Italian Sara Curtis broke the world record in the 50m backstroke at the European Swimming Championships in Paris.
Curtis, a University of Virginia rising sophomore, clocked 26.63 seconds in Wednesday’s semifinals, taking 23 hundredths off Australian Kaylee McKeown’s world record of 26.86 set in 2023.
The 50m backstroke makes its Olympic debut in 2028, along with the 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly. The 50m freestyle has been on the Olympic program since 1988.
Curtis made her Olympic debut in 2024, reaching the semifinals of the 50m free and placing eighth with the Italian women’s 4x100m free relay.
Curtis’ previous personal best in the 50m back was 27.07 seconds, ranking her fifth on the all-time performer list going into Wednesday.
Also at Europeans, Olympic champion Hubert Kos of Hungary swam the second-fastest men’s 200m backstroke in history in Tuesday’s semifinals — a 1:52.30, second only to American Aaron Peirsol’s world record of 1:51.92 from 2009.
The men’s 200m back is one of just three individual world records still standing from the super-suit era of 2008-09.
Romanian David Popovici swam the third-fastest men’s 100m free in history — a 46.56, just off China’s Pan Zhanle’s world record of 46.40 from the 2024 Olympics. Popovici also has the second-fastest time in history, a 46.51 from winning the 2025 World title.
Swede Sarah Sjostrom won the women’s 50m butterfly at Europeans, her 97th career medal among the Olympics, World Championships (long course and short course) and Europeans (long course and short course) and her first since becoming a mom last August.
