Reviewing SwimSwam’s Top 100 For 2024

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

Rank Swimmer
Individual Olympic Medal(s)
1 Summer McIntosh 3 gold, 1 silver
2 Kaylee McKeown 2 gold, 1 bronze
3 Mollie O’Callaghan 1 gold
4 Katie Ledecky 2 gold, 1 bronze
5 Regan Smith 3 silver
6 Ariarne Titmus 1 gold, 1 silver
7 Kate Douglass 1 gold, 1 silver
8 Sarah Sjostrom 2 gold
9 Zhang Yufei 3 bronze
10 Siobhan Haughey 2 bronze
11 Tatjana Smith 1 gold, 1 silver
12 Li Bingjie
13 Lilly King
14 Ruta Meilutyte
15 Shayna Jack
16 Katie Grimes 1 silver
17 Alex Walsh
18 Katharine Berkoff 1 bronze
19 Erika Fairweather
20 Yu Yiting
21 Torri Huske 1 gold, 1 silver
22 Maggie MacNeil
23 Lydia Jacoby
24 Emma McKeon
25 Claire Curzan
26 Tes Schouten 1 bronze
27 Lani Pallister
28 Gretchen Walsh 1 silver
29 Evgeniia Chikunova
30 Jenna Forrester
31 Marrit Steenbergen
32 Simona Quadarella
33 Elizabeth Dekkers
34 Isabel Gose 1 bronze
35 Benedetta Pilato
36 Abbey Weitzeil
37 Lana Pudar
38 Peng Xuwei
39 Claire Weinstein
40 Lara van Niekerk
41 Cate Campbell
42 Mio Narita
43 Kylie Masse 1 bronze
44 Bella Sims
45 Anastasiia Kirpichnikova 1 silver
46 Katie Shanahan
47 Rhyan White
48 Kasia Wasick
49 Phoebe Bacon
50 Kaitlyn Dobler
51 Kennedy Noble
52 Freya Colbert
53 Lauren Cox
54 Meg Harris 1 silver
55 Mona McSharry 1 bronze
56 Jenna Strauch
57 Ingrid Wilm
58 Airi Mitsui
59 Ye Shiwen
60 Laura Stephens
61 Sydney Pickrem
62 Ageha Tanigawa
63 Eneli Jefimova
64 Sara Franceschi
65 Alex Shackell
66 Yang Junxuan
67 Jillian Cox
68 Olivia Smoliga
69 Leah Smith
70 Dakota Luther
71 Gao Weizhong
72 Tess Howley
73 Wang Xueer
74 Anastasia Gorbenko
75 Nikoletta Padar
76 Moesha Johnson 1 silver (open water)
77 Kotryna Teterevkova
78 Reona Aoki
79 Barbora Seemanova
80 Olivia Wunsch
81 Freya Anderson
82 Sophie Hansson
83 Beatriz Dizotti
84 Kiah Melverton
85 Runa Imai
86 Lisa Angiolini
87 Louise Hansson
88 Letitia Sim
89 Abbie Wood
90 Charlotte Bonnet
91 Abbey Harkin
92 Wang Yichun
93 Isabelle Stadden
94 Liu Yaxin
95 Amelie Blocksidge
96 Lee Eunji
97 Arina Surkova
98 Ma Yonghui
99 Michelle Coleman
100 Wan Letian

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 BingjieLilly KingRuta 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 QiantingPaige 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

Rank Swimmer
Individual Olympic Medal(s)
1 Leon Marchand 4 gold
2 Qin Haiyang
3
4 Sam Short
5 Bobby Finke 1 gold, 1 silver
6
7 Ryan Murphy 1 bronze
8 Pan Zhanle 1 gold
9 Carson Foster 1 bronze
10 Tom Dean
11 Kyle Chalmers 1 silver
12 Thomas Ceccon 1 gold
13 Cameron McEvoy 1 gold
14 Matt Richards 1 silver
15 Duncan Scott 1 silver
16 Hubert Kos 1 gold
17 David Popovici 1 gold, 1 bronze
18 Jack Alexy
19 Nic Fink 1 silver
20 Tomoru Honda
21 Zac Stubblety-Cook 1 silver
22 Lukas Martens 1 gold
23 Daniel Wiffen 1 gold, 1 bronze
24
25
26 Wang Shun 1 bronze
27 Josh Liendo 1 silver
28 Xu Jiayu 1 silver
29 Caeleb Dressel
30 Kristof Milak 1 gold, 1 silver
31 Hwang Sunwoo
32 Ben Proud 1 silver
33 Nicolo Martinenghi 1 gold
34 Matthew Temple
35 Daiya Seto
36 Shaine Casas
37
38 Dare Rose
39 Roman Mityukov 1 bronze
40 Arno Kamminga
41
42 Ilya Kharun 2 bronze
43
44 Diogo Ribeiro
45 Gregorio Paltrinieri
1 silver, 1 bronze
46 Matt Fallon
47 Elijah Winnington 1 silver
48 Ksawery Masiuk
49 Ryan Held
50 Pieter Coetze
51 Chase Kalisz
52 Florent Manaudou 1 bronze
53 Michael Andrew
54 Ippei Watanabe
55 Nyls Korstanje
56 Sven Schwarz
57
58
59 Sun Jiajun
60 Alberto Razzetti
61 Caspar Corbeau 1 bronze
62
63 Isaac Cooper
64 Adam Peaty 1 silver
65 Kim Woomin 1 bronze
66
67
68 Federico Poggio
69
70 Felix Auboeck
71 Dong Zhihao
72 Destin Lasco
73 Oliver Morgan
74 Ilya Borodin
75
76 Petar Mitsin
77 Jordan Crooks
78
79 Nandor Nemeth
80 Mewen Tomac
81
82
83
84 Kirill Prigoda
85 Luke Hobson 1 bronze
86 Hugo Gonzalez
87 Petr Zhikharev
88 Chen Juner
89 Yan Zibei
90 Brendon Smith
91 Thomas Neill
92 Jake Foster
93 Justin Ress
94 Jacob Peters
95 Josif Miladinov
96 Oliver Klemet
97
98 Zalan Sarkany
99 Eddie Wang
100

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.

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morning call
6 days ago

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.

morning call
Reply to  morning call
6 days ago

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 »

Troyy
Reply to  morning call
6 days ago

Has Kolesnikov even been approved for neutral status (or even applied)?

snailSpace
Reply to  Troyy
6 days ago

I think he was on the eligibles list but has not applied so far.

Last edited 6 days ago by snailSpace
Troyy
Reply to  snailSpace
6 days ago

Nice to know he’s eligible.

BCDee
6 days ago

Mary-Sophie Harvey?

Chlorinetherapy
6 days ago

Noe Ponti not even in the top 100!

GOATKeown
6 days ago

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.

snailSpace
Reply to  GOATKeown
6 days ago

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).

Brownish
Reply to  snailSpace
6 days ago

Exactly.

katyJ
Reply to  GOATKeown
6 days ago

Duncan Scott proved once more how good he is

Alison England
Reply to  katyJ
2 days ago

Is he going to give 400 free a go?

Andrew
7 days ago

MA on this list

comment image

Nora
7 days ago

Not really related, but when will the remaining two Swammy Awards articles be out? Comeback swimmer and European coach are still not announced.

Southerly Buster
7 days ago

“Ariarne Titmus: 1 gold, 1 silver”

Titmus has 2 silvers from Paris – the 200 and 800 freestyle.

UsaAllTheWay
7 days ago

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?

Sparkle
Reply to  UsaAllTheWay
6 days ago

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

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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