Women’s 200m butterfly - Summer McIntosh ventures into uncharted territory

For years, the 2:01.81 world mark set by China’s Liu Zige back in 2009 seemed otherworldly. Stratospheric. Never to be repeated again. The hardest record on the books. Whatever superlative you wanted to use, it was unexpected the world record would be touched for a long, long time.

On Thursday night in the opening event of the fifth night of finals from the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, Canada’s Summer McIntosh got closer than anyone had been before, swimming 2:01.99.

The fact she didn’t even break the record and the reaction is still unfathomable that she got so close says something about the status of the record. Since 2010, there have only been four swims inside 2:04 let alone getting to 2:01. McIntosh, age 18, has now made that record vulnerable and won her third World title in the event, and her third of these championships.

At 100 meters, McIntosh cruised through at 58.41, over Liu’s record pace. On the third 50m, her 31.59 pulled her in front of the mark and the line didn’t run away from her like it did for so many others over the years. Splitting 31.99 on the last 50m, McIntosh lowered her own Americas record of 2:02.26 from June to inch closer to Liu’s mark.

“Going into tonight, my coach and I, our big goal was to break that world record,” McIntosh said. “It’s what I’ve been training for. To see that I missed it by that little, and I know that I messed up the last 15 metres of my race… Overall, happy with the time and a PB, but I didn’t reach my goal tonight. Happy with the gold, happy with the win, just going to keep pushing forward.”

McIntosh, coached by Fred Vergnoux in France, has won all three of her individual events this week in Singapore as she is taking on five events this week at these championships in a trial run for a similar lineup at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The 800m freestyle is next for her in a much anticipated matchup with Katie Ledecky, while the 400m IM on Sunday is her final event.

Somewhat lost in the shuffle, USA’s Regan Smith (2:04.99) won her eighth career individual medal at the World Aquatics Championships, winning silver at 2:04.99. It’s a season best for Smith, who matched her silver from Paris 2024 and elevated her bronze from Fukuoka 2023.

“I thought that 2:04 was going to be my ceiling this year because I've been really candid about my lack of aerobic training this year,” Smith said. “I've been dealing with a lot of the crap that we went through in Thailand, so I didn't know what I would be able to put together because sometimes my 200 fly can be a little all over the place anyway. But again, I was just thinking if I could put together a really good race, I think I'll be 2:04, so it was 2:04.99, I hit the wall and I was like, 'Okay!’ I will gladly take that.'”

Australia’s Elizabeth Dekkers (2:06.12) won the bronze medal, adding to her silver from Fukuoka 2023. Dekkers, age 21, finished third at the Australian Nationals in this event, but was elevated to the Worlds team after Abbey Connor scratched. Dekkers is coached by Dean Boxall at St. Peters Western.

“While that's not the best race I've put together, I'm pretty happy with that, considering the prep, and I'm really happy right now,” Dekkers said. “It was definitely tough, you know, I was on break. I was getting ready to not race for six months or so. So it was definitely a mindset shift. But at the end of the day, this wasn't an opportunity I was going to pass up. The world champs don't come around all that often, so I just got up and got ready and just put no expectations on it.”

China’s Yu Zidi (2:06.43) continued her dreamlike run in Singapore with another fourth place finish at age 12, matching her finish in the 200m IM. Yu is the youngest athlete at these championships, creating headlines around the world for her age and her place amongst the world’s best.

Yu finished ahead of last year’s silver medalist Helena Rosendahl Bach (2:07.47) of Denmark and the other American, Caroline Bricker (2:07.59).

Great Britain’s Emily Richards (2:07.99) and Ireland’s Ellen Walshe (2:08.34) also swam in the championship final.

Men’s 200m IM - Leon Marchand follows up world record with gold in Bob Bowman podium sweep

After annihilating the last world record of the Phelps-Lochte era last night in the semi-finals, France’s Leon Marchand followed up with the first ever 1:53 in the 200m IM on Thursday night in Singapore. Marchand already swam 1:52 last night, leaving his swim tonight as the second fastest performance in history.

Marchand was a tenth over his record pace at the 100m mark, but his breaststroke split of 32.96, although the fastest in the field, was slower than his 32.13 last night. That was the difference maker as his freestyle split tonight was only a tenth slower than his free split last night. Marchand’s 1:53.68 brings him his third World title in the event after golds in Budapest 2022 and Fukuoka 2023.

