Jordie Proffitt, a former college swimmer who swam two years at Alabama before transferring to USC in 2003, has broken the World Record for a 50-meter swim underwater in a 25 meter course, according to the Henderson, Kentucky newspaper the Gleaner.
This record is different from the official ones we see in Finswimming record books as Proffitt did it without any sort of fins in 27.86. That destroyed the old World Record that was set in 2008 by Andrew Vonasch in 32.68. Vonasch was a former swimmer at Ponoma College.
Proffitt did his swim at Louisville's pool in a masters meet; the tactic is not legal in standard competitive swimming, but this particular record is kept by Guinness so they could still ratify it. It will not be official until that happens.
Editor's note: swimming 50 meters underwater can potentially be dangerous – we recommend that you seek medical and professional advice before attempting.
Of course, swim fans will remember the famous 23.10 underwater 50 set by Texas swimmer Hill Taylor in a 2008 meet, and that was done in long course meters. It's not clear whether, when completely submerged, having a turn is as much of an advantage as it would be in standard swimming, but one would imagine that Taylor could have cleared 27 seconds if he attempted this in a short course pool. See the video of Taylor's swim below, called by our own Garrett McCaffrey back in the FloSwimming days.