Swimmer breaking the world record Christoph Milak When Thomas Chekkon Received custom mint NFTs, physical prints of artwork from those NFTs, and a $ 50,000 check on Saturday to conclude the swimming part of Saturday’s 2022 FINA World Championships.
..@fina_president Captain Hussain Almsalam awarded Thomas Chekkon and ?? Christoph Milak a world record #NFT!! Congrats!# FINABudapest2022 pic.twitter.com/aiBXiah1FZ
— FINA (@ fina1908) June 25, 2022
The NFT does not appear to have been awarded to Australia’s mixed 400 free relay, which broke the world record.
In the week before the tournament, FINA announced that it would create an NFT and transfer it to a world record breaker, in addition to a $ 50,000 prize reward. NFT’s digital artwork was created by Krizbo, a local artist based in Budapest. This artist was created by FINA, not specifically an NFT artist.
The athlete also received a signed print of the digital artwork attached to the NFT.
The above tweet shows both Milak and Ceccon and NFTs. Ceccon has a closer picture of his artwork, including the Hungarian flag colors (red, white, green), as well as the Hungarian Parliament Building and Fisherman’s Bastion, two of Budapest’s iconic buildings. Sent to Swim Swam. The two artworks are very similar, except that record-breaking athletes appear in each of the poses after the race. The mustache-bearing Chekkon points to the crowd in his edition, but his hometown, Mirac, sits more passively and stares at his artwork.
Thomas ChekkonNFT broke the world record for 100 backstrokes at the 2022 FINA World Championships. (Click to enlarge)
NFT is a relatively new financial security developed in 2014 based on blockchain technology, the same technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Ethereum is currently the most widely used cryptocurrency technology in the NFT space. NFTs usually take the form of digital art, but can also be used for other files such as music, video game “assets”, and movies. NFTs do not necessarily give copyright ownership to the individual who purchases the NFT, but ownership of digital files is unique and can be tracked. The difference from cryptocurrencies that use the same blockchain technology is that the value of NFTs is largely based on the digital files or artwork they connect to. For example, it is different from cryptocurrencies where each Bitcoin has the same value. The difference in value between assets is what makes NFTs “irreplaceable”.
The global crypto market has plummeted and has lost about two-thirds of its value (a total of about $ 2 trillion) since its peak in November 2021. NFTs haven’t been hit hard compared to cryptocurrencies, but this week we saw NFTs. Markets are starting to react to a wider range of economic factors. The Bloomberg NFT Index, which tracks NFT performance, fell 23% a week before the start of the championship, and the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT fell 25%.
Chekkon broke the world record with 100 backstrokes, and 51.60 broke Ryan Murphy’s previous record of 51.85 in 1/4 second (see here for details). Mirac swam 1: 50.34 in 200 backstrokes, breaking his own world record of 1: 50.34 (see here for details).
Photo of Mirac from the ceremony, courtesy: Fabio Cetti

Christoph Milak Receive WR NFT
Courtesy of Fabio Cetti