In the 90's, Masters world records and masters rules were posted here. The data was laboriously copied from the Handbook and Newsletters.  Before the end of that decade, FINA took it over and now routinely update the information on their website.

Did you know that there are over 1,200 World Masters Swimming records? The actual count is 1,274 records which breaks down into 1,190 individual and 84 relay event records. Keeping in mind that swimming in a 25M pool (short course) is different from swimming in a 50M pool (long course), the basic statistics on these world records are .....

1. There are 35 event combinations which are divided into 17 long course events and 18 short course events. The 17 events common to both long and short course events are 50M, 100M, 200M, 400, 800, 1500M Freestyle (6 events); 50M, 100M, 200M Breastroke, Butterfly and Backstroke (9 events); 200IM and 400IM (2 events). Only the 100IM (ie 4 x 25M) is swum as the 18th short course event.

2. For the individual records, there are 17 age categories from 25-29 to 100-105 and for each age group there are 35 different distance/stroke event combinations for both Men and Women in short & long pools. Adding this lot up, we get 35 x 17 x 2 = 1190 events/records.

3. For the relay records, the 7 age categories (based on the combined ages of the 4 participants) are 100-119, 120-159, 160-199, 200-239, 240-279, 280-319 and 320-359. There are two 200M relay events - these are the 4 x 50M Freestyle and the 4 x 50M Medley for Men, Women and Mixed (2 men/ 2women) for both the long and short course.  Adding these up, we get 7 x 2 x 3 x 2 = 84 relay events/records.