Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships

The swimming events of the 2001 World Aquatics Championships were held in a temporary pool at Marine Messe in Fukuoka, Japan in July 2001. This edition of the championships featured 20 events for both men and women, including the introduction of a 50 m event in all strokes and equality in the distance freestyle events, with both men and women swimming both 800 and 1500 m.

The swimming event resulted in eight world records and Australia topping the medal tally with 13 golds, although the USA claimed 26 total medals to 19 for Australia. The men's FINA Trophy (top individual performers) was awarded to Australia's Ian Thorpe for his three individual wins and three world records. Inge de Bruijn (the Netherlands) won the women's FINA Trophy for three individual wins. Australia swept the men's relays and won two of three of the women's relays, although were subsequently disqualified in the women's 4 × 200 m freestyle for a post-race infraction – jumping into the pool before all teams had finished.^[1]

The Seiko timing system used for the swimming events at the championships experienced some faults with the touch pads throughout the eight days of competition causing controversy amongst teams and media.^[1]

Medal table

* Host nation (Japan)


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia (AUS)	13	3	3	19
2	United States (USA)	9	9	8	26
3	Germany (GER)	3	6	6	15
4	Netherlands (NED)	3	4	0	7
5	Ukraine (UKR)	3	1	0	4
6	China (CHN)	2	2	3	7
7	Italy (ITA)	2	2	2	6
8	Sweden (SWE)	1	3	2	6
9	Great Britain (GBR)	1	2	4	7
10	Russia (RUS)	1	2	3	6
11	Romania (ROM)	1	1	2	4
12	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	1	2
13	Austria (AUT)	0	2	0	2
14	Iceland (ISL)	0	1	1	2
15	Costa Rica (CRC)	0	1	0	1
	Poland (POL)	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
18	Japan (JPN)*	0	0	4	4
19	South Africa (RSA)	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		40	41	40	121

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Anthony Ervin (USA)	22.09	Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED)	22.16	Roland Schoeman (RSA) Tomohiro Yamanoi (JPN)	22.18
100 m freestyle	Anthony Ervin (USA)	48.33 CR, AM	Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED)	48.43	Lars Frölander (SWE)	48.79
200 m freestyle	Ian Thorpe (AUS)	1:44.06 WR	Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED)	1:45.81	Klete Keller (USA)	1:47.10
400 m freestyle	Ian Thorpe (AUS)	3:40.17 WR	Grant Hackett (AUS)	3:42.51	Emiliano Brembilla (ITA)	3:45.11
800 m freestyle	Ian Thorpe (AUS)	7:39.16 WR	Grant Hackett (AUS)	7:40.34	Graeme Smith (GBR)	7:51.12
1500 m freestyle	Grant Hackett (AUS)	14:34.56 WR	Graeme Smith (GBR)	14:58.94 NR	Alexei Filipets (RUS)	15:01.43

50 m backstroke	Randall Bal (USA)	25.34	Thomas Rupprath (GER)	25.44	Matt Welsh (AUS)	25.49
100 m backstroke	Matt Welsh (AUS)	54.31 CR	Örn Arnarson (ISL)	54.75	Steffen Driesen (GER)	54.91
200 m backstroke	Aaron Peirsol (USA)	1:57.13 CR	Markus Rogan (AUT)	1:58.07	Örn Arnarson (ISL)	1:58.37

50 m breaststroke	Oleg Lisogor (UKR)	27.52 CR	Roman Sloudnov (RUS)	27.60	Domenico Fioravanti (ITA)	27.72
100 m breaststroke	Roman Sloudnov (RUS)	1:00.16	Domenico Fioravanti (ITA)	1:00.47	Ed Moses (USA)	1:00.61
200 m breaststroke	Brendan Hansen (USA)	2:10.69 CR	Maxim Podoprigora (AUT)	2:11.09	Kosuke Kitajima (JPN)	2:11.21 AS

50 m butterfly	Geoff Huegill (AUS)	23.50	Lars Frölander (SWE)	23.57	Mark Foster (GBR)	23.62
100 m butterfly	Lars Frölander (SWE)	52.10 CR	Ian Crocker (USA)	52.25 AM	Geoff Huegill (AUS)	52.36
200 m butterfly	Michael Phelps (USA)	1:54.58 WR	Tom Malchow (USA)	1:55.28	Anatoly Polyakov (RUS)	1:55.68

200 m I.M.	Massimiliano Rosolino (ITA)	1:59.71	Tom Wilkens (USA)	2:00.73	Justin Norris (AUS)	2:00.91
400 m I.M.	Alessio Boggiatto (ITA)	4:13.15	Erik Vendt (USA)	4:15.36	Tom Wilkens (USA)	4:15.94

