By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2026 Commonwealth Games
July 24 – 29, 2026 (pool swimming) Glasgow, Scotland Tollcross International Swimming Centre LCM (50m) Meet Central Entries Preview Index How to Watch Live Results Live Recaps Prelims: Day 1 Finals: Day 1Michael Houlie blasted a new African record of 26.38 in the 50 breaststroke today, lowering Cameron van der Burgh‘s 2017 standard by 0.16 seconds. Most impressively, Houlie’s swim tonight did not come in the 50 breast – it came on the front half of his 100 breast semi-final swim.
His intense front half tactic did not come as a complete surprise – he set a PB of 26.56 on the opening 50 this morning, with similar splitting to his race tonight. This seems to be a deliberate choice for the South African swimmer, leaning heavily on his sprint speed.
Hou;ie split 26.39/33.65 tonight, after splitting 26.56/33.58 this morning. Both final 50s were the slowest of any swimmer to progress
He moves up to rank second in the world this season behind Van Mathias.
2025-2026 LCM Men 50 BREAST
VanUSAMATHIAS 06/1726.302SimoneCERASUOLOITA26.5104/183IvanKozhakinRUS26.5206/264MelvinIMOUDU GER26.5704/255SamWILLIAMSONAUS26.6106/10View Top 26»In addition, he moves up to 8th all-time. He ranked 18th before today and 15th after his 26.56 in the heats this morning.
Men’s LCM 50 Breaststroke, All-Time Top Ten Performers
Adam Peaty (GBR) – 25.95 Qin Haiyang (CHN) – 26.20 Ludovico Viberti (ITA) – 26.27 Ilya Shymanovich (BLR) – 26.28 Van Mathias (USA) – 26.30 Sam Williamson (AUS) – 26.32 Nicolo Martinenghi (ITA)/Felipe Lima (BRA) – 26.33 – Michael Houlie (RSA) – 26.38 Simone Cerasuolo (ITA) – 26.42He did end up placing 5th in the semi-finals tonight, moving through relatively comfortably into tomorrow’s final. It remains to be seen if anyone else in the field will react to his opening 50, or will count on Houlie falling back to the pack through the second 50. It seems unlikely that he will add significant strength to his second 50 tomorrow, which means that the favorites would expect to overhaul him regardless of his opening 50 speed.
However, this does now establish him as the favorite for the 50 breast later this week. He will need to overcome a damaging habit of adding time when the lights shine brightest. His only major international medal comes from the 2019 World University Games where he won silver in 27.19, but he had set a Games record of 26.82 in the semi-finals, and he was over a second slower at the 2021 Olympic Games than he was in-season that year.
In his 100 breast lifetime best of 59.64, also set at the 2019 World University Games, he split 27.27/32.37, then split 27.18/32.74 in the final as he placed 5th in 59.92. In his four other fastest swims prior to today, none of them under 1:00, he did not go out slower than 27.59 and did not come home faster than 32.74 – a minimum 5.25 second disparity.
His preference to front-half his swims extended to his NCAA career as well. His 100 breast PB in yards, from the 2023 SEC Championships, featured splits of 23.83/28.07, and he then split 23.93/28.35 in the final – out within a tenth of the leaders at halfway but finishing last by over three tenths at the finish.
While he has been relatively consistently hitting 26-point swims in the 50 breast this season, he was yet to break 1:01 before the start of the Commonwealth Games. The best way to show just how extreme his splits were in this race is to compare the percentage split of the two 50s.
Percentage Splits, Notable Swims vs Michael Houlie At 2026 Commonwealths
Swim First 50 Percentage Second 50 Percentage Final time World Record (Adam Peaty) 46.82% 53.18% 56.88 Commonwealth Games Record (Adam Peaty) 46.37% 53.63% 58.59 South African Record (Cam van der Burgh) 46.31% 53.69% 58.46 2025 World Championship-winning time (Qin Haiyang) 46.49% 53.51% 58.23 2022 Commonwealth Games winning time (James Wilby) 47.02% 52.98% 59.25 Michael Houlie – 2019 World University Games 45.72% 54.28% 59.64 Michael Houlie – 2026 Commonwealth Games heats 44.16% 55.84% 1:00.14 Michael Houlie – 2026 Commonwealth Games semi-finals 43.94% 56.06% 1:00.03Breaststroke has the biggest average gap of all the strokes. Still, Houlie’s splits today stand out as wildly more disparate than those at the top of the world in the event. Even compared to his PB today’s splits are massive outliers.
He will be hoping to break the 1:00 barrier in tomorrow’s final, having not done so since 2019. He is inching closer at this meet, and has already dropped over a second from his in-season best of 1:01.06.
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