After 16 1/2 years, the final World Record of 2023 ISHOF Honoree Cesar Cielo’s Sprint career fell on opening day of the China Open in Shenzhen, China.
Australian, Cam McEvoy broke Cielo’s long standing 50 free world record as he swam to 20.88 blistering Cesar Cielo’s 2009 record to the history books at the China Open.
The brazilian’s record of 20.91 had stood since December 2009 as the supersuit era creeped towards its end. Cielo had surpassed Frenchman Fred Bousquet’s 20.94 WR that had been set in April of that same year with the Cielo and Bousquet being the only two to ever break the 21 second mark.
31 year old McEvoy made history by becoming the first person to finally break Cielo’s long standing world record, doing so with wife Madeline and son Hartley in the stands cheering him on.
Until today, American Caeleb Dressel was the fastest man in textile, swimming a time of 21.04 twice in 2019 and in 2021, with the third fastest time in history, 0.02 ahead of McEvoy who swam 21.06 in Japan at Fukuoka in 2023, at the World Championships.
The beauty of these records falling is the support the athletes get from the former record holders themselves. We at ISHOF know what a stand up human Cesar Cielo is and he just went on to prove it again.
When McEvoy breaks the record and posted to social media, saying:
“WORLD RECORD!! 20.88s
Cielo posted a personal message, saying: “Congrats, Cam! Lightning fast swim! Incredible! I saw a phrase a while ago that perfectly captures what you’ve been doing. You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Congratulations!” 
To which McEvoy replied: “Thank you @cesarcielof – “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” and you my friend are a giant in this sport 🤝 full respect for your 17 years. I will do my best to uphold your example!”
Cielo congratulated McEvoy as “The sprint king!!! Congrats, Cam!!! 👑⚡️🏊🏻♂️” after World Aquatics posted on social media.
Adam Peaty, Ariarne Titmus, Bruno Fratus and James Guy were among those to offer their congratulations on top of Cielo’s sprint king message. Fellow Australian Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers – who was third in the world record race – described his teammate’s swim as “insane” while Tom Dean and Yohann Ndoye Brouard also offered their praise.
Swimming Australia posted to social media, saying:
All-Time Performers
1] 20.88: Cam McEvoy, China Open, march 2026
2] 20.91: Cesar Cielo, Brazilian Championships, December 2009
3] 20.94: Fred Bousquet, French Championships, April 2009
4] 21.04: Caeleb Dressel, World Championships, July 2019
4] 21.04: Caeleb Dressel, US Olympic Team Trials, June 2021
6] 21.11: Ben Proud, European Championships, August 2018
Big congratulations to Cam McEvoy on his new World Record and to 2023 ISHOF Honor Swimmer Cesar Cielo for holding the World Record for 16+ years!