4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay	Australia (AUS) Michael Klim (49.12) Ashley Callus (48.31) Todd Pearson (48.80) Ian Thorpe (47.87)	3:14.10 CR	Netherlands (NED) Mark Veens (49.80) Johan Kenkhuis (48.56) Klaas-Erik Zwering (49.18) Pieter van den Hoogenband (47.02)	3:14.56 ER	Germany (GER) Stefan Herbst (50.54) Torsten Spanneberg (48.86) Lars Conrad (49.08) Sven Lodziewski (49.04)	3:17.52
4 × 200 m Freestyle Relay	Australia (AUS) Grant Hackett (1:46.11) Michael Klim (1:46.49) Bill Kirby (1:47.92) Ian Thorpe (1:44.14)	7:04.66 WR	Italy (ITA) Emiliano Brembilla (1:48.19) Matteo Pelliciari (1:48.02) Andrea Beccari (1:47.97) Massimiliano Rosolino (1:46.68)	7:10.86 ER	United States (USA) Scott Goldblatt (1:49.00) Nate Dusing (1:48.78) Chad Carvin (1:48.41) Klete Keller (1:47.50)	7:13.69
4 × 100 m medley relay	Australia (AUS) Matt Welsh (55.19) Regan Harrison (1:00.80) Geoff Huegill (51.39) Ian Thorpe (47.97)	3:35.35 CR	Germany (GER) Steffen Driesen (55.22) Jens Kruppa (1:01.06) Thomas Rupprath (51.96) Torsten Spanneberg (48.10)	3:36.34	Russia (RUS) Vladislav Aminov (55.63) Dmitry Komornikov (1:00.90) Vladislav Kulikov (52.01) Dmitry Chernyshov (49.23)	3:37.77

Legend: WR – World record; CR – Championship record

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 freestyle	Inge de Bruijn (NED)	24.47	Therese Alshammar (SWE)	24.88	Sandra Völker (GER)	24.96
100 freestyle	Inge de Bruijn (NED)	54.18	Katrin Meissner (GER)	55.07	Sandra Völker (GER)	55.11
200 freestyle	Giaan Rooney (AUS)	1:58.57	Yang Yu (CHN)	1:58.78	Camelia Potec (ROM)	1:58.85
400 freestyle	Yana Klochkova (UKR)	4:07.30	Claudia Poll (CRC)	4:09.15	Hannah Stockbauer (GER)	4:09.36
800 freestyle	Hannah Stockbauer (GER)	8:24.66	Diana Munz (USA)	8:28.84	Kaitlin Sandeno (USA)	8:31.45
1500 freestyle	Hannah Stockbauer (GER)	16:01.02 CR	Flavia Rigamonti (SUI)	16:05.99	Diana Munz (USA)	16:07.05

50 backstroke	Haley Cope (USA)	28.51	Antje Buschschulte (GER)	28.53	Natalie Coughlin (USA)	28.54
100 backstroke	Natalie Coughlin (USA)	1:00.37	Diana Mocanu (ROM)	1:00.68	Antje Buschschulte (GER)	1:01.42
200 backstroke	Diana Mocanu (ROM)	2:09.94	Stanislava Komarova (RUS)	2:10.43	Joanna Fargus (GBR)	2:11.05

50 breaststroke	Luo Xuejuan (CHN)	30.84 CR, AS	Kristy Kowal (USA)	31.37	Zoë Baker (GBR)	31.40
100 breaststroke	Luo Xuejuan (CHN)	1:07.18 CR	Leisel Jones (AUS)	1:07.96	Ágnes Kovács (HUN)	1:08.50
200 breaststroke	Ágnes Kovács (HUN)	2:24.90 CR	Qi Hui (CHN)	2:25.09	Luo Xuejuan (CHN)	2:25.29

50 butterfly	Inge de Bruijn (NED)	25.90 CR	Therese Alshammar (SWE)	26.18	Anna-Karin Kammerling (SWE)	26.45
100 butterfly	Petria Thomas (AUS)	58.27 CR	Otylia Jędrzejczak (POL)	58.72	Junko Onishi (JPN)	58.88
200 butterfly	Petria Thomas (AUS)	2:06.73 CR	Annika Mehlhorn (GER)	2:06.97	Kaitlin Sandeno (USA)	2:08.52

200 I.M.	Maggie Bowen (USA)	2:11.93	Yana Klochkova (UKR)	2:12.30	Qi Hui (CHN)	2:12.46
400 I.M.	Yana Klochkova (UKR)	4:36.98	Maggie Bowen (USA)	4:39.06	Beatrice Câșlaru (ROM)	4:39.33

