Thomas Ceccon record-breaking in the 200 backstroke: a historic Italian record falls

From faraway Brisbane, the location where the Australian Open Championships 2025 are being held, comes extraordinary news for Italian swimming: in fact, Thomas Ceccon set a new Italian record in the 200 backstroke, improving by more than emzzo second the previous national record, set by Matteo Restivo at the European Championships held in Scotland in 2018.

Ceccon, who is competing in Australia through a federal waiver to seek qualification for the World Championships in Singapore, won the 200 backstroke event in 1’55″71, while Restivo’s previous record was 1’56″29. The latter time was also the minimum limit for qualifying for the rainbow event, brilliantly achieved, therefore, by Ceccon himself.

Two and a half seconds behind Ceccon came Joshua Edwards-Smith of Australia (1’58″23 was his time) and Kane Follows of New Zealand, who finished with a time of 1’58″96. Ceccon’s time is the third fastest overall in the season, behind Oliver Morgan’s 1’55″55 set on April 20 and Roman Mityukov’s 1’55″64 set last April 5.

Born in Thiene on Jan. 27, 2001, but originally from Magrè, a hamlet of Schio, Thomas Ceccon boasts a long string of triumphs at the national and international level: in particular, he has won four Olympic medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze) as well as seven world golds (three in the Olympic pool and four in the short pool) and six European golds (four in the Olympic pool and two in the short pool).