This post looks at the best male swimmers after the 2017 season. There’s also a post on the fastest female swimmers and I will post on the bike, run and overall times in the next few days.
Fastest Times
As for the females, the current-assisted swim at IM Cozumel led to the fastest swim times in a 2017 Ironman race. (IM Chattanooga which also had a few fast female swims, was a WPRO-only race in 2017.) The fastest swim was a 39:17 by Jarrod Shoemaker, which is also the fastest IM swim time since 2014. The fastest non-Cozumel swim in 2017 was by Luiz Paiva with a 44:12 at IM Brasil.
| Rank | Name | Actual Time | Race |
| 1 | Jarrod Shoemaker | 00:39:17 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 2 | Ivan Rana | 00:39:19 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 3 | Andrey Lyatskiy | 00:41:31 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 4 | Michael Poole | 00:41:32 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 5 | Stefan Schmid | 00:41:33 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 6 | Oliver Gonzalez Miranda | 00:41:34 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 7 | Albert Moreno Molins | 00:41:36 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 8 | Sebastian Kienle | 00:41:36 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 9 | Alan Carrillo Avila | 00:41:37 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
| 10 | Samuel Huerzeler | 00:41:38 | IM Cozumel on 2017-11-26 |
Best Performances
Almost everyone has been swimming fast at IM Cozumel, but a better indication of the best performances are normalized times that adjust based on how fast (or slow) a race has been. Based on these normalized times, the best swim performances were at IM New Zealand with five of the Top 6 performances – it seems as if a group of strong swimmers tried to get away from the rest of the field and pushed themselves to a hard pace. Marko Albert won that swim by just a few seconds.
| Rank | Name | Normalized Time | Actual Time | Race |
| 1 | Marko Albert | 00:45:37 | 00:48:01 | IM New Zealand on 2017-03-04 |
| 2 | Clayton Fettell | 00:45:39 | 00:48:03 | IM New Zealand on 2017-03-04 |
| 3 | Terenzo Bozzone | 00:45:44 | 00:48:08 | IM New Zealand on 2017-03-04 |
| 4 | Braden Currie | 00:45:46 | 00:48:11 | IM New Zealand on 2017-03-04 |
| 5 | Jan Frodeno | 00:46:12 | 00:46:29 | IM Austria on 2017-07-02 |
| 6 | Bryan Rhodes | 00:46:12 | 00:48:38 | IM New Zealand on 2017-03-04 |
| 7 | Josh Amberger | 00:46:14 | 00:47:09 | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 |
| 8 | Clayton Fettell | 00:46:22 | 00:45:19 | IM Australia on 2017-05-07 |
| 9 | Josh Amberger | 00:46:22 | 00:47:15 | IM Cairns on 2017-06-11 |
| 10 | Clayton Fettell | 00:46:23 | 00:47:16 | IM Cairns on 2017-06-11 |
2017 Ratings
The best-rated Ironman swimmer at the end of 2017 is Clayton Fettell. At the end of 2016 his rating was impacted by two recent DNFs, in 2017 he was swimming extremely well. IM Kona swim leader Josh Amberger is now ranked in second place, jumping ahead of the more established swimmers such as Jan Frodeno, Marko Albert and Andy Potts.
Foto: Clayton shortly before the start of IM Cairns. Credit: @koruptvision
The best-rated swimmer at the end of 2016 was Dylan McNeice. Dylan was forced to take most of the 2017 season off in order to recover from a hip procedure that should help him to avoid run injuries. Dylan is scheduled to return to racing at IM New Zealand in early March.
| Rank | Name | Nation | Rating | Last Race | # IM Races |
| 1 (10) | Clayton Fettell | AUS | 00:46:23 (-1:25) | IM Cairns on 2017-06-11 | 8 |
| 2 (-) | Josh Amberger | AUS | 00:46:49 (n/a) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 3 |
| 3 (2) | Jan Frodeno | GER | 00:46:53 (+0:01) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 9 |
| 4 (4) | Marko Albert | EST | 00:47:07 (-0:07) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 19 |
| 5 (3) | Andy Potts | USA | 00:47:18 (+0:18) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 18 |
| 6 (-) | Brad Kahlefeldt | AUS | 00:47:35 (n/a) | Challenge Roth on 2017-07-09 | 3 |
| 7 (8) | Michael Fox | AUS | 00:47:36 (+0:06) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 6 |
| 8 (7) | Timothy O’Donnell | USA | 00:47:38 (+0:01) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 15 |
| 9 (-) | Patrick Lange | GER | 00:47:38 (n/a) | IM Hawaii on 2017-10-14 | 3 |
| 10 (13) | Andi Boecherer | GER | 00:47:39 (-0:06) | IM Germany on 2017-07-09 | 15 |