4 × 100 free relay	Germany (GER) Petra Dallmann (55.33) Antje Buschschulte (55.13) Katrin Meissner (54.07) Sandra Völker (55.05)	3:39.58	United States (USA) Colleen Lanne (56.15) Erin Phenix (54.68) Maritza Correia (54.94) Courtney Shealy (55.03) Great Britain (GBR) Alison Sheppard (56.15) Melanie Marshall (55.22) Rosalind Brett (54.76) Karen Pickering (54.67)	3:40.80	not awarded
4 × 200 m freestyle relay^[1]	Great Britain (GBR) Nicola Jackson (2:00.05) Janine Belton (2:00.64) Karen Legg (1:58.95) Karen Pickering (1:59.05)	7:58.69 NR	Germany (GER) Silvia Szalai (2:00.39) Sara Harstick (1:59.48) Hannah Stockbauer (1:59.06) Meike Freitag (2:02.42)	8:01.35	Japan (JPN) Maki Mita (2:00.38) Tomoko Hagiwara (1:59.25) Tomoko Nagai (2:00.98) Eri Yamanoi (2:02.36)	8:02.97 NR
4 × 100 m medley relay	Australia (AUS) Dyana Calub (1:02.08) Leisel Jones (1:07.68) Petria Thomas (57.65) Sarah Ryan (54.09)	4:01.50 CR, OC	United States (USA) Natalie Coughlin (1:00.18) Megan Quann (1:07.67) Mary DeScenza (59.59) Erin Phenix (54.37)	4:01.81	China (CHN) Zhan Shu (1:01.97) Luo Xuejuan (1:06.47) Ruan Yi (59.74) Xu Yanwei (54.35)	4:02.53

Legend: WR – World record; CR – Championship record

Records

The following world and championship records were set during the competition.

World records

Date	Round	Event	Time	Name	Nation
July 22	Final	Men's 400 metre freestyle	3:40.17	Ian Thorpe	Australia
July 23	Semifinal 2	Men's 100 metre breaststroke	59.94	Roman Sludnov	Russia
July 24	Final	Men's 800 metre freestyle	7:39.16	Ian Thorpe	Australia
July 24	Final	Men's 200 metre butterfly	1:54.58	Michael Phelps	United States
July 25	Final	Men's 200 metre freestyle	1:44.06	Ian Thorpe	Australia
July 27	Semifinal 2	Men's 50 metre butterfly	23.44	Geoff Huegill	Australia
July 27	Final	Men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay	7:04.66	Grant Hackett (1:46.11) Michael Klim (1:46.49) Bill Kirby (1:47.92) Ian Thorpe (1:44.14)	Australia
July 29	Final	Men's 1500 metre freestyle	14:34.56	Grant Hackett	Australia

Championship records

Date	Round	Event	Established for	Time	Name	Nation
July 22	Semifinal 2	Men's 50 metre freestyle	(same)	22.05	Anthony Ervin	United States
July 22	Semifinal 1	Women's 100 metre breaststroke	(same)	1:07.48	Luo Xuejuan	China
July 22	Final	Men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay	(same)	3:14.10	Michael Klim (49.12) Ashley Callus (48.31) Todd Pearson (48.80) Ian Thorpe (47.87)	Australia
July 23	Heat 7	Men's 100 metre breaststroke	(same)	1:00.95	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan
July 23	Heat 8	Men's 100 metre breaststroke	(same)	1:00.40	Roman Sludnov	Japan
July 23	Heat 4	Women's 50 metre backstroke	(same)	28.60	Haley Cope	United States
July 23	Heat 4	Men's 800 metre freestyle	(same)	7:52.74	Ian Thorpe	Australia
July 23	Final	Women's 200 metre butterfly	(same)	2:06.73	Petria Thomas	Australia
July 23	Final	Men's 100 metre backstroke	(same)	54.31	Matt Welsh	Australia
July 23	Final	Women's 100 metre breaststroke	(same)	1:07.18	Luo Xuejuan	China
July 23	Semifinal 2	Men's 200 metre butterfly	(same)	1:55.03	Franck Esposito	France
July 23	Semifinal 2	Men's 200 metre butterfly	(same)	1:55.03	Tom Malchow	United States
July 23	Semifinal 1	Women's 50 metre backstroke	(same)	28.49	Natalie Coughlin	United States
July 24	Heat 8	Men's 50 metre backstroke	(same)	25.43	Randall Bal	United States
July 24	Semifinal 2	Men's 50 metre backstroke	(same)	25.31	Thomas Rupprath	Germany
July 24	Heat 6	Men's 200 metre freestyle	(same)	1:47.18	Pieter van den Hoogenband	Netherlands
July 24	Semifinal 1	Women's 200 metre breaststroke	(same)	2:25.00	Beatrice Câșlaru	Romania
July 24	Semifinal 2	Men's 200 metre freestyle	(same)	1:45.80	Pieter van den Hoogenband	Netherlands
July 25	Heat 5	Women's 50 metre butterfly	(same)	26.52	Natalie Coughlin	United States
July 25	Semifinal 2	Men's 100 metre butterfly	(same)	52.17	Lars Frölander	Sweden
July 25	Semifinal 1	Women's 50 metre butterfly	(same)	26.10	Inge de Bruijn	Netherlands
July 25	Final	Women's 200 metre breaststroke	(same)	2:24.90	Ágnes Kovács	Hungary
July 26	Heat 5	Women's 50 metre breaststroke	(same)	31.23	Zoë Baker	United Kingdom
July 26	Final	Women's 50 metre butterfly	(same)	25.90	Inge de Bruijn	Netherlands
July 26	Final	Men's 100 metre butterfly	(same)	52.10	Lars Frölander	Sweden
July 26	Semifinal 1	Women's 50 metre breaststroke	(same)	31.10	Luo Xuejuan	China
July 26	Final	Men's 200 metre breaststroke	(same)	2:10.69	Brendan Hansen	United States
July 26	Semifinal 2	Men's 100 metre freestyle	(same)	48.57	Pieter van den Hoogenband	Netherlands
July 27	Heat 10	Men's 50 metre butterfly	(same)	23.71	Geoff Huegill	Australia
July 27	Heat 4	Women's 1500 metre freestyle	(same)	16:14.51	Hannah Stockbauer	Germany
July 27	Final	Men's 100 metre freestyle	(same)	48.33	Anthony Ervin	United States
July 27	Final	Men's 200 metre backstroke	(same)	1:57.13	Aaron Peirsol	United States
July 27	Final	Women's 50 metre breaststroke	(same)	30.84	Luo Xuejuan	China
July 28	Heat 7	Men's 50 metre breaststroke	(same)	27.71	James Gibson	United Kingdom
July 28	Heat 3	Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay	(same)	3:37.56	Aaron Peirsol (55.36) Brendan Hansen (1:00.32) Daniel Jones (52.93) Scott Tucker (48.95)	United States
July 28	Semifinal 2	Women's 50 metre freestyle	(same)	24.45	Inge de Bruijn	Netherlands
July 28	Semifinal 2	Men's 50 metre breaststroke	(same)	27.59	Mark Warnecke	Germany
July 28	Final	Women's 1500 metre freestyle	(same)	16:01.02	Hannah Stockbauer	Germany
July 28	Final	Women's 100 metre butterfly	(same)	58.27	Petria Thomas	Australia
July 28	Final	Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay	(same)	3:35.35	Matt Welsh (55.19) Regan Harrison (1:00.80) Geoff Huegill (51.39) Ian Thorpe (47.97)	Australia
July 29	Final	Men's 50 metre breaststroke	(same)	27.52	Oleh Lisohor	Ukraine
July 29	Final	Women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay	(same)	4:01.50	Dyana Calub (1:02.08) Leisel Jones (1:07.68) Petria Thomas (57.65) Sarah Ryan (54.09)	Australia

References

1 2 3 In the Women's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, the Australian team finished first but was disqualified for jumping into the pool in celebration before all teams finished the race. The US team finished second, but was disqualified for improper changeover. This was later blamed on the faulty touchpad. In accordance with the decision of the FINA Bureau (2001, Bangkok): "To avoid any reasonable doubt regarding the result of the Women's relay 4 × 200 m Freestyle Final of the 9th FINA World Championships in Fukuoka but without unfairly changing the official results of the race, the Bureau decided to grant a second set of gold medals to the USA team." The members of the USA team were: Natalie Coughlin, Diana Munz, Cristina Teuscher, Julie Hardt (7:58.13).
Jean-Louis Meuret (2007), HistoFINA Volume IV – Tome IV. MEDALLISTS AND STATISTICS. Special FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (50 m.) Before Rome 2009.
SWIMMING; Thorpe Wins; U.S. Relay Is Disqualified. New York Times (July 26, 2001)

2001 World Aquatics Championships Official Website

[r1-1] 1 2 3 In the Women's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, the Australian team finished first but was disqualified for jumping into the pool in celebration before all teams finished the race. The US team finished second, but was disqualified for improper changeover. This was later blamed on the faulty touchpad. In accordance with the decision of the FINA Bureau (2001, Bangkok): "To avoid any reasonable doubt regarding the result of the Women's relay 4 × 200 m Freestyle Final of the 9th FINA World Championships in Fukuoka but without unfairly changing the official results of the race, the Bureau decided to grant a second set of gold medals to the USA team." The members of the USA team were: Natalie Coughlin, Diana Munz, Cristina Teuscher, Julie Hardt (7:58.13).
Jean-Louis Meuret (2007), HistoFINA Volume IV – Tome IV. MEDALLISTS AND STATISTICS. Special FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (50 m.) Before Rome 2009.
SWIMMING; Thorpe Wins; U.S. Relay Is Disqualified. New York Times (July 26, 2001)

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