“Yeah, I felt so excited yesterday that I couldn’t sleep, so I was enjoying the moment too, yesterday a lot,” Marchand said. “So I think I lost a lot of energy yesterday night, but it was my goal to break the record, so I was really happy with it. And then today was a different mood. I would say, I was going for the title, and I was racing my teammates during the heats, so that was pretty fun. 3 of my teammates, and we’re sharing the podium together, that’s just showing how good coach (Bob) Bowman is in swimming.”

“He used up a lot of energy yesterday to go after that record — it took a toll,” French national team coach Nicolas Castel said. “He had trouble falling asleep after the race, the excitement was still there. So we had to adjust his schedule this morning and let him sleep in to recover as best as possible.”

“It was a bit tough today,” Marchand said. “I tried to relax a bit, watched some videos, read a little, tried to calm down… but it wasn’t easy. I think I got up around 12:30 today, so it took the whole day to really wake up. It was a bit rough, especially before a final — there’s still a title on the line. I know Shaine always goes out super fast, so I knew I wouldn’t be far off from him. It was a battle all the way to the end, so that was cool for me.”

Marchand led a podium sweep of Bob Bowman coached athletes as the three Austin, Texas-based swimmers - Marchand, American Shaine Casas (1:54.30) and Hungarian Hubert Kos (1:55.34) won the medals. Bowman is not in attendance in Singapore but was watching the race from afar.

The swim for Casas is a huge breakthrough as he had never been under 1:55 and had yet to win a medal in a major 200m IM final in his career, despite being the sixth fastest performer all-time. Casas was ninth in Paris 2024, fifth in Doha last year, and fourth in Fukuoka 2023, as his swim tonight brings him up to fourth all-time.

“That was my first great swim in probably three years. So I'm pretty happy with that,” Casas said. “Everybody saw what happened last night, so that was definitely kind of on my mind. You know how talented and great Leon is, but you know, I just kept telling myself that I'm a great competitor and I'm at the same level, maybe a little bit a little bit back. But you know, we keep working and pushing towards getting to that mark as well. But I was pretty happy with that race. I feel like that's got to be one of the most competitive races in a long time, so I thought that was great to be a part of.”

Kos, age 22, also won his first 200m IM medal after he returned to the event as he moved away from it after he was sixth in Budapest 2022 before he made the move to swim for Bowman. Kos swam 1:55.34 in winning the bronze, the first for Hungary since Laszlo Cseh’s bronze in Shanghai 2011, as he moved to tenth all-time.

“Back to my roots,” Kos said of the 200m IM. “So I returned to the event where I made my first world championship final, and really, really glad to get a medal out of it. It's hard not to medal if you're in a training group like what we have. So I was really, really happy with the whole night.”

Kos’s medal also secures Hungary’s first swimming medal at these championships as Hungary has won a medal at every edition of the World Aquatics Championships, a feat only the United States has also achieved.

The race also went on without American Carson Foster, who swims in Bowman’s Texas group and qualified eighth last night. He scratched at the last minute, giving way to Japan’s Kosuke Makino to swim, who finished eighth at 1:59.25.

Olympic silver medalist Duncan Scott (1:56.32) finished fourth ahead of New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt (1:57.06) and Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita (1:57.52).

China’s Wang Shun (1:57.92), who had the loudest ovation of any of the finalists this week in Singapore thanks to numerous supporters showing signs with his name on them, finished seventh at 1:57.92.

Men’s 100m freestyle - David Popovici conquers the world and nearly takes the world record with him

It was the fastest field ever assembled with 47.64 sitting eighth after the semi-finals - the fastest eighth place semi-final time in history. The pace was hot and the race lived up to the billing with the three most experienced in the field coming out on top.

Romania’s David Popovici won his second gold medal of these championships and his second in the 100m freestyle as the 21-year-old swam 46.51, the second fastest performance in history.

“I’d say tonight was a 10 out of 10,” Popovici said. “I’m not one to say that. You never have a 10, but I think today was a 10 out of 10. I’ll enjoy that and I’ll celebrate the party.”

Popovici, coached by Adrian Radulescu, flipped fourth at the 50m turn, and exploded out of the wall, coming home in 24.02 to take down this impressive field. At age 21, Popovici has already achieved so much in his career, and with his win tonight, he is starting to cement his legacy as one of the all-time greats. Pan Zhanle’s 46.40 remains, despite him being absent from the final due to his 10th place showing in the semis, but the rest of the world is swimming faster than ever as five of the eight finalists swam a lifetime best this calendar year.

