2025 World Championships: Women’s 10K Open Water Live Recap

Through the end of the first loop, Ershova maintains a narrow lead over Hungarian Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas, who stayed close from the beginning but made a move at around the 15-minute mark to pull up right behind the Russian competitor. Gubecka has dropped all the way down to 22nd.

This is Mihalyvari-Farkas’ fourth open water race ever, as she’s only made the transition from pool swimming over the past year. She recently claimed the European title in this race two months ago. In the pool, she was known for her 400 IM prowess, as she owned a personal mark of 4:35.99 logged at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics heats, where she placed her hand on the wall 6th in the final. She won the 2022 European title in the 400 IM, too.

Monaco’s Lisa Pou, 26, who was 18th in the Paris Olympics last summer after touching 9th at the Doha Worlds a few months prior, has solidified herself in 3rd.

Italian 28-year-old veteran Ginevra Taddeucci, who claimed bronze at the Olympics last summer in this race, has moved into 4th.

Australian Moesha Johnson, who won silver in Paris and is the pre-race favorite with Olympic champion Sharon Van Rouwendaal taking the year off, lurks in 13th overall with 16.67% of the race completed.

33-year-old Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil, the 2021 Tokyo Olympic champion in the 10k who is widely considered the greatest open water swimmer of all time, is currently 19th. She’s won 16 World Championships medals in her career, all of which have come in open water events. She’s also the somewhat rare open water swimmer who is just as good in the “short” race, the 5k, as she is in the longest race, the 25k.

Cunha has won World Championships gold in the 25k five times in her career, while she’s won 5k gold twice and bronze four times. In total, she’s won seven World Championships golds in her career. The 10k gold medal at the World Championships is the one thing eluding her collection. She’s featured on the 10k podium many times though, winning silver in Barcelona 2013 and three bronze medals in Kazan 2015, Budapest 2017, and Gwangju 2019.

At the end of lap two, all of the usual suspects have emerged toward the front of the leading pack, with Taddeucci taking over as the new race leader. Johnson trails by less than a second in 2nd, drafting closely behind Taddeucci, while the young Ershova dropped to 3rd. Ershova’s countrywoman Ekaterina Sorokina holds 4th position, with minimal movement and position changes behind the leaders.

Notably, Cunha has climbed from 19th to 12th, positioning herself strategically with about an hour and a half remaining in the race.

At the halfway point, Johnson is in the lead by about a body length over Taddeucci, and they lead a pack of seven that includes Spain’s Maria De Valdes, Sorokina, Pou, Italy’s Barbara Pozzobon, and Portugal’s Mafalda Rosa.

De Valdes is no stranger to the Worlds podium, as she walked away with silver in this event at Doha 2024.

Mihalyvari-Farkas has fallen out of the top pack, checking in at the halfway point in 17th. Ershova is in a similar situation, currently in 19th.

Cunha has continued her climb, though out of the top pack, she leads the chase group at 8th overall.

At the end of lap four, Johnson and Taddeucci have practically stayed in exactly the same position, with Pou overtaking De Valdes for 3rd. Sorokina sits in 5th and Pozzobon at 6th. Gubecka has made a surge to move into 7th position, with Rosa falling to 8th. Some fatigue has hit Cunha and she has dropped to 10th, with the two packs converging and only about ten seconds separating the top ten swimmers.

De Valdes’ teammate Angela Martinez Guillen has made a huge move on the penultimate loop, shooting up to 4th, right in line with her countrywoman, but behind Johnson, Taddeucci, and Pou. Martinez Guillen has never medaled at the World Championship level before, but did win this event at the Ibiza World Cup stop in April.

During the final stages of the race, Johnson steadily increased the pace, which forced everyone to respond, and by the halfway mark of the final lap, only five swimmers remained in the top group. Johnson leads Taddeucci, Pou, De Valdes, and Martinez Guillen, with the next group of swimmers trailing by just shy of 30 seconds. Cunha leads that pack with Rosa 2nd (9th overall), Sorokina 4th (11th overall), and Gubecka 7th (12th overall).

In the final 500 meters, Johnson, Taddeucci and Pou dropped the two Spanish teammates and took off, effectively sewing up who would get the medals, though the order was still uncertain. It became clear with 200 meters to go, as Johnson accelerated with what she had left to widen the gap between herself and Taddeucci by another couple of seconds, ultimately hitting the touchpad first, 4.4 seconds ahead of Taddeucci, who secured silver by less than two seconds over Pou.

The win by Johnson marks Australia’s first-ever gold in the 10k. Her win also makes it a sweep of the 10k golds by coach Bernd Berkhahn, who also coaches German men’s 10k winner Florian Wellbrock. Berkhahn guided Sharon van Rouwendaal to the 2024 World and Olympic titles in this women’s 10k as well, making a strong case for himself as the greatest open water coach in history.

Johnson, who had three other World Championship open water medals to her name prior to today, and who will swim the 800 and 1500 free in the pool later this month in addition to the 5K, 3K knockout sprint, and 4×1500 mixed relay in the open water program, said of her win:

“Yeah, it’s been an unbelievable 24 hours—36 hours, actually, to be honest. And those conditions are indescribable. Unless you’re out there, it’s really hard to explain what we just went through. But I think that just shows how incredible this field of girls is. And to the men as well—that was pretty scary, watching them go out in 33-degree heat knowing we were up next.”

On having the opportunity to watch the men’s race unfold beforehand, Johnson added:

“Yeah, I think it was really interesting yesterday. You know, we got through Paris and the River Seine with no scheduled changes, and to come into this—none of us were really expecting any postponements, let alone two. So yeah, yesterday I was quite calm, but today, the nerves were definitely there this morning. Having to wait until the afternoon is really, really tough, especially watching the temperature rise and the sun come out and get hotter and hotter. But look, hats off to the organizers for getting this done today.”

Taddeucci, who already has an Olympic bronze from Paris to her name, earned her first individual medal at a World Championships today. Pou, who represented France until 2023, claimed her first individual international medal with a 3rd-place finish.

Taddeucci kept things brief post-race, stating:

I’m very happy. The water is very warm and for me, warmer than bath water. It was very difficult, but, I believe in Moesha, and in my mind, I follow Moesha. I’m very happy for the race. It’s very difficult. I’m very happy.

Pou spoke to World Aquatics on her bronze medal swim, saying:

These girls are very inspiring for everyone, and they won medals at the Olympics, so I had to do my best to follow them. It wasn’t easy at all, especially with this warm water, we are not used to it, and I don’t really like this water temperature, but we have to do it with what we had today. So I’m really happy with what I did.

Final Results