★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPS ≡
The 2025 World Aquatics Championships closed on Sunday in Singapore with superstars Leon Marchand of France and Summer McIntosh of Canada taking more golds, with a world record from the U.S. in the final event.
The American women had the fastest qualifying time in the heats of the 4×100 m Medley with a reserve team, then brought out its stars for the finale. And they were on it, with Regan Smith leading by 0.12 after a 57.57 backstroke, then Kate Douglass blowing the race wide open with a 1:04.27 breast leg, creating a 2.34-second gap with the rest of the field.
Gretchen Walsh, the 50-100 Fly winner, widened the lead further at 54.98 for her leg and Torri Huske finished it off with a 52.52 Free finale to touch in a world record 3:49.34. That smashed the U.S.’s record swim from Paris 2024 of 3:49.63, which included Smith, Lilly King, Walsh and Huske.
It was a great way to end a difficult meet for the U.S. and one of three medals on the day. Australia was a clear second in 3:52.67, followed by China in 3:54.77.
The final-day events were highlighted by Marchand and McIntosh in the 400 m Medleys, among a bevy of 50 m finals:
● Men/50 Backstroke: World-record holder Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS “neutral”) won his first Worlds gold with a clear win in 23.71, a time only he has bettered (23.55 in 2023) and fastest in the world for 2025.
South Africa’s Pieter Coetze, the 100 m Back winner and Russian Pavel Samusenko tied for second, well back at 24.17. American Quintin McCarty was fifth in 24.58.
● Men/1,500 m Freestyle: Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi got his second gold of the Worlds, winning a tight battle with Sven Schwarz (GER) and Olympic champ Bobby Finke of the U.S.
Schwarz led for much of the race, but Jaouadi – the 800 Free winner – surged to turn first at 1,400 m and had the fastest final 50 to touch in 14:34.41, the no. 10 performance in history; he now ranks sixth all-time.
Schwarz held on for second in 14:35.69, with Finke third in 14:36.60, a seasonal best.
● Men/400 m Medley: French superstar Marchand completed his Medley double with a dominant win in 4:04.73, the no. 5 swim in history in this event. He had the lead right from the start and was never headed, up by almost three seconds at the half and winning by 3.59.
Paris Olympic runner-up Tomoyuki Matsushita (JPN) repeated his silver medal performance, in 4:08.32, ahead of Russian “neutral” Ilia Borodin (4:09.16). Marchand now has four of the top five performances ever in the event.
● Men/4×100 m Medley: The U.S. was the top qualifier, but in the final, lead-off Tommy Janton managed only a 53.37 opener on backstroke and was sixth at the exchange. Josh Matheny moved the U.S. up to fifth on the breaststroke leg and Dare Rose got the Americans to fourth at the final change on butterfly.
Meanwhile, France got strong opening legs from Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Marchand, then took the lead with star Fly leg Maxime Grousset. The Russian “neutral” team was a strong second and Egor Kornev posted a 46.40 Free leg to pass Yann le Goff and win in 3:26.93, the no. 2 time in history.
France’s 3:27.96 ranks as the 12th-fastest ever in second. The U.S. had star sprinter Jack Alexy on anchor and he blasted his leg, moving up to third past Italy and taking the bronze for the Americans in 3:28.62.
Alexy’s split was an insane 45.95, the second-fastest ever, behind only Chinese world-record holder Zhanle Pan’s 45.92 last year in Paris and faster than Jason Lezak’s legendary 46.06 anchor at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (CHN). Relay splits are not considered for record purposes, except for the first leg, when all swimmers start at the same time, but it’s an amazing swim nonetheless.
● Women/50 Freestyle: Australia’s Meg Harris joined the World Champions club with a convincing win in 24.02, ahead of Qingfeng Wu (CHN: 24.26) and Yujie Cheng (CHN: 24.28).
Americans Walsh (24.40) and Huske (24.50) finished fourth and sixth, well off their seasonal bests of 23.91 and 23.98, which came into Singapore 1-2 on the world list.
● Women/50 m Breaststroke: Four Worlds golds in a row for Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte, who was a clear winner in 29.55, just 0.01 off of her world-leading time in the semifinals. China’s Qianting Tang, who won bronze in the 100 Breast, moved up to silver here in 30.03, ahead of Italy’s Benedetta Pilato (30.14), who won her fifth straight Worlds medal in this event (silver-silver-bronze-bronze-bronze).
Retiring star Lilly King of the U.S. finished fifth in 30.25, ending a brilliant career as one of the best ever.
● Women/400 m Medley: Canadian star McIntosh won her fourth gold of the meet, sweeping the medleys with a 4:25.78 performance that is the third-fastest in history. She now has the fastest four swims ever in the event and seven of the top eight.
She won by almost seven-and-a-half seconds, with Jenna Forrester (AUS) and Mio Narita (JPN) tying for second at 4:33.26, with Forrester coming on strong on the final lap to touch at the same time.
China’s 12-year-old sensation. Zidi Yu got fourth in 4:33.76, ahead of Americans Emma Weyant (4:34.01) and Katie Grimes (4:36.52).
In Singapore, Yu was fourth in all three of her individual events: the 200 m Fly and the 200 and 400 m Medleys. She won a bronze as a prelim swimmer in women’s 4×200 m Free relay.
¶
The final medal table showed the U.S. on top with 29 medals in all, with nine golds, 11 silvers and nine bronzes. Australia was second at 20 (8-6-6), with China third at 14 (2-6-6). This was not considered a top performance by the U.S., thanks to the training-camp illness problems and some significant weaknesses in the men’s line-up.
Even so, the U.S. topped the medals list once again and there will be much discussion before the next Worlds, in Budapest (HUN) in 2027.
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 699-event International Sports Calendar for 2025, 2026 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
