2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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What a day! Our first World Record of the meet, a new textile World Record and a new Championships record to boot, Day 4 certainly did not disappoint. Perhaps lost in those spectacular performances were a few swims that we feel deserve some extra highlights. Please note that this list is neither in any particular order nor exhaustive.
While Elizabeth Dekkers was lighting things up in the first semifinal of the Women’s 200 fly, Greece’s Georgia Damasioti was setting not only a new personal best, but also a new national record. Damasioti, who finished 15th in the semifinals in this event in Paris with a time of 2:09.55, set a new PBÂ of 2:09.21 when she won the event at the LEN U23 meet earlier this summer. The Greek, who posted a time of 2:09.34 this morning to qualify 10th into the semis, remained in 10th after the semifinals, albeit .95 faster as she stopped the clock in 2:08.39, dropping .82 off her own month-old national record.
Perhaps lost in the shuffle of Leon Marchand‘s unfathomably fast World Record in the 200 IM, the US’s Shaine Casas produced his first personal best in the event since 2022, as his performance tonight of 1:55.13 cut .11 off his old mark. Casas, who trains with Marchand at Texas, led after the fly and was well under WR pace as well, but fell off on the breaststroke. In terms of historical swims, Casas still remains as the 3rd fastest American of all time, behind the now former World Record holder Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, but he did jump Laszlo Cseh to become the world’s 6th fastest performer of all time.
Belgian Roos Vanotterdijk continued her excellent meet, breaking her second national record this week. The 20-year-old, in addition to the two national records, picked up the silver medal in the 100 fly, but today she turned her attention to the backstroke. In the 1st semifinal of the 50 back, Vanotterdijk stopped the clock in 27.67, a mark that cuts .14 of her previous best and national record of 27.81 that she set at the Stockholm Swim Open in April of this year. In the year, she has lowered the national record in six individual events, doing so in some events multiple times.
In the prelims of the Mixed Medley Relay, the Polish team of Ksawery Masiuk (53.31), Dominika Sztandera (1:06.20), Jakub Majerksi (50.99), and Katarzyna Wasick (53.72) bucked the normal conventions of the relay and opted for a female breaststroker. The gamble paid off, however, as the team finished with a time of 3:44.22, not only slicing .98 off their National record from the 2024 European Championships, but also qualifying for the final, where they were just a tad slower, finishing 8th in 3:44.31.
I think Casas’s race strategy is similar to Mckeown’s in the 200 IM because he’s such a good backstroker that he can afford not using as much energy and still producing a solid enough split. It allows him to spend more energy on the other strokes.
Speaking of missed swims, the USA Mixed Medley Relay
too soon 😉
Faster than cseh is a big deal, the guys a legend in my eyes
Think Casas will go 1:54 in the final, which is absolutely rapid, but will look terrible next to whatever Leon does unfortunately.
I could see Leon cruising in the last 50 to a 1:53 high or 1:54 low to conserve energy for the 400 IM, which is such an absurd thing to say
Believe it or not, swimmers are able to give max effort in multiple events over an 8 day meet and not be exhausted. I doubt cruising a 50 will make or break his 400 IM later in the meet.
33.0 breast split is not falling off 29.8 backstroke is. He can go 1:54 low in finals