2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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Women’s 200 IM — Final
- World Record: 2:05.70 — Summer McIntosh, CAN (2025)
- World Junior Record: 2:06.56 — Summer McIntosh, CAN (2024)
- Championship Record: 2:06.12 — Katinka Hosszu, HUN (2015)
- 2023 World Champion: 2:07.17 — Kate Douglass, USA
- 2024 Olympic Champion: 2:06.56 — Summer McIntosh, CAN
Final Results:
- Summer McIntosh (Canada) — 2:06.69
- Alex Walsh (United States) — 2:08.58
- Mary-Sophie Harvey (Canada) — 2:09.15
- Yu Zidi (China) — 2:09.21
- Mio Narita (Japan) — 2:09.56
- Abbie Wood (Great Britain) — 2:09.92
- Anastasia Gorbenko (Israel) — 2:10.26
- Ellen Walshe (Ireland) — 2:11.57
Summer McIntosh is two-for-two through the first two days of the 2025 World Championships. The Canadian claimed her second individual gold medal in her quest for five by winning the women’s 200 IM in 2:06.69 with an almost two-second margin of victory. Her final time checks in as her third quickest ever, but was almost a second shy of the 2:05.70 world record she notched at last month’s Canadian Trials.
McIntosh never trailed in the race, opening in 26.71 and splitting 31.76 on the backstroke leg. Team USA’s Alex Walsh, who sat second throughout, made a move on breaststroke with a 37.03 split that closed much of the gap on McIntosh’s 38.06. McIntosh pulled away again on the freestyle, producing a field-best 30.16 to finish in 2:06.69.
Walsh took silver in 2:08.58, returning to the senior international podium in this event after being disqualified at the 2024 Olympics. She closed in 31.72, the second-slowest closing split in the field, but collects her third Worlds medal in the event after winning in 2022 and grabbing silver in 2023. Her career best remains the 2:07.13 she threw down to win the 2022 World title.
Canada’s Mary-Sophie Harvey was eighth after the butterfly but moved up the field with a 32.87 backstroke split. She pulled herself into third on the breaststroke leg with a 37.21 and held on to secure her first individual long-course World Championship medal in 2:09.15.
Perhaps the most remarkable performance, however, came from Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi, who nearly stole bronze in just her third swim at this level. Yu was third at the halfway point, opening in 27.43 and splitting 32.92 on backstroke to hit the 100-meter mark in 1:00.35. A 38.69 breaststroke leg dropped her to seventh, but she closed hard with a 30.17 freestyle split, pulling into fourth in 2:09.21. She missed the podium by just six-hundredths of a second, but shaved more than a second off her previous best time of 2:10.22, registered in the semifinals.
Prior to the meet, her best time was 2:10.63, which she notched at the Chinese National Championships in May. Before that, her previous best was 2:12.52 from the semifinals of that same meet, and before that, 2:14.04 from almost exactly a year earlier, when she was just 11.
Yu easily cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 2:12.83 with her 2:10.63 swim, qualifying her for these World Championships. World Aquatics typically requires swimmers to be at least 14 years of age to race at Worlds; however, since Yu hit the ‘A’ cuts outright, she booked her ticket to Singapore.
While Yu herself didn’t speak to the media post-race, several of her competitors commented on her swim. Walsh said, “She’s obviously phenomenally talented at such a young age, and I think it’ll be interesting to see how she takes this meet and translates it into the future swims she has, because she’s definitely got a really bright future.”
Harvey stated, “Now she’s gonna have a lot of pressure, but coming into the meet, she was unknown to everyone. So I think it’s good for younger people to just get that experience and swim without any pressure, because they don’t have expectations – it’s just a bonus every time they swim faster.
“She might have more pressure by the end of the meet, because she’s been swimming really well so far. I used to be a junior, and I used to think that it’s just gaining experience for the future, and I think going into LA, we’re probably going to see her a lot more,” she added.
According to Tom Decent of The Sydney Morning Herald, the only younger swimmer to compete at a World Championships was Bahrain’s Alzain Tareq, who raced at age 10 in 2015 under looser qualifying standards. Since then, the global governing body has required swimmers to hit a qualifying standard to compete if they’re under 14, versus going as a Universality selection.
Additionally, from SMH, ‘not since the 1936 Berlin Olympics has a swimmer won an international medal at a younger age. That honour belongs to Denmark’s Inge Sorensen, who picked up a bronze medal less than a month after turning 12.’
Yu is also set to compete in the 200 fly (2:06.83) and 400 IM (4:35.53), events in which she currently ranks seventh and fifth in the world this season, respectively. She has a major chance to grab a medal if she matches or exceeds those performances and continues her head-turning trajectory.
Damn
As a Canadian, I am a huge Summer fan. I figured she’d be the best at 400 IM until eternity.
But now this phenom. Butterfly, IM like McIntosh. Some start young and burnout. Some like Ledecky, start young and just continue.
No matter what, it’s good for the sport. It feels like womens’ swimming vs mens’ has been alot more exciting since Phelps retired.
I know it’s unlikely we’ll ever see her at World Juniors (she’s eligible until 2030 as a junior) but Yu is already over a second faster than Leah Hayes’ WJ championship record 2.10.24.
Her 200 fly PB is already faster than Lana Pudar’s WJ championship record.
Interestingly, World Juniors I don’t believe have the same exception to the age floor as the World Championships do, so she’s not yet eligible for that meet though she is for this meet.
This is so next level, we have someone who’s too **young** to go to World Juniors 😂
I noticed that too after I posted. Swimmers must be 14-18 for females and 15-18 for males on Dec 31 of the year of competition. Yu Zidi turns 13 in Oct so would not be eligible until 2027 WJC.
Doubtful that she’s 12 or 13 or 14.
Aside from the 2.09 itself, it has been extremely impressive to watch her manage her effort across heats, semis and finals in her first international meet in a world class field and drop time each time. Many vets have been failing to do this so far.
straight facts
Is the Chinese team going to have Zidi in 4×200 relay prelims (and if fast enough, just give her the final spot as well)? Seems wise to do so.
She was 1:58.03 in a relay leadoff at trials and I think China only brought their top 4 swimmers from trials. So it’s certainly possible.
What a talent. Good luck to any kid whose parents are friends with Yu Zidis parents lol
yeahyeahyeah…she is 32, are you satisfied?