"I didn't expect the 46.5,” Popovici said. “That was pretty fast. I mean, I'm also surprising myself a little bit. I'm surprised, but not shocked, because I have sort of scratched these times in training, so I knew what I was capable of. It was just a matter of ‘how can I be less afraid of reaching my own potential?’ So, when I really realised that I've got nothing to be scared of and that I'm a good swimmer, I realised I can do this. These thoughts (of not being good) crawl up all the time on me, and even on Phelps or Marchand and any other swimmer, athlete, or human being.”

Jack Alexy (46.92) of the United States and Kyle Chalmers (47.17) of Australia won silver and bronze, leaving the podium as the three everyone expected.

“I knew that it was going to be a really good race,” Alexy said. “That's an insanely stacked field across the board,” Alexy said. “I was talking to David before the race in the call room and the last thing he said to me, ‘let's put on a show.’ So I think we definitely put on a show.”

For an American team that has struggled with illness the last couple weeks, Alexy’s medal is a big step for the team as a whole. Last night, he broke the American record that belonged to Caeleb Dressel in the semi-finals, and matched his silver from Fukuoka 2023 after he was seventh at the Olympics last year.

“After missing the podium last year at the Paris Olympics, it definitely feels great to be back on the podium,” Alexy said. “And it's great because it gives me something else to work towards, which is to get the gold medal in the individual race. I am really grateful for where I'm at right now and always hungry for more.”

This is the 17th medal for the Americans at these championships as Alexy, age 22 and coached by Dave Durden in Berkeley, California, is looking to be the guy for the American team in sprint freestyle ahead of a home Olympics in three years. This swim, getting it done in the final and going under 47 twice at this meet, is a huge step for him in his young career.

“I think the biggest change in the mental process and the hours and the days leading up to the race, just trying to focus on why I love the sport and just look back on how far I've come, rather than trying to focus on putting pressure on myself about, okay, ‘I need to go this time.’ So I think it's just really letting me swim free and just have fun in the sport that I've always loved.”

Australia’s Chalmers won his third career medal in the 100m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships at 47.17, backing up his gold from Fukuoka 2023 and his silver in Gwangju 2019. Chalmers, age 27 and coached by Shaun Curtis, has been a consistent force in the 100m freestyle after he was the World Junior champion back in this city ten years ago in 2015. He just missed his own lifetime best of 47.08.

“I was never going to swim 46.5, or around that mark unfortunately,” Chalmers said. “I would have loved to see 46 next to my name, but I'm really, really proud of that performance, and to come away with a medal in such a stacked final is something I'm extremely proud of.”

Brazil’s Gui Caribe, racing out of lane eight and flipping second at 50 meters, finished fourth at 47.35. Caribe came in as the third fastest in the world this year off his 47.1 from April as he swam in his second final of the week after he was eighth in the 50m butterfly.

Egor Kornev (47.51) finished fifth after flipping first at 50 meters. Patrick Sammon (47.58) finished sixth for the United States ahead of France’s Maxime Grousset (47.59) and Great Britain’s Matthew Richards (47.74).

Women’s 50m backstroke - Katharine Berkoff leads 1-2 American finish with Regan Smith

The Americans celebrated a 1-2 finish with Katharine Berkoff (27.08) winning her first World title with Regan Smith (27.25) winning the silver for her second medal of that color at these championships.

Berkoff elevated her silver from Budapest 2022 and bronze from Tuesday’s 100m final to win gold, just a tenth off her 26.97 American record from June. Berkoff, coached by Braden Holloway, remains second all-time.

Smith won her third silver of these championships at age 23 as she will also race the 200m backstroke later this week.

Both Berkoff and Smith were hit by acute gastroenteritis in the lead-up to these championships but prevailed to finish with gold and silver here.

“Resilience, big time,” Smith said of winning medals after being sick. “I can’t speak for Katharine, but it hit me, it did not leave me unscathed. I'm grateful that I've been recovering. USA's been so tough. This has probably been the worst meet ever experienced in terms of getting slammed by something at the last possible second. Very unfortunate, but we're not going to go down without a fight, we're very tough, and I think we're continuing to build momentum, so I think we're going to end the week really strong. A lot of us are getting our strength back, and it's great, so I'm excited to see what we do over these last few days.”

"I mean, it was really tough,” Berkoff said. “There were a few days I wasn't sure I was going to be able to race, so it was definitely a rocky road, but super glad to be where I'm at right now and feel healthy again."

The bronze went the way of China’s Wan Letian (27.30) for the first individual medal of her career at the Worlds at age 21.

