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.
As one of the few swimmers who showed up at the final leg of the 2026 World Cup series after not racing at the first two, Hungarian teenager Oliver Papai has quietly made a big impact through the first two days of action in Astana.
Papai, who is 16 but will turn 17 in December, raced out of the early heats in the men’s 1500 freestyle on Day 1, putting up a time of 14:40.55 that stood up as the second-fastest overall after the fastest heat raced at night.
Racing the event for the first time since November 2024, Papai obliterated his previous best of 15:29.55, and took down Gergo Kis‘ national age record for 17-year-old boys of 14:42.08 set way back in 2005.
On Day 2 of the World Cup in the 400 free, Papai reached the podium again, winning bronze in 3:40.52 to smash his previous best of 3:45.16 and knock nearly three seconds off Kristof Milak‘s Hungarian age record for 17-year-olds of 3:43.50 set in 2017.
Papai, who will have another opportunity to reach the podium and break a national age record tomorrow in the 800 free, is coming off a breakout summer that saw him win silver in the 400 free at the European Championships in August, setting a new senior national record of 3:44.46 in the long course 400 free.
The 800 free national age record for 17-year-olds stands at 7:53.31, set by Akos Kalmar in 2017, which he’s already been under, having set the record for 16-year-olds last year in 7:51.65.
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