World

3 Questions to Answer in Swimming's New Year (Part I) With a New Year upon us, it is natural to gaze ahead and consider some of the plotlines within the sport. So, as part of a multi-piece series, Swimming World will pose some leading questions that figure to be answered over the next 12 months. We ...

Leon Marchand Named World Male Swimmer of the Year For Third Consecutive Year The reign of King Leon continues. Leon Marchand is yet again the top male swimmer in the world, and he adds World Male Swimmer of the Year honors for 2025 after previously capturing the honor in 2023 and 2024. Marchand cap...

Appreciating the Career of Jesse Vassallo Olympic success—and even opportunity—doesn’t simply rely on talent. A confluence of good timing and fortune is also required. Ask Michael Phelps. Sure, his unmatched skill set was the driving force to his record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in...

Under-the-Radar Male Performance of the Year: Sven Schwarz Blistered European Record in 800 Freestyle Earning the right to represent Germany in distance-freestyle competition at the international level is no easy task, as the country boasts incredible depth. Lukas Maertens is an Olympic champion and...

Summer McIntosh named World Female Swimmer of the Year At the start of a new Olympic quadrennial, 2025 was always going to be a year of experimentation for Summer McIntosh. Now 19, she’ll turn 22 just after the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, her third Games. It will fall not just in the prime of her ...

Male Breakout Swimmer of the Year: Pieter Coetze Dazzled in Backstroke Events At the start of the 2025 campaign, Pieter Coetze was hardly an unknown talent. As a Commonwealth Games champion and medalist at the 2024 World Championships, the South African already owned several standout performances on...

Open Water Swimmers of the Year: Florian Wellbrock and Moesha Johnson Enjoyed Dominating Seasons Dominant. That's the word that immediately comes to mind when evaluating the performances of Florian Wellbrock and Moesha Johnson at the 2025 World Championships. Before the pool battles got underway in ...

Qin Haiyang Honored as Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year After World Championships Double For the second time in three years, Qin Haiyang is Swimming World's selection as Pacific Rim Male Swimmer of the Year. The 26-year-old from China is again the world's top breaststroker after he won two gold medal...

As New Year Arrives, WADA Reminds Athletes of 2026 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wishes to remind stakeholders that the 2026 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods (List) and the 2026 Monitoring Program are now in force as of today (1 January 2026)....

Top Swim Meets to Watch in 2026: Regional Championships, Short Course Worlds Highlight Calendar The midway point between the Paris and Los Angeles Olympics will arrive in 2026, but this coming year will mark a rare one with no global long course championship meet. While almost all of the world's top...

World Aquatics Names Summer McIntosh, Leon Marchand 2025 Swimmers of the Year For the second straight year, World Aquatics has named Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand its World Swimmers of the Year. Both repeat in that role after breakout campaigns at the 2024 Paris Olympics that they carried into t...

Shin Ohashi Garners Swimming World Male World Junior Swimmer of the Year Honors The choice for Male World Junior Swimmer of the Year was not an easy one. We knew it would go to a breaststroker, thanks to the versatility within the stroke of Japan's Shin Ohashi and Great Britain's Filip Nowacki. Both...

Breakthrough at World Champs Earns Kaylene Corbett Swimming World African Female Swimmer of the Year Award Between the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Tatjana Smith (nee Schoenmaker) defined herself as one of the premier breaststrokers in the world – perhaps the finest. D...

5 Rivalries That Add Excitement to Current Swimming World Competitive swimming thrives on rivalries. With racing at its core, the sport naturally invites head-to-head matchups that push athletes faster and pull fans in closer. Over the years, those battles have made waves, whether between entire nat...

Which Events Featured Largest Percentage Gap Between Top Time and No. 2 Performer? (Men's Edition) Which male swimmer dominated his event at the highest level during the 2025 season? On the surface, that honor seems to belong to French superstar Leon Marchand, who registered a world record of 1:52.6...

13-Year-Old Yu Zidi is Swimming World's Female Junior World Swimmer of the Year Throughout the past year, the spotlight has followed Yu Zidi. When you emerge a 12-year-old phenom who races at the World Championships, attention is impossible to avoid. Is this kid the next big thing in the sport? How ...

In Defense of Short Course Season For much of the year, beginning in September after the summer championship season, swimming swaps out 50-meter Olympic-sized pools for their shorter, 25-yard and 25-meter cousins. During this transition, times get faster while turns and the underwater phase of races...

Sports Illustrated Honors Michael Phelps With Muhammad Ali Legacy Award Nearly a decade after last competing on the international stage, Michael Phelps continues to make an impact. As an athlete, he provided inspiration to up-and-coming swimmers. These days, the Olympic legend is a leading advocate ...

Ahmed Jaouadi Carries Tunisian Distance Tradition En Route to African Male Swimmer of Year Recognition Twenty years ago, Ous Mellouli emerged as a global star from an unusual locale. The Tunisian initially established himself as a world-class performer in the 400-meter individual medley and 400 free...

Egyptian Swimming Federation Under Scrutiny After Swimmer’s Death The Egyptian Swimming Federation is facing major changes in the wake the death of a swimmer at the national under-12 championships in December in Cairo. According to Reuters, the federation has been forced to appoint an interim commit...