World Aquatics Championships 2025: Six swimmers to watch out for

The action in the swimming pool begins at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Sunday, when many of the best swimmers on the planet will take to the starting blocks.

Here are six swimmers to watch over eight days of intense competition:

Katie Ledecky, United States

American great Ledecky shows no signs of slowing down as she heads to her seventh world championships looking to add to her haul of 21 gold medals.

The 28-year-old won three times at the US championships last month, clinching the 1,500m freestyle by more than 25 seconds.

That came a month after she broke her own longstanding 800m freestyle world record, clocking 8min 4.12sec in the event that catapulted her to stardom at the age of 15 during the 2012 London Olympics.

Ledecky, who also holds the world record in the 1,500m freestyle and has nine Olympic golds, faces a mouthwatering showdown with Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh in the 400m and 800m freestyle.

Leon Marchand, France

The biggest name in men’s swimming today after his heroics at his home Olympics in Paris last summer.

The 23-year-old clinched gold in all four of his individual events, winning the 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 200m medley and the 400m medley to take the roof off La Defense Arena.

He will concentrate on the medley events in Singapore.

The 400m medley world record holder since 2023, Marchand will attempt to break Ryan Lochte’s 200m medley mark of 1min 54.00sec set in 2011.

Summer McIntosh, Canada

Teenage sensation McIntosh heads to the world championships as swimming’s hottest property after breaking three world records at the Canadian trials last month.

The 18-year-old sliced more than a second off the women’s 400m freestyle mark held by Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and obliterated Hungarian great Katinka Hosszu’s decade-old 200m medley world record.

McIntosh updated her own 400m medley mark to become the first swimmer to break three different long-course world records at the same event since Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

McIntosh won three golds at the Paris Olympics and already has four world titles.

Kaylee McKeown, Australia

McKeown was untouchable at last month’s Australian trials, completing a clean sweep of the three women’s backstroke events.

The 24-year-old was so dominant in the 200m backstroke that she finished more than five seconds clear of second-placed Hannah Fredericks.

McKeown, who won two Olympic golds in Paris, owns world records in the 50m and 200m backstroke.

She skipped last year’s world championships in Doha but won all three backstroke events in 2023 at Fukuoka.

Pan Zhanle, China

The 20-year-old freestyler enjoyed an incredible 2024.

In the 100m at the Paris Olympics, he destroyed the field to clinch gold in an eye-popping 46.40sec, bettering his own world record.

The biggest threat to the defence of his 100m free world title will come from David Popovici in one of the most eagerly anticipated events after the Romanian became the second-fastest man in history with a swim of 46.71sec last month.

Yu Zidi, China

The 12-year-old came out of nowhere to make global headlines at China’s national championships in May with a series of stunning swims.

Yu started the China championships by taking second in the 200m individual medley behind Paris Olympian Yu Yiting in 2min 10.63sec—the fastest time in history for her age group.

Wearing her “doggy” swim cap, Yu then won the women’s 400m individual medley by almost two seconds in a time that would have been fast enough for fourth at the Paris Olympics.

The schoolgirl also won the 200m butterfly in another scarcely believable swim that would again have only narrowly missed out on a medal in Paris.