2025 World University Games: Day 7 Finals Preview

2025 World University Games

• July 17th-23rd, 2025
  • Prelims: 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. EST)
  • Finals: 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EST)
• Berlin, Germany
• LCM (50 Meters)
• Meet Central
• Entries List
• Live Results
• Livestream
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

Tonight is the last finals session of the 2025 World University Games, and we are in for a fun one. All nine events this evening feature an American in lane four as the top seed.

We will start the evening with the men’s 200 backstroke final where David King comes in as the top seed in 1:57.54, just a few tenths ahead of France’s Mathys Chouchaoui‘s 1:57.72.

Aleksei Tkachev, from the Neutral Athletes, and the other American Daniel Diehl come in not far behind them at 1:58.00 and 1:58.17 respectively. The rest of the field is more than half a second back of Diehl.

Emma Weber leads a tight women’s 100 breaststroke field, but she is coming in more than half a second ahead of the 2nd seed, Canada’s Shona Branton, and is the favorite to win tonight.

South Africa’s Simone Moll is the 3rd seed, just over a tenth behind Branton and she will be looking to lock up her first medal of the meet, but Poland’s Barbara Mazurkiewicz is not far behind her and could challenge for a podium finish.

The next event is the men’s 50 free final, where Matt King is the only swimmer who has been under 22 seconds this meet. He holds the top seed at 21.93, about a tenth-and-a-half ahead of Lithuania’s Jokubas Keblys who sits at 22.07.

Keblys sits only a tenth of a second ahead of the 6th seed Italy’s Giovanni Guatti, which means that three other swimmers fall within a tenth of a second of each other. Illia Linnyk, Daniel Baltes, and Elias Funch Persson are all medal contenders.

The women’s 200 fly is all about Tess Howley, who is coming off a WUGs record and an exceptional swim in the prelims to be the top seed by more than a second-and-a-half. She is the clear favorite to win, with fellow American Lindsay Looney being the likely silver medalist.

After Looney, Great Britain’s Ciara Schlosshan and China’s Yu Liyan will be battling for the third spot on the podium, with less than a tenth of a second between them.

Julia Dennis leads the women’s 50 freestyle by almost half-a-second over South Africa’s Olivia Nel. They were the only swimmers under 25 seconds in the prelims, but the race for the medal positions appears to be just as tight as the men’s with Maxine Parker from the U.S. and Viola Scotto Di Carlo from Italy both within a tenth of Nel.

The women’s 400 freestyle was one of four events in this morning’s prelims session, and Cavan Gormsen took the top qualifying spot by just nine-tenths over teammate Michaela Mattes.

The top seven athletes in the field are separated by less than a second, with five of them coming within half-a-second of each other making it anyone’s race.

The men’s 400 IM was the other individual event this morning. Mason Laur took the top qualifying spot, but again, not in a very comfortable margin. Japan’s Takumi Mori and Riku Yamaguchi both fall within three tenths of Laur and will be battling him for the top spot on the podium.

The rest of the heat is more than two seconds back based on prelims times, but that could easily change tonight.

The final two events are the men’s and women’s 400 medley relays. Again, the United States is the favorite to take both of them, after qualifying first in this morning’s prelims by over three seconds.