“In the past, I’d find myself looking at my opponents,” Wan said. “Tonight, I just focused on myself, didn’t think about anything else.”

Wan swam her lifetime best in winning bronze over Canada’s Kylie Masse (27.33).

Great Britain’s Lauren Cox (27.36), racing her fourth 50m backstroke of the competition after she tied for 16th in the heats and needed a swim-off to advance, finished fifth.

Alina Gaifutdinova (27.44) finished sixth ahead of France’s Analia Pigree (27.47) and Canada’s Ingrid Wilm (27.56) in the championship final.

Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay - Australia beats United States in thriller on backs of O’Callaghan & Castelluzzo

The two best global swimming nations put on a duel on the final event of the fifth night of swimming from the 2025 World Aquatics Championships as Australia (7:39.35) won a thrilling race over the United States (7:40.01).

In the world rankings for the 200m freestyle coming into the championships, the Americans and Australians held the top six spots, setting up an intriguing matchup in this relay. The two nations traded the gold medal at seven of the last eight World Championships and Australia got its third straight win over the Americans in the last three years.

The team of Lani Pallister (1:54.77), Jamie Perkins (1:55.13), Brittany Castelluzzo (1:56.01) and Mollie O’Callaghan (1:53.44) sang the national anthem together, while O’Callaghan won her 15th career medal at the World Aquatics Championships. Pallister, Perkins, and O’Callaghan all train together with coach Dean Boxall while Castelluzzo swims with coach Craig Stewart at Tea Tree Gully.

“I was trying to focus on myself and my own race plan,” Castelluzzo said. “That’s something that is super important in relays, especially in a 200, it can be easy to get excited at the start when you dive in and catch a person next to you, but I know my back end is my strength, so I was just trying to keep calm and then have fun trying to mow someone down the last 50.”

The American team of Claire Weinstein (1:54.83), Anna Peplowski (1:54.75), Erin Gemmell (1:56.72) and Katie Ledecky (1:53.71) broke the American record from Tokyo 2020. Weinstein and Peplowski got the team off to a hot start while Gemmell held the lead for 100 meters of her leg.

“It was great from start to finish, and an American record is also so awesome to be along with these ladies,” Peplowski said. “And it was just a really fun race overall.”

It almost looked like Ledecky would dive in with a body length lead on the Olympic and World champion O’Callaghan, but Castelluzzo ran down Gemmell, giving O’Callaghan the lead on Ledecky.

“I was pretty much was saying to Mollie ‘Do you know who you are?’” Pallister said. “And I think when you’ve had the former world record, and you’ve won the world championship the day before going in. Even in my mind, as soon as Mollie dives in, I know we’ve won it. I have so much confidence in her and her abilities, and seeing her do her thing in the 200 is always so wicked. So having her anchor was the best thing for our confidence, really.”

O’Callaghan held her own on the anchor, showing why she is the best 200m freestyler in the world.

“It is very special,” O’Callaghan said. “Like it would be wrong if I said it wasn’t special. It’s a huge accomplishment in a way and I think no matter how many medals, it’s so special. Each moment I can remember and it just shows the journey that I’ve had, and us girls have, because I haven’t been able to do all of these gold medals without these girls. It just shows Australia’s accomplishments.”

China won bronze at 7:42.99 with the team of Liu Yaxin (1:55.94), Yang Peiqi (1:55.84), Yu Yiting (1:56.37), and Li Bingjie (1:54.84) as China won its ninth medal at these championships and its tenth medal in the 4x200m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships. The Chinese team had a large number of supporters in attendance at the World Championships Arena in Singapore as the noise was heard during the race.

“I could definitely hear them,” Yu said of the supporters. “You feel like you’re not battling alone. It’s not often that you’ll feel this level of support when you’re competing away from home. It feels even stronger, even more boisterous than when we’re on home. Perhaps it’s because this was a team event.”

The quickest splits outside the top four came from Hungary’s Lilla Abraham (1:56.57), Great Britain’s Freya Colbert (1:57.05), Hungary’s Panna Ugrai (1:57.18), and Nikolett Padar (1:57.19).

Semis Wrap

Women’s 100m freestyle

Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands swam to the top seed at 52.81, just 0.01 ahead of Mollie O’Callaghan (52.82) of Australia, setting up a duel for tomorrow night. Steenbergen was the World champ last year but finished seventh in Paris.

O’Callaghan already won gold in the 200m freestyle on Wednesday, and has won two World titles in Budapest 2022 and Fukuoka 2023.

