understand why she chose to hang up her suit after this - she's past the flags, everyone else has at least 12.5 meters to go.

Egerszegi retired after the 1996 Olympics, and from 1997-2007, no one touched her world record. It took until 2008, when another all-time great, Kirsty Coventry, finally surpassed Egerszegi's World Record at the 2008 Missouri Grand-Prix, barely sneaking under with a 2:06.39. This was a legendary swim in and of itself, and unless you were there, you will probably never find video of it (2008 was just before everything in the world started to end up on camera, and at a meet like this, no one was filming for anything other than personal pleasure, meaning no mass-productions were made). I know of one video in the entire world of this race that exists, and I can promise you the person who filmed it will never put it on YouTube.

Coventry followed up that performance with another world record and Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympics (2:05.24), then re-broke the record again at the 2009 World Championships, taking it down to 2:04.81. With all the respect in the World to Coventry, who was a true all-timer, she had much more modern walls, a cap; AND a SUIT THAT IS NOW OUTLAWED.

Fast forward to 2012, when we see another teenage backstroker, 17-year old Missy Franklin, post one of the more epic Olympic swimming performances of all-time. While there was enough difference between Missy and Kristina - Franklin's 6'2 frame in no way resembled Egerszegi's 1988 5'2 frame - Missy was a teenager making her debut on the international scene, just like Kristina 24 years earlier. And for the first time since the Hungarian did it in 1991, we had a truly dominant world-record performance in the race.

From 2012-2019, no one really came close to Missy's time. The winning time at the 2016 Ollympics was Maya Dirado's 2:05.99, and with massive respect to Maya, she was only slightly faster than Egerszegi's 1991 World Record (I'll spare you the technology comparisons this time), and almost two seconds behind Franklin's winning time from 2012.

While we thought we might see another run similar to Egerszegi's, in this particular case, history has seemed to continue to repeat itself. At the 2019 World Championships, another 17-year-old teenage backstroker broke the world record. U.S. backstroker Regan Smith turned in a dominating 2:03.35, lowering Franklin's 7-year-old World record by nearly a second, and posting a time three-plus seconds faster than Egerszegi's, assigning real significance to the swim.

And boom - that's a nice cherry on top of our history lesson, which I hope has given us all some appreciation for just how remarkable our current world record is!