Top-20 Women’s Swimmers in the World, Part 1: Standout Breaststrokers Make the Cut
At the recent World Championships, swimmers competed for medals in 42 pool events, and the results clearly show the best swimmer in the world for each race. Comparing swimmers across events is a subjective task, with factors including versatility, dominance, longevity, big-race performance and relay contributions all considered. With the summer competition season concluded, we will again try to stack up the various competitors from one through 20.
These rankings will be based largely on performances at the World Championships but results from other meets were also considered. Swimmers who sat out this year’s major competitions will not be included on this list.
Honorable Mention
The women’s list for this year is missing many of the sport’s biggest names after they did not race in 2025. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who expanded her already-brilliant résumé with Olympic gold medals in the 50 and 100 freestyle last year, just gave birth to her first child, while Australia’s Ariarne Titmus also skipped the World Championships after she won gold in the much-anticipated 400 freestyle last year. Also missing from Worlds was Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey, who has medaled in the 100 and 200 free at the last two Olympics.
The top-20 list will include all gold medalists from this summer’s World Championships as well as every swimmer who won multiple individual medals. However, four silver-medal-winning swimmers just missed the cut. American Alex Walsh returned to the podium in the 200 IM with a strong silver medal while China’s Wu Qingfeng was the runnerup in the 50 free. In the last individual race of the meet, Japan’s Mio Narita and Australia’s Jenna Forrester tied for second in the 400 IM.
Also worth a mention is American Claire Weinstein, who achieved her first individual medal at a major long course meet with a bronze in the 200 free. Weinstein has become a consistent 1:54 swimmer and a leader for the U.S. women’s 800 free relay, and she is on the verge of breaking 4:00 in the 400 free while showing potential in all freestyle events from 100 through 1500 meters.
20. Evgeniia Chikunova, Russia
Evgeniia Chikunova — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Chikunova has been considered among the world’s best breaststrokers dating back to 2021, when the then-16-year-old finished a narrow fourth in the 200 breaststroke Olympic final. Since then, she has become the world-record holder in the event; her 2023 mark of 2:17.55 beat the previous mark by almost one-and-a-half seconds. However, Chikunova did not race internationally for three years while banned from international competition along with her Russian teammates.
Late last year, Chikunova received clearance to compete as an independent neutral athlete, and she has done well, even if she has not returned to her world-record form. She claimed World Championships silver in the 200 breast this year, not approaching the brilliance of Kate Douglass but still getting under the 2:20-barrier. Chikunova also finished fifth in the 100 breast Worlds final, four tenths outside of medal position, and her efforts on the neutral athletes’ 400 medley relay resulted in a fourth-place finish, again just four tenths away from bronze.
19. Tang Qianting, China
Tang Qianting — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
In February 2024, Tang captured the world title in the 100 breast and followed that up with a near-world-record performance in the event at China’s Olympic selection meet. Even without recapturing that speed, Tang has become a consistent force in the sprint breaststroke events. In Paris, she won Olympic silver in the 100 breast plus a pair of relay medals, and she finished 2024 with a short course world title in the 100 breast plus two further medals.
In Singapore, Tang had the most speed in the 100 breaststroke final. Although she was unable to hold on thanks to surges by Anna Elendt and Kate Douglass, she secured a bronze medal, and she added two more podium finishes on the meet’s final day. Tang won silver in the 50 breast before her 1:05.48 breaststroke split proved decisive in China’s bronze-medal-winning 400 medley relay.
18. Simona Quadarella, Italy
Simona Quadarella — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
This 26-year-old Italian has previously won three world titles in the distance events, but her performance in Singapore was the best in her career. That’s because Quadarella smashed a pair of European records to climb the all-time distance rankings. First came the 1500 freestyle, where Quadarella took silver in 15:31.79, closer than she had ever come to Katie Ledecky in a 1500-meter race (just over five seconds) and enough to make her the second-fastest swimmer in history. Quadarella swam her best time by nine seconds while walloping seven seconds the European record previously held by Lotte Friis.
Quadarella was unable to secure a second medal in the 800 free, but that had more to do with the heroic efforts of Ledecky, Lani Pallister and Summer McIntosh at the front of the race, with all three breaking the existing World Championships record. Quadarella became the fifth-fastest performer in history while beating the European record of 8:14.10, which had belonged to Rebecca Adlington since 2008.
17. Anna Elendt, Germany
Anna Elendt — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Here is someone who would have been a huge longshot to make the top-20 list at the start of the summer. Elendt has been a solid international performer in the shorter breaststroke events, her previous career highlight a silver in the 100 breast at the 2022 World Championships, but she did not advance out of prelims at the 2023 Worlds or Paris Olympics. At this year’s Worlds, though, Elendt snuck into the final and produced the performance of her career.
Elendt pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the meet with her gold medal, coming out ahead of a final previously considered to be wide open. Her time was 1:05.19, eight hundredths ahead of American Kate Douglass. Later in the meet, Elendt just missed qualifying for the 50 breast final, and her 1:04.98 breaststroke split on Germany’s 400 medley relay was second-best in the field.
16. Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania
Ruta Meilutyte — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
She first won international gold at age 15 when she shocked the world in the Olympic final of the 100 breaststroke. Now, Meilutyte has put together a second act of dominance in the 50 breast. Returning from a brief retirement in 2022, Meilutyte won a world title in the one-lap event and backed it up a year later with another, this one in world-record time. She followed that up with further wins in 2024 and now 2025, her latest effort coming by almost a half-second over a strong field.
In the initial stages of her comeback, Meilutyte had success in the 100 breast as well, earning World Championships bronze in 2022 and a shocking world title a year later. Since then, however, her 100 has fallen off significantly, and she ended up 13th in that event in Singapore. Still, her results in her specialty event are worth attention, especially as Meilutyte tries to extend her career long enough to become the first Olympic champion in the event.
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