December 18th, 2009, Cesar Cielo from Brazil broke the world record for the 50 long course meter freestyle, at a time of 20.91 seconds. He was the first person in the world to not only break the 21 second limit, he broke the 21.25 second limit, as well as 21.25 and 21.00 for short course meters, which is faster due to laps being 25 meters instead of 50 meters. Shortly after, Fred Bousquet had a time of 20.94 seconds but did not break the world record. This point in time was called the super suit era, in which the swimsuits athletes wore had such an efficient design it was banned after the World Championships in 2009.
Because of this suit, from 2008-2009, over 130 world records across all distances/strokes. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 25-30 world records were broken in the span of one week. And during the 2009 Rome World Championships, 43 world records were broken. This time period is what let to do <21 second race, and <47 second 100 LCM freestyle (also set by Cesar Cielo).
However, recently the Enhanced Games has become a factor in the world record scene of swimming. In which Kristian Gkolomeev broke Cesar Cielo’s 16-year-old record, on February 25th, 2026. With a time of 20.89 seconds. The Enhanced Games are an Olympics spinoff in which athletes are encouraged to take as many PEDs and steroids as possible to break limits in primarily the 50 and 100 Freestyle. And because the Enhanced Games are its own organization separate from FINA (which has a monopoly over the sport of swimming), super suits are legal in these competitions.
However, in Shenzhen, China, at the 2026 China Open, an athlete named Cameron McEvoy who had been training specifically to break this record of 20.89, with the method most are attributing to weighted pullups. Without a super suit and passing as negative for drug tests in a FINA regulated competition, broke the newly set record by a single hundredth of a second, 20.88. Not even Caeleb Dressel was able to swim under 21 seconds, and Cameron who is in his 30s broke this record, being the first ever to go under 21 seconds without a super suit. Considering the rest of the swimmers in this race were at least 2 meters behind him, it’s safe to say this supersuit-less record will be standing for quite some time.
Cameron McEvoy BREAKS 50m Freestyle World Record | 20.88
