Michael Phelps broke his first world record in 2001. He set the mark in the 200-meter butterfly at the U.S. World Championship Trials in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when he was still 15 years old.
Phelps lowered the record to 1:54.92, becoming the youngest male swimmer to hold a swimming world record. The achievement came less than a year after his Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games, where he reached the final of the same event and finished fifth.
Later in 2001, Phelps broke the 200-meter butterfly record again at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. He won his first world championship title there, confirming that the trials performance was the beginning of sustained international dominance rather than a one-off result.
The year can be confused with 2000 because Phelps competed at the Sydney Olympics that year, or with 2003, when he broke several additional records. His first world record, however, came in 2001, in the 200-meter butterfly.