2025 Worlds Previews: G. Walsh In Driver’s Seat For 50 Fly Gold After Joining Sub-25 Club

The women’s 50 butterfly this year is a changing of the guard. With the event’s GOAT sitting out this year, a new leader has quickly emerged. From top to bottom, meanwhile, the event is getting faster as its addition to the Olympics has risen the stakes.

By The Numbers

• World Record: 24.43 — Sarah Sjostrom (2014)
• World Championships Record: 24.60 — Sarah Sjostrom (2017)
• 2023 World Champion: Sarah Sjostrom — 24.77
• 2024 World Champion: Sarah Sjostrom — 24.63

Coronation

Sarah Sjostrom has held an iron grip on the 50 fly for the last decade. Her jaw-dropping 24.43 world record from 2014 made her the only woman sub-25. The Swede had a larger gap over the rest of the world than even Ledecky in the distance events, and she hit the untouchable 24 year after year with nobody else catching up.

When queen Sjostrom announced she was stepping down from the throne this season, there was sure to be a power vacuum in her place. Right? Not if Gretchen Walsh had anything to say about it. Walsh had taken the 50 fly to new heights in both SCY and SCM in 2024. This spring, the American leveled up in long course too, becoming the second woman to hit that elusive 24 mark. At 24.66, she made it significantly under 25 and left no questions as to who the event’s next queen should be.

A Walsh gold in the 50 fly is one of the safest bets of the World Championships. The interesting question, as it usually is with such dominant figures, is how low can she go? On one hand, she’s on such an improvement curve. What’s two more tenths’ improvement to take a stab at Sjostrom’s record? On the other hand, Walsh will be much busier in Singapore than she was at U.S. Nationals, and the 50 fly final falls on the same day as both the 50 free semifinal as well as the mixed 4×100 free relay.

Knighting Ceremony?

Apart from Sjostrom, several other key women’s 50 fly players are out of the event this year. This includes all of the 2023 and 2024 World Championships podium finishers for the event, save Walsh. Melanie Henique, Farida Osman, Beryl Gastaldello, and Zhang Yufei are all absent from the psych sheet in this event (Yufei is swimming in Singapore, but only the 100 fly).

Only one seasoned veteran to the event remains: Rikako Ikee. Despite being the Junior World Record holder and the 5th fastest performer of all-time with a 25.11, Ikee has yet to earn a World Championships medal in this event. As Walsh becomes queen, this could be Ikee’s knighting ceremony. Her season best sits at 25.41, putting her right in the mix of the fastest non-Walsh performers this year. 

However, in the butterfly events in the past few years, Ikee has not improved at major international meets from her times at national meets. She’ll have to break that trend in order to podium this year.

Rikako Ikee, credit: Olivier Gehin

Nobility On The Rise

The world seemingly responded to the addition of the 50 fly in the 2028 Olympics. Nearly every top performer in the event has hit a new best time this season. This makes the event both more exciting and tricky to predict, as everyone is trending upwards. That being said, the fastest non-Walsh performer this year is Alexandria Perkins with a new Australian all-comers record of 25.36. This swim was part of a meet of a lifetime for 24-year-old Queensland native at Australian Trials. Perkins qualified in four individual events (but will only compete in three). She has shown strong improvement in her first year under coach Michael Sage at the University of Sunshine Coast, particularly in the 50 fly. In 2024, her best stood at 25.85 from Doha Worlds. This year, she brought it down to 25.72 at the New South Wales Open before unleashing a 25.36 at the Trials.

Alexandria Perkins, Emma Newton, @newton.nrg

Perkins gave a first glimpse of her improvement at the 2024 Short Course Worlds in Budapest. There, she earned her first individual podium in the 50 fly. She seems primed to make another one here.

Kate Douglass got under 25.4 twice this year, hitting 25.39 on both occasions, and she will swim this event at the world level for the first time in her career. For Douglass, the biggest challenge will be making the final, as the 50 fly semi-final immediately follows the 200 breaststroke final. Depending on which semifinal she draws, the rest time between events looks to be 10-15 minutes. As long as she reaches the final, her speed and consistency in the event make her a strong medal contender. 

The 2024 100 fly world champion, Angelina Koehler, set a new national record for Germany earlier this season (25.55). At 29 years of age, Greece’s Anna Ntountounaki also hit a 25.63 national record this spring. Ntountounaki’s accolades in this event include a short course European gold medal and a 2024 World Championships finals appearance. Another notable national record came from New Zealand by Hazel Ouwehand (25.43), but she is not swimming in Singapore.

Angelina Kohler (Photo by Patrick B. Kraemer / MAGICPBK)

The Netherlands and Sweden are two countries with very strong women’s 50 fly legacies. They’ll both have swimmers in the mix for the top eight. Representing Sweden, Sara Juvenik comes in with a recently-achieved personal best of 25.50. Tessa Giele will be competing under the Dutch flag with a pb of 25.67. The 22-year-old Giele had a fantastic showing at the 2024 Short Course Worlds, winning silver in the 100 fly and finaling in the 50 fly and 100 IM.

Finally, Roos Vanotterdijk has been smashing every Belgian record in her path this season in several events, including a 25.63 50 fly. She’s currently entered in seven events for this meet.

Other Contenders

• Arina Surkova boasts a wicked fast personal best of 25.30 from 2023. The NAB athlete has been as fast as 25.73 this year
• The Aussies have a second finalist contender in Lily Price, coming in with a 25.66 season best
• If she can get down to her personal best of 25.59, we could see South Africa’s Erin Gallagher in the fight for a finals spot. This season, she has hit 25.93. Gallagher just missed the podium with a 4th place finish in this event in Doha. Her 25.59 personal best was from August of 2024, so it’s plausible to assume that she could near it again.

SwimSwam’s Picks

Dark Horse: Mizuki Hirai (Japan) – Hirai could challenge nearly every aforementioned swimmer in a 100 fly, which is her bread-and-butter event. She is the event’s Junior World Record holder in 56.33. Her 25.94 50 fly best from this year would suggest that she doesn’t yet have the raw speed to make the top eight here. However, at 18 years old, she’s still relatively young, and maybe a full Worlds taper is what she needs to bring that speed out.