44.84 seconds — and the record has a new co-owner

Egor Kornev is 22, a breakout Russian sprinter, and at the World Cup opener in Baku he touched the wall in 44.84 seconds in the 100m freestyle — dead even with Kyle Chalmers' short-course world record from 2021. The record book now has two names on the line. Kornev, who took European silver in the 50m and 100m freestyles in August, has two more World Cup stops to chase it outright.