Rylee Erisman Twice Cracks Championship and NAG Records in 100 Freestyle at World Junior Championships
In two performances in the 100-meter freestyle at the World Junior Championships on Wednesday, 16-year-old American Rylee Erisman twice broke championship and National Age Group (NAG) records. Erisman first clocked 53.17 in the 100 free during the morning preliminaries, with the performance taking down the previous 15-16 NAG mark of Claire Curzan, who clocked 53.55 during the 2021 season. The effort was also good for a championship record, lowering the 53.63 posted by Canada’s Taylor Ruck at the 2017 edition of World Juniors.
Erisman had even more to give during the night session, where she went 53.09 to easily secure the top seed for the championship final on Thursday night. Erisman will make a run at the 53-second barrier during the final, where she’ll be joined by Great Britain’s Theodora Taylor (54.52) and the United States’ Lily King (54.68) as the second and third seeds, respectively.
With a career best of 53.75 entering the meet, along with a handful of other times in that vicinity, Erisman figured to make a charge at Curzan’s record. En route to shaving .38 off the record in the morning, Erisman was out in 25.79 and came home in 27.38. At night, Erisman was 25.80 for the front half of her race and had a back end of 27.29.
Erisman’s previous personal best was 53.75, which he set last summer at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. At that meet, she also went 53.76. Earlier this year, Erisman was 53.78 at the Fort Lauderdale stop of the TYR Pro Series.
The time from the teenager is not far off the world junior record of 52.70, held by Penny Oleksiak since the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. That time enabled Oleksiak to share the gold medal in the 100 freestyle with American Simone Manuel.
