2025 World Championship Preview: Canadians Clash In Attempt to Push Past Ponti in Men’s 50 Fly

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
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Men’s 50 Fly– By the Numbers

• World Record: 22.27 – Andriy Govorov, Ukraine (2018)
• World Junior Record: 22.96 – Diogo Ribeiro, Portugal (2022)
• World Championships Record: 22.35 – Caeleb Dressel, United States (2019)
• 2023 World Champion: Thomas Ceccon, Italy (22.68)

Returning 2023 World Championship Finalists

• Gold – Thomas Ceccon (ITA), Silver – Diogo Ribeiro (POR), Bronze – Maxime Grousset (FRA), 5th – Ben Proud (GBR), 6th – Dare Rose (USA), 7th – Simon Bucher (AUT), 8th – Abdelrahman Sameh (EGY)

Truly one of the greatest races of the 2023 World Championships, and set up to be one of the best 50 meter stroke battles we’ve ever had, this race will feature the defending World Champion Thomas Ceccon of Italy as just the 10th seed,  and a leading field of swimmers with a ton of momentum coming into the meet.

Some of the swimmers (Ilya Kharun, Ceccon) in this race have big schedules ahead of them across the eight day meet, but this race is on days 1 and 2, so fatigue shouldn’t be a huge factor in the results.

Big Mo’

As compared to some other events, where post-Olympic breaks