2025 World Championships Previews: Can Tang Qianting Defend Her 100 Breaststroke Title?

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• SwimSwam Preview Index

By the Numbers – Women’s 100 Breaststroke

• World Record: 1:04.13– Lilly King, United States (2017)
• World Junior Record: 1:04.32– Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania (2013)
• Championship Record: 1:04.13– Lilly King, United States (2017)
• 2023 World Champion: Ruta Meilutyte (LTH), 1:04.62
• 2024 Olympic Champion: Tatjana Smith (RSA), 1:05.28

Returning Olympic Finalists

• Silver Medal- Tang Qianting (CHN), Bronze Medal- Mona McSharry (IRL), 4th- Lilly King (USA), 6th- Angharad Evans (GBR), 7th- Eneli Jefimova (EST), 8th- Alina Zmushka

The last three major long course meets have all seen different 100 breaststroke champions. At the 2023 World Championships, Lithuanian swimmer Ruta Meilutyte took home the gold in 1:04.62. At the 2024 World Championships, which was missing a lot of the major star power, China’s Tang Qianting won the event in 1:05.27, and at the 2024 Olympic Games, Tatjana Smith from South Africa was the champion in 1:05.28.

Smith will not be contending for the World Title, as she retired after last summer’s Olympics, but the other two women are returning, along with a host of other breaststrokers that are making the field incredibly tight.

Former World Champions

The 100 breaststroke field at these World Championships will be led by a host of veterans, some of whom already have a World Title under their belt in this event.

While the 2024 World Championships were lacking some of the greatest swimmers in the world, the 100 breaststroke was not one of the events that was missing star power. Tang Qianting from China won in 1:05.27, a time that would have won the event at the Olympics just a few months later. She ended up finishing with the silver at the Games, coming in behind Smith at 1:05.54.

Tang won the event at the 2025 Chinese National Championships in May, touching in 1:05.57 to log the 2nd fastest time in the world this year. She holds the Asian and Chinese National Records in the event at 1:04.39, which she did at last year’s Chinese Nationals. She has the fastest time from the last two years in the event, and she is a heavy favorite to bring home the gold again this year.

TANG-Qianting
World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024
02 – 18 Feb 2024
credit Fabio Cetti

Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte won the 2023 iteration of this meet in 1:04.62. She is a serious contender in the 50 breaststroke, but her 100 was not as strong last year. At the 2024 World Champs, she failed to make the semifinal, coming in at 17th with her 1:07.79. At the Olympics, she finished 11th overall in 1:06.89. She has not swum the event this year, but her Olympic time of 1:06.89 is under the qualifying standard, so she is eligible to swim the event. She will need to find her 2023 speed if she wants to qualify for the final at all, but if she drops under 1:05 again, she could easily be in medal contention.

Lilly King, from the United States, hasn’t won a World Title since 2019, but she is the World Record holder in the event. This will be King’s last meet, so she could find another gear to help her go out on top. At the 2025 U.S. Nationals, she finished 2nd in the event, touching in 1:06.02 for the 9th fastest time this year.

She has been at the top of the breaststroke events since 2016, and she has never finished worse than 4th overall in the event. She is capable of exceptional speed, and it would not be shocking for her to find her way back to the podium this year.

World Leaders

The current fastest time in the world this year belongs to Great Britain’s Angharad Evans in 1:05.37 from the GB Swimming Championships in April. With this time, she broke her own British National record in the event, and went two tenths faster than anyone else has been this year. At the Olympics in July, Evans finished 6th in 1:05.85.

She doesn’t have an exceptional amount of international experience, with the Olympics being her first major senior level meet. She did compete at the SC World Championships in December, where she earned a 7th place finish in the 100 breast. Her time from April bodes well for her performance at her first long course Worlds, and she could easily find a medal if she repeats that performance, or gets even faster.

Angharad Evans (photo: Jack Spitser)

After Evans is Tang in 2nd, and then Anna Elendt from Germany clocks in at 3rd. Elendt swam 1:05.72 to win the German Swimming Championships at the beginning of May. This was the fastest she has been in the event since 2022 when she set her personal best time of 1:05.58. That summer, she earned the silver medal at the World Championships in 1:05.98. She has struggled internationally since then, most recently finishing 20th at the Olympics last summer in 1:07.00. Her 1:05.72 from May bodes very well though for her potential finals and podium chances.

The next three swimmers are all separated by three hundredths of a second, and they are the last three swimmers who have been under 1:06 this season. Kate Douglass from the United States comes in 4th in 1:05.79. Eneli Jefimova from Estonia is 5th in 1:05.81, and Italy’s Anita Bottazzo is 6th in 1:05.82.

Douglass is the reigning Olympic Champion in the 200 breaststroke, but this will be her first time competing in the 100 breast at a major international meet. She was scheduled to swim the event in 2024, before she scratched it to focus on her other swims. At the 2025 US Nationals, she won the event, beating the World Record holder Lilly King and setting a new personal best 1:05.79 to sit 4th in the World this year. As one of the favorites to win the 200 breaststroke, she could easily end up on the podium in the 100, and she is a very strong finals contender.

