The women’s 25k didn’t suffer nearly the same dropout rate as the men’s race, but still saw 2 swimmers withdraw before the start of the race, and another 5 fail to complete the 25km, 5+ hour race in 86+ degree water. Among the seven non-finishers, out of 23 entrants, included were both Americans: Haley Anderson and Claire Thompson. On reccomendation of USA Swimming, Anderson withdrew before the race began. Claire Thompson chose to compete anyways, and withdrew about midway through the race.
Amongst the others who withdrew was defending 2009 World Champ Linsy Heister of the Netherlands.
Unlike the men’s 25km race, Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha took the win in an exciting finish over Germany’s Angela Maurer, who won this race at the Roverbal World Championships in 2010, where there were only 9 legal finishers. Maurer finished in silver-medal position 2.1 seconds back, followed by Italy’s Alice Franco at 7.9 seconds out of the winner.
Also of note, this race finished out the “team competition,” which was scored based on the top 12 finishers in each of the 6 individual events. Russia, despite not winning any races and only three total medals, used depth to win the overall battle, followed by Italy, Germany (who led the medal table), and the United States.
1. Russia – 92
2. Italy – 82
3. Germany – 72
4. United States – 57
5. Greece – 56
6. France – 54
7. Australia – 53
