By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2026 Speedo Sectionals – Roseville CA
February 26-March 1, 2026 Roseville Aquatics Complex, Roseville, California Short Course Yards (25 yards) Psych Sheets Meet Central Results – “2026 CA NV Speedo Sect @ CCA” Meet MobileWhen 16-year-old Luka Mijatovic posted one of the craziest age group swims in history on Saturday night in the 500 free, in the most swimming moment ever, no official results were available for hours after his final touch. That swim crushed his own National Age Group Record by almost three seconds.
Thanks to folks on the scene, we knew the time was 4:05.76, but we didn’t have a good sense of how he got there.
But now we do, and can break down his splits:
50Y Splits 100Y Splits 250y Splits 50 22.37 100 24.51 46.88 150 24.94 200 25.3 50.24 250 25.33 2:02.45 300 24.95 50.28 350 24.84 400 24.85 49.69 450 24.6 500 24.07 48.67 2:03.31While it’s clear that he’s moving further-and-further in the direction of middle distance racing, he hasn’t lost those rhythms that made him such a good distance swimmer. He very-nearly even split this race. His previous personal best of 4:08.57 was split 2:03.09/2:05.48: very similar in the first half, but a full two seconds slower in the second half.
Whenever these kind of paradigm-shifting swims go on the board, I ask our data team (the best in the business) to give me some ways to contextualize the swim. Here’s what they came up with:
This swim would have ranked higher at men’s NCAAs last year (2nd) than any 17-18 National Age Group Record would have (many of those belong to swimmers who were in college). A few would have been 3rd, a few 4th, but no 17-18 record would have been 2nd. And he’s only 16. While the NCAA nuked “A” cuts, the only two 15-16 National Age Group Records that would have been under last year’s “A” cut both belong to Luka: the 500 free and the 1000 free (8:36.71). Heilman’s 100 fly is within .2 seconds of it. Two years ago, this would have been the fastest time ever by any swimmer at any age. When was the last time a 16-year-old American boy threw down a time of this level? Phelps? Ledecky on the girls’ side?The amount by which he dropped this record is also considerably noteworthy. He took almost ten seconds off Drew Kibler‘s old 15-16 mark. Even before his latest drop, this was already the biggest gap from #1 to #2 in the 15-16 boys’ age group, and now that gap has grown even bigger.
15-16 Boys’ SCYs Events, #1 to #2 All-Time
#1 Ever #2 ever Gap Percentage 50 free 19.24 19.24 0.00% 100 free 41.96 42 0.10% 200 free 1:32.46 1:32.73 0.29% 500 free 4:05.76 4:15.36 3.76% 1000 free 8:36.71 8:45.11 1.60% 1650 free 14:30.01 14:37.86 0.89% 100 back 45.6 45.66 0.13% 200 back 1:40.58 1:40.88 0.30% 100 breast 51.75 52.51 1.45% 200 breast 1:52.37 1:54.27 1.66% 100 fly 44.67 45.59 2.02% 200 fly 1:40.73 1:40.91 0.18% 200 IM 1:41.41 1:42.07 0.65% 400 IM 3:39.83 3:40.96 0.51%To really hammer this home, remember when Katie Ledecky was 16 and went 4:28.71 and was rewriting how we think about the women’s 500 free? That was only five-and-a-half seconds faster than Katie Hoff‘s prior National Age Group Record of 4:34.21. That comes out to almost exactly 2% better.
And Mijatovic has put almost twice the gap on the field as Ledecky did.
And all of this is happening 18 months before he goes to train with the most successful 500 free coach who ever lived, Bob Bowman. Prior to Mijatovic’s outburst on Saturday, the three fastest 500 yard freestylers in history, and four of the fastest five, all trained with Bowman.
All that’s left is for Luka to break the overall record (which feels inevitable) and get those middle two splits down and become the first swimmer to ever go sub-50 on every 100 of a 500 free (which feels important).
Race Video
FULL RACE VIDEO, courtesy of Kevin Virnig, head coach of Arroyo Grande Aquatic Club.
Luka Mijatovic (photo: Jack Spitser)
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