Kate Douglass (photo: Jack Spitser)

Jefimova’s 1:05.81 comes from the AP Race London meet at the end of May, where she won the 100 breast, beating the current world leader Angharad Evans by more than two tenths. This was a new personal best time for her as well, improving from the 1:05.86 she swam in April. Her top four times in the event were all swum in the last 12 months, which is a good sign for her progression, but begs the question about how much more she has in the tank to drop later this month.

Bottazzo is the final swimmer to come in under 1:06, swimming 1:05.82 to win the gold medal at the Italian swimming championships. This was a massive best time for her, dropping from her previous best of 1:07.17. She has swam the event a few times since then, including at the Canadian Trials, where she swam 1:07.27 and a Speedo Sectionals meet in June, where she went 1:06.97. If she can repeat the 1:05, she will likely find herself in finals, but she would need more speed if she is looking to earn an individual medal in the event.

Other Notable Swimmers

It feels weird to be mentioning the Olympic bronze medalist so late in the article, but Ireland’s Mona McSharry has not had exceptionally strong swims so far this season. She took a few months off after the Olympics before returning to NCAA competition for her final season, where she finished 2nd individually, about half a second off her lifetime best in the SCY event. At the Irish Championships, she won the 100 breast in 1:06.87 before she went a hundredth faster at the Sette Colli Trophy, touching in 1:06.86, which ties for 16th in the world this year.

McSharry has a high ceiling, having swum 1:05.59 in Paris to win the bronze, and if she is able to replicate that performance, she could challenge for the podium.

Mona McSharry (photo: Jack Spitser)

Evgenia Chikunova, from Russia, sits in 10th in the world at 1:06.13, which she went at the Russian National Championships in April. Chikunova did not compete at the 2024 Olympics after she decided not to seek neutral status. She has one of the fastest recorded 100 breaststroke times in the field, having swum 1:04.92 in April of 2023. She could easily end up in podium position or even at the top with the right swim.

Japan has a strong contender in Satomi Suzuki. Suzuki won the Japanese Trials in 1:06.21 in March. In June, she swam 1:06.00 to earn the 7th fastest time in the world this year. The 34-year-old has a plethora of experience in international competition, most recently competing at the Paris Olympics where she finished 12th in the 100 breaststroke and 4th in the 200 breaststroke. While her best time of 1:05.91 doesn’t make her a podium contender, she is another of the potential finals athletes.

Italy’s Lisa Angiolini comes in at 8th fastest this season with the 1:06.01 she went at the Italian Swimming Championships. Angolini’s 2nd place finish at the meet earned her a World Championships qualifying spot in the event. Italian breaststroker and Olympic 4th place finisher Benedetta Pilato scratched out of the event at Nationals and is only entered in the 50 breaststroke at Worlds, opening up a spot for Angiolini who could contend for one of the eight finals lanes.

Finally, we have Alina Zmushka from Belarus. Zmushka finished 8th at the Olympic Games, touching in 1:06.54. This was about half-a-second slower than the 1:05.93 she went to qualify for the final, but her finals swim is in line with what she has done so far this year, with her season best time coming in at 1:06.78 from April. She would need to swim closer to her semifinals time in Paris if she is wanting to make the final here.

The Prediction

It is hard to bet against Tang. She did not have an incredible swim at the Olympics, but she is the reigning World Champion, and the only athlete who has been under 1:05 in the last 18 months.

It seems to be Tang’s race to lose, but the event could easily go in another direction. Chikunova could challenge with the 2nd fastest time from 2024 or later. Chikunova earns our pick for 2nd overall.

Evans has had the strongest performance in the event this year, making her our bronze medal prediction, but Meilutyte and King have the two fastest times in history and have both held the World Record in the event, and they should not be counted out.

The quartet of Elendt, Douglass, Jefimova, and Bottazzo are all separated by less than a tenth and will certainly be battling it out for a finals spot and potentially a place on the podium.

The breaststroke field is incredibly deep, and there are numerous different finals configurations that would not surprise us, but we did our best to predict a top eight.

SwimSwam’s Picks

Dark Horses: Reona Aoki (Japan) & Sienna Toohey (Australia)— Reona Aoki is Japan’s National Record Holder at 1:05.19 from back in 2022. She finished 2nd at the Japanese Swimming Championships, touching in 1:06.44 for the 12th fastest time in the world this year. While she has not been that fast since setting the record, she has the potential to be in the race for the gold, based on best times alone.

Sienna Toohey is a 16-year-old out of Australia, who currently sits in 14th in the World this year with the 1:06.55 she went at the Australian Trials. This was a half-second drop in the event from her previous best of 1:07.01, and while it likely won’t be fast enough to make the final, it is not unheard of for junior swimmers to drop large swaths of time, so with the right drop, she could end up a surprise finalist.