By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Swim of the Week is brought to you by arena, a SwimSwam partner.
Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Coming off a phenomenal sophomore season at Indiana, Raekwon Noel has kept his foot on the gas through the early stages of the 2026 long course campaign.
The 20-year-old Guyanese native set four new personal best times at last week’s Pro Swim Series stop in Indianapolis, headlined by his breakthrough swim in the 200 fly.
Coming in owning a personal best and Guyanese record of 1:59.46 set at last year’s Junior Pan Am Games, Noel unleashed a time of 1:56.62 in the final, placing 3rd and not only shattering his PB and national record, but also becoming the fastest Caribbean swimmer ever by a wide margin.
Noel’s time lowered the previous Caribbean best of 1:57.94, set by Puerto Rican Andrew Livingstone at the 2001 World Championships, and also marked a new CARIFTA best, lowering the 1:58.25 mark established by Bahamian Jeremy Knowles at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships.
Data courtesy of Drafting the Caribbean.
Split Comparison
Livingstone, 2001 Knowles, 2006 Noel, 2026 26.36 26.98 26.06 56.05 (29.69) 57.26 (30.28) 55.69 (29.63) 1:26.45 (30.40) 1:27.30 (30.04) 1:25.88 (30.19) 1:57.94 (31.49) 1:58.25 (30.25) 1:56.62 (30.74)Noel’s sophomore year at Indiana was highlighted by a 6th-place finish at NCAAs in the 200 fly, along with earning a runner-up finish in the 200 fly and 3rd in the 100 back at Big Tens.
He raced at the Indy Spring Cup in early May, setting new bests in the 100 free (50.14) and 200 IM (2:04.63), and spent three weeks at altitiude prior to the Indy Pro Series.
Speaking to Drafting the Caribbean about his time at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, Noel said: “The purpose of going up to the camp was not really to prepare for this meet, but to get a solid training block in. I’m not tapered or shaved so obviously doing those times I’m happy with but there’s still a long way to go. I knew the 200s would’ve been pretty good especially coming down from altitude makes it a bit easier to swim. But the entire experience was still quite challenging.
“I trained a lot with Owen McDonald and Aaron Shackell and even Alex and Andrew Shackell. We all went up to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado and did some work. They are great people to train with and even to be around. Aaron pushed me everyday. Owen is my training partner since last year and he is my big brother at this point and I am so lucky to have him by my side every step of the way. A lot of this was mentally challenging but I knew I needed to also get physically stronger to be where I want to be going into the summer and looking forward to my junior year at IU.”
In addition to his 200 fly breakthrough, Noel also established new personal bests in the 100 free (49.79), 200 free (1:49.06) and 200 IM in Indianapolis.
This summer, he will be targeting the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games, where swimming will run from July 28th to August 1st in the Dominican Republic.
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