Daria Klepikova (53.14) is seeded third ahead of American Torri Huske (53.21), who won Olympic silver last year. Huske was one of the swimmers to have come ill at these championships but will still be a medal favorite in this event tomorrow night.

China’s Cheng Yujie (53.34) heard the cheers from the Chinese supporters in the crowd as she is seeded fifth ahead of France’s Beryl Gastaldello (53.36), Italy’s Sara Curtis (53.39), and the Netherlands’ Milou Van Wijk (53.51).

Notably, this race will go on without American Gretchen Walsh, who scratched the event this morning, presumably due to the after effects of the aforementioned illness affecting the US team this week.

Women’s 200m breaststroke

In one of the most anticipated races of the entire meet, world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova (2:20.65) and Olympic champion Kate Douglass (2:20.96) will do battle in the 200m breaststroke final tomorrow night as it is their race to lose.

Douglass is ranked fourth all-time and beat Chikunova in this event at the World Short Course Championships in December, while Chikunova is the only one to swim 2:17 in history.

Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova (2:22.98) is seeded third ahead of Great Britain’s Angharad Evans (2:23.32), who was ranked #1 in the world in the 100m breaststroke coming into the meet before she finished 18th in the heats. Teterevkova has also never won a medal at the World Aquatics Championships.

In fact, none of the rest of the finalists in the 200m breaststroke have won a medal at Worlds.

Alina Zmushka (2:23.33) is seeded fifth ahead of Ireland’s Ellie Mc Cartney (2:23.79), South Africa’s Kaylene Corbett (2:23.81), and Denmark’s Clara Rybak-Andersen (2:24.10).

After Douglass and Chikunova, the best result at a Worlds from the rest of the finalists was Zmushka’s fourth in the 200m breaststroke in Doha 2024.

Notably, 100m champion Anna Elendt (2:24.39) did not advance to the final in placing 11th, ahead of American Alex Walsh (2:25.16), who came in ranked fourth in the world this year.

Men’s 200m breaststroke

Japan’s Ippei Watanabe is en route to his fourth career World Championships final as the top seed at age 28, swimming 2:08.01 in the semis. Watanabe won double bronze in Budapest 2017 and Gwangju 2019 and is in the driver’s seat for tomorrow night where he is looking to win Japan’s first gold in the event since Kosuke Kitajima won in Melbourne 2007.

Japan has three of the four fastest times in the world this year as Yamato Fukasawa, the top ranked in the world, is fourth for tomorrow at 2:08.45. The top time in the world this year  belongs to 16-year-old Shin Ohashi, who swam 2:07.27 in June but did not make the Worlds team for Japan.

American AJ Pouch (2:08.34) is the second seed in his first World Aquatics Championships at age 25.

Last year’s Olympic bronze medalist Caspar Corbeau (2:08.44) of the Netherlands is seeded fourth ahead of last year’s World Short Course champion Carles Coll Marti (2:08.49) of Spain.

Aleksandr Zhigalov (2:08.55) and Kirill Prigoda (2:08.91) advanced in sixth and seventh, while world record holder and 2023 World champion Qin Haiyang (2:09.32) advanced in eighth.

Men’s 200m backstroke

South Africa’s Pieter Coetze (1:54.22) backed up his 100m gold medal on Tuesday to break the African record in the semis to move to tenth all-time. Coetze will do battle with 100m bronze medalist Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (1:54.47) of France, who is having the meet of his life. Ndoye-Brouard lowered his lifetime best by over a second from lane one in the second semi, the same lane where he won the 100m bronze medal.

Last year’s Olympic champ Hubert Kos (1:54.64) of Hungary is seeded third as he was also   the World champion in Fukuoka 2023. Last year’s Olympic bronze medalist Roman Mityukov (1:54.83) advanced in fourth in breaking his own national record.

Canada’s Blake Tierney (1:55.03), who had a huge swim in the heats after coming in seeded 22nd amongst those qualified for Worlds, is seeded fifth ahead of Greece’s Apostolos Siskos (1:55.06) and Czechia’s Jan Cejka (1:55.46).

Great Britain’s Luke Greenbank (1:55.64) qualified eighth as he won silver in Budapest 2022 and bronze in Gwangju 2019. Greenbank was a medal favorite in Paris last year but was disqualified for going past 15m in the heats on the start.

Notably, American Keaton Jones finished 12th and out of the final at 1:56.20, meaning no Americans will advance to the final.