See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here.
This calendar year has been an exciting one for swimming, and the European men were on fire this year. The 2025 World Championships saw Europe dominate the podium, particularly on the men’s side.
While many of the European men rose above the rankings this year, and we saw numerous record-breaking swims, Leon Marchand stayed one step ahead of the field and earns his third straight European Male Swimmer of the Year Award.
Marchand’s 2025 was not as dominant as his 2024, and it was plagued by uncertainty. He withdrew from the 2024 SC World Championships in December, originally citing ‘fatigue’ after a long and successful year of racing.
In April, after not racing for the entire 1st quarter of 2025, Marchand revealed that fatigue wasn’t the only reason for his withdrawal and that he actually subluxated his shoulder in December. He took that time off from racing to travel to Australia and train with Dean Boxall’s pro group there, and only a few weeks into his trip, he learned he had stress fractured his rib.
He returned to Austin in March and began racing at the end of April, only swimming three meets before the World Championships in Singapore.
Marchand came into the meet with swimming fans voicing concerns about his fitness, and his decision to scratch the 200 fly and 200 breaststroke only added fuel to that fire.
He came into the 200 IM semifinal as the top seed, after coming in just a tenth ahead of Japan’s Kosuke Makino in the prelims. In the 2nd semifinal, Marchand had one of the most impressive swimming performances in history, shattering Ryan Lochte‘s former World Record time.
Marchand swam 1:52.69 to miss the 1:53 mark entirely, becoming the first person under 1:54 and the first person under 1:53 in the event. He went on to win the event in the final, swimming the first ever 1:53 in the 200 IM, to touch in 1:53.68.
He also swam the 400 IM at worlds, earning another gold medal with his time of 4:04.73, which was the 5th fastest performance in history in the event. Four of the top five times belong to Marchand and the 5th is Phelps’ former World Record
All-Time Performances, Men’s 400 IM (LCM)
- Leon Marchand (FRA), 4:02.50 – 2023
- Leon Marchand (FRA), 4:02.95 – 2024
- Michael Phelps (USA), 4:03.84 – 2008
- Leon Marchand (FRA), 4:04.28 – 2022
- Leon Marchand (FRA), 4:04.73 – 2025
He also swam on the French 4×200 freestyle relay, anchoring them to a 6th place finish with his 1:44.34 split, which was the fourth fastest in the field. On the French 400 medley relay, Marchand split 58.44 to help them earn the silver and swim a new French National Record.
He only swam three more meets over the rest of the year, including just one of the World Cup stops, where he did not win any events, but his 200 IM World Record was out of this world and earned him the top spot on this list.
Honorable Mentions
- Lukas Märtens (GER) — Germany’s Lukas Martens started his 2025 when he broke one of the strongest super-suited World Records on the books. At the 2025 Swim Open in Stockholm, Märtens took down Paul Biedermann’s 16-year-old record of 3:40.07 to become the first person under 3:40 in the event, touching in 3:39.96. This was a new best time by about four-tenths and made him the heavy favorite going into Singapore. He was not quite able to replicate that swim, however, touching in 3:42.35 at Worlds to earn the gold medal. He also finished 3rd in the 800 freestyle to pick up a 2nd medal at the Championships
- Hubert Kos (HUN) — Kos started the year with three golds and two new NCAA records at the 2025 NCAA Championships. His records came from the backstroke events where he swam 43.20 in the 100 and 1:34.21 in the 200, shattering the former record of 1:35.37. He went on to win two medals at the 2025 World Championships, taking the gold in the 200 back in a personal best time of 1:53.19 and the bronze in the 200 IM with another new personal best 1:55.34. The rest of his year was even stronger. In October, he broke both SCM backstroke World Records at the final World Cup stop in Toronto, swimming 48.16 in the 100 back and 1:45.12 in the 200 back. He also won the overall World Cup standings, scoring 175.8 points to come in just over four points ahead of Shaine Casas from the United States.
Past Winners
- 2024 Swammy — Leon Marchand, France
- 2023 Swammy — Leon Marchand, France
- 2022 Swammy – David Popovici, Romania
- 2021 Swammy – Evgeny Rylov, Russia
- 2020 Swammy – Ilya Shymanovich, Belarus
- 2019 Swammy – Adam Peaty, Great Britain
- 2018 Swammy – Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia
- 2017 Swammy – Adam Peaty, Great Britain
- 2016 Swammy – Adam Peaty, Great Britain
- 2015 Swammy – Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy
- 2014 Swammy – Florent Manaudou, France
- 2013 Swammy – Vladimir Morozov, Russia
David Popovici is the best swimmer in the world in 2025. Anyone who takes the 100/200 fr double is King.
European men have been quite dominant for years now, but this year was much closer for this award than the last few since Marchand wasn’t as dominant and there are plenty of other things to consider than gold medals in Singapore.
I would have liked to see Popovici among the HMs since he triumphed in the blue ribbon event and arguably the second most difficult event too, overcoming another 46 and another 1:43 in each. That’s mental. He didn’t do much outside Worlds but that performance alone I think is enough to earn him a HM.
I could see Grousset as a HM too; double Worlds goal, ER in the 100 fly and a strong SC Euros performance.
The Martens… Read more »
Sand found on beach
Why not have three honourable mentions on your list?
Would have liked to see David Popovici mentioned! He was outstanding in Singapore.
Yea, there’s routinely 3 or 4 HMs. Popovici and Grousset need to be added.
SwimSwam is so inconsistent with the number of honourable mentions. There are 4 hourable mentions for breakout swimmers of the year but only 2 here.
I would also give Maxime Grousset some credit here
50 fly & 100 fly double w/ 22.48 (fourth all time?) and 49.62 (second of all time behind CD?)
Yep, Grousset was an absolute machine this year and really bounced back after his individual mishaps in Paris
individual mishaps? i think he has just been getting better with age and he still wasn’t at full force in Paris
Maybe not mishaps but he kind of underperformed in Paris. He won 100 fly gold in Fukuoka 2023 with a PB of 50.14, and was considered medal favorite as well as gold contender before Paris. He only went 50.75 in the 100 fly Olympic final, which I believe is not what he expected from himself.
When you look at his final swim in Paris as part of the 4×100 medley relay and compare it to the 100fly individually there’s such a gap, that’s what I was refering to by mishaps
also Manadou said in the swimswam interview that they had to take a medal in the reley because Grousset couldn’t end the Olympics with no medal, so he was probably upset by his performace in the individual race
As others have said, Popovici is a glaring omission for HM. The 100/200 freestyle are literally the two most competitive and blue ribbon events in swimming and he won both
This year was a resurgence for him after a disappointing Olympics. He pretty much went from “big meet choker” to the sole threat to Pan’s WR at the perfect time. Would not have expected a 46.4 to be considered beatable already only within a year.
Kos broke one of the most incredible SCM World records. (200 back). He was hard done by here.
Popovici absolutely needs to be here.