Italy’s Sara Curtis sets 50-meter backstroke world record for second time in 2 days

Italian swimmer Sara Curtis has had a week to remember at the European Aquatics Championships, setting the world record in the women’s 50-meter backstroke on Thursday, marking the second time in two days she’s broken the record.

Curtis won the continental gold medal in Thursday’s final, swimming the one-length race in 26.56 seconds at the Paris Aquatics Centre. A day earlier in the event’s semifinals, she swam it in 26.63, taking nearly a quarter-second off the previous mark of 26.86 set by Australia’s Kaylee McKeown in October 2023.

The 19-year-old Curtis, who is the first Black swimmer to hold an individual long-course world record, competes collegiately at Virginia, where she won four NCAA relay titles in March. Individually, she was an All-American in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle. In 2024, she competed at the Paris Olympics, reaching the semifinals in the 50-meter freestyle.

Curtis beat out Mary-Ambre Moluh of France, who finished in 27.06, and Lauren Cox of Great Britain, who clocked 27.15. Moluh, who embraced Curtis after the race, set the European record in the 100-meter backstroke earlier this week, becoming the first European woman to break 58 seconds. Moluh’s record came on the lead-off leg of the mixed medley relay, which World Aquatics announced earlier this year is eligible for record-breaking times.

It sets Curtis up as a favorite in an event that will have a bigger spotlight over the next two years. The 50-meter backstroke will make its debut on the Olympic program in 2028 in Los Angeles, alongside the short versions of the butterfly and breaststroke.

The European championships are the biggest event of the year for the continent’s swimmers. The best swimmers from the U.S., Canada, Australia and more are competing this week at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, Calif. The next World Aquatics Championships meet is in July 2027.

The Euro meet features most of the continent’s top swimmers, including French star Léon Marchand, the four-time Paris Olympic gold medalist who will compete in two individual events later this week.

Earlier Thursday, Hungary’s Kristóf Milák, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, won the men’s 100-meter butterfly and nearly produced another world record. He swam it in 49.48 seconds, just 0.03 seconds off American Caeleb Dressel’s leading mark that he set at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.