1994 | Franziska Van Almsick | World Record | 1:56.78 | 200m Freestyle | 1994 World Championships

16 Year Old Franziska Van Almsick swims a World Record, from lane 8, in the 200m Freestyle, at the 1994 World Swimming Championships in Rome | Van Almsick's time of 1.56.78 takes 0.73 of a second off the previous mark, held by East German Heike Friedrich | This race was marked with controversy as Van Almsick originally missed qualification for the final | Van Almsick only swam the race after a German teammate withdrew from the final | Australian Susie O'Neill finished 6th | This world record stood for 8 years until Van Almsick bettered it, herself, in 2002 | This footage has been taken from a Channel 7 Australia broadcast | If this is a breach of copyright please advise and it will be removed

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[brasil82babe]

Unbelievable swim! Ill never forget this race. I heard this was the race she almost didnt want to swim in the cons finals. she held this record for like 10 years thats really long for any world swimming records!! such a shame she never earned a olympic gold medal in this event!

[cdmontano]

la mas grande atleta del siglo para COSTA RICA

Claudia Poll.

[MRCHARLIEHAWK]

Uno dei più grandi scandali sportivi "regolarizzati" della storia. Il regolamento allora permetteva questi giochetti, che ledevano l'etica sportiva. Infatti , dopo, venne cambiato ed oggi, se un'atleta delle otto finaliste rinuncia, il suo posto rimane vuoto.Da considerare che questa medaglia rubacchiata , paradossalmente, è l'unico oro individuale vinto da un'atleta più da copertina che da podi.

[TheXcessiv]

Franzi ist die BESTE ! I love the aussi slang !

[mc1703]

world class time even now.

[katerinahejdova]

it's not only about Freqency, Kenneth...

[Parker528]

@cdog0489 and even more impressive, she was 1:57.9 in the Barcelona Olympics prelims of the 200 free, just barely after turning 14. Even better than the great American Cynthia Woodhead.

[Parker528]

@lander582 actually, Van Almsick JUST turned 14 shortly before Barcelona, and in the 200 free prelims there, missed Heike Friedrich's world record by about one tenth!

[bzach71]

This is a race which she didnt actually qualify for the final A - being only 9th fastest in the qualifying rounds. Kerstin Kielgass who qualified, withdraw from the final A (scratched) and thus gave the place to Franziska...and she make full use of it.

[cdog0489]

1.56 at just 16? pretty awesome

[swimmerforever2008]

That is really really fast for 1994, and people only started to go that fast again in 2007!