Throughout the first few weeks of 2024, we released our annual Top 100 lists, ranking the top 100 women and men in swimming for the coming year.
With 2024 in the rearview mirror, it’s time to do a quick review of last year’s rankings before we kick off the Top 100 for 2025.
TOP 100 FOR 2024 – WOMEN’S RANKINGS
Revisiting the women’s rankings, it’s clear the top 11 picks were prudent ones as 10 of them won multiple individual medals in Paris and the other was Mollie O’Callaghan, who won gold in the women’s 200 free and was a close 4th in the 100 free—also winning four relay medals and ranking in the top four in the world in four events.
Specifically looking at the top eight, there could be arguments for things to look a bit different in a variety of ways. With two individual gold medals, it could be argued that Sarah Sjostrom should’ve been higher than #8, and the same could be said for Katie Ledecky at #4.
However, swimmers like Kate Douglass and Regan Smith might not have won multiple individual golds in Paris, but in addition to the Olympic success they did have, they made a greater impact throughout 2024, setting multiple world records and winning world titles in the short course pool at the end of the year.
Given it was an Olympic year, long course performances and results in Paris were the main piece of criteria in last year’s rankings, though short course certainly factored in given Short Course Worlds was in December.
At the top, #1 Summer McIntosh and #2 Kaylee McKeown backed up those rankings.
After the top 11, Li Bingjie, Lilly King, Ruta Meilutyte and Shayna Jack all failed to reach the podium individually in Paris, though all but Meilutyte managed a 4th or 5th-place finish at the Olympics. For Meilutyte, she was clearly off form in Paris, placing 11th in the 100 breast, though she did win gold in the 50 breast at both the Long Course Worlds in Doha and Short Course Worlds in Budapest.
At #21, Torri Huske outperformed her ranking with two individual Olympic medals, including a gold in the 100 fly, as did Gretchen Walsh, who was ranked 28th but broke a long course world record, picked up silver in the 100 fly in Paris, and then rewrote the record books at Short Course Worlds.
The lowest-ranked individual Olympic medalists in pool swimming were Meg Harris and Mona McSharry at 54 and 55, while Tang Qianting, Paige Madden and Emma Weyant were three medalists we left out of the Top 100 last year.
The biggest oversight is Tang, who won LC and SC world titles in the 100 breast to go along with a silver in the event at the Olympics—she raced sparsely in 2023, placing 6th in the 50 breast and 20th in the 100 breast at the 2023 Worlds.
TOP 100 FOR 2024 – MEN’S RANKINGS
Unlike the women, some of the top 10 male swimmers didn’t perform as expected last year, with only three of the top 10 earning an individual gold medal in Paris.
The only male to win multiple individual gold medals, Leon Marchand was a slam-dunk pick for #1, but #2 Qin Haiyang underperformed at the Olympics, #3 Ahmed Hafnaoui withdrew from the Games, and #4 Sam Short was dealing with injury and was well off form.
Looking back, some elite names who were coming off down years in 2023, David Popovici and Kristof Milak, were underrated at #17 and #30, respectively, as both won one gold and two total medals in Paris.
Our lowest-ranked swimmer who won individual gold in Paris was Nicolo Martinenghi at #32, while others ranked too low based on their Olympic performances were Ilya Kharun and Gregorio Paltrinieri, who both won two medals at the Games.
Luke Hobson, who roared to a SC world title and new world record in the 200 free in December, was the lowest-ranked swimmer to win an individual medal at the Olympics, while two who weren’t featured in the Top 100 won individual medals: Apostolos Christou and Tomoyuki Matsushita. They both won silver, with Christou doing so in the 200 back and Matsushita in the 400 IM.
Along with Qin, Hafnaoui and Short, #6 Maxime Grousset, #10 Tom Dean, #18 Jack Alexy and #20 Tomoru Honda were the other swimmers ranked in the top 20 who didn’t win any individual medals in Paris.
Grousset finished 5th in both the 100 free and 100 fly, Dean was 5th in the 200 IM but notably failed to qualify for the Games as the defending champion in the 200 free, and Alexy was 7th in a 100 free final that was close outside of gold medalist Pan Zhanle. Honda was among the swimmers off form in Paris, placing 22nd in the 200 fly after winning bronze at the 2023 Worlds and then gold at the 2024 edition in Doha.
Who do you think should be the top 10 this year? I find it very hard to rank the men.
Marchand is the clear no.1, but nothing else is certain.
I’d probably rank Pan second and Finke third, but the competition Finke faces is only getting more fierce.
I’ll put Popovici and Milak in top 5 if they are in top form but these are big ‘if’s. Will Popovici focus more on swimming or studying? And we never know about Milak’s training.
I am expecting some new names emerging this year too.
The return of Russians also throw uncertainty in the mix.
Other names I’m considering for top 10:
Wiffen: No need to explain too much. But like Finke, he’s facing fierce challenges from the younger generation.
Qin: didn’t have a good showing in Paris but looked better in the SC season. I think he’s still slightly favorite to win 50/100 breast at Worlds.
Short: I’m rooting for him to come back.
Ponti: I consider him gold favorite in 50 fly and medal favorite (with chance for gold) in 100 fly.
Ceccon/ Kolesnikov/ Lifintsev: Hard to choose among these three. Only one could win 100 back gold. Maybe I should throw magic man and Xu in the mix too? Kolesnikov is more likely to win 50 back. Ceccon… Read more »
Has Kolesnikov even been approved for neutral status (or even applied)?
I think he was on the eligibles list but has not applied so far.
Nice to know he’s eligible.
Mary-Sophie Harvey?
Noe Ponti not even in the top 100!
The women were basically spot on except for Huske.
The men had some way underperformers but the top 20 overall captured almost everyone who did well.
Poor Tom Dean. Aiming for 5 medals and having a podcast called Tom Dean Medal Machine and then winning a sole relay medal must hurt.
Milak being the glaring exception – but given the uncertainty around his training at the time, it is to be expected (ranked 30th, ended the year 2nd-4th).
Exactly.
Duncan Scott proved once more how good he is
Is he going to give 400 free a go?
MA on this list
Not really related, but when will the remaining two Swammy Awards articles be out? Comeback swimmer and European coach are still not announced.
“Ariarne Titmus: 1 gold, 1 silver”
Titmus has 2 silvers from Paris – the 200 and 800 freestyle.
AJ Pouch had an insane summer, 9th after winning a swim off fir the 100 breast going 59 both in the semi AND the swim off, and then third in the 2 breast, and then goes to SC worlds, finals in the 2 breast, in arguably his worst length of pool, and he doesnt even CRACK the top 100?
This was a list made at the beginning of 2024 based on past performance and potential. What did AJ Pouch do in 2023 that would have made him a top 100 swimmer in the world? He didn’t even score at NCAAs that year