44.64 seconds into history: Jack Alexy smashes the 100m freestyle world record

The men's 100 freestyle has a new world record holder: Jack Alexy of the United States. At the USA Swimming Short Course Trials on Saturday, Alexy touched the wall in 44.64 seconds, smashing the previous world record of 44.84.

The swim came at the 2026 USA Swimming Short Course World Championship Trials at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Illinois, where Alexy was racing for the California Golden Bears. Coming down the final stretch with the record in reach, he got his hand on the wall at 44.64, looked up at the time and slapped the water in elation, knowing he was in the record books.

Alexy had flirted with the record before. At the World Aquatics Swimming Championships in Budapest in December 2024, he won his first individual gold medal in the men's 100-meter free final with a time of 45.38 seconds.

At that same meet in Hungary, he also broke the American and world championship records with a lead-off time of 45.05 seconds in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay. Months earlier, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, that relay event had brought him his first Olympic gold medal.

Second in Saturday's final was his Paris teammate Chris Guiliano of the University of Notre Dame, who finished in 45.22 seconds. Another Olympian, Caeleb Dressel, came in third at 45.65. Guiliano was also part of the gold medal-winning relay squad in Paris.

The record carries one more layer of context. Just four weeks earlier, Russia's Egor Kornev had equalled the short-course 100-meter freestyle world record at a World Cup competition. Alexy's 44.64 now puts the mark beyond that shared record by two-tenths of a second.

'That felt pretty good,' Alexy said after the race, per Swimming World Magazine. 'The goal was to qualify for the 50 and 100 individually. I was pretty confident I could get that done after this morning.'

He said he tried to ride the adrenaline of the crowd, adding that racing a U.S. field of this quality at a selection meet is more nerve-wracking — which, in his words, is a good thing, because that pressure is exactly what swimmers will face on the biggest stage.

The Paris 2024 gold medallist does not intend to stop here. Alexy said he is hoping to go even faster in Beijing, where the World Aquatics Swimming Championships will take place from December 1 to 6.