Japan's Shin Ohashi became the youngest male swimmer since Michael Phelps to break an individual world record in an Olympic-size pool, taking down the 200m breaststroke record at the Asian Games on Thursday.
Ohashi, 17, swam 2:04.83 in Tokyo, breaking the record of 2:05.48 set by China's Qin Haiyang at the 2023 World Championships. Ohashi's previous personal best was 2:06.59, the world junior record that he also broke on Thursday.
Ohashi is the sixth different man to break the 200m breast world record in the last decade. In that span, the world record has been lowered by a total of 2.18 seconds.
Ohashi is the youngest man to break a world record in an individual long-course meters event since Phelps broke the 400m individual medley world record for the first time in August 2002 at a younger 17, according to Olympic sports historian Bill Mallon of Olympedia.org.
Phelps also broke the 200m butterfly world record at ages 15 and 16.
Ohashi, the 2025 World junior silver medalist in the 200m breast, made his senior major international meet debut at August's Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California. He placed second in the 100m breast and third in the 200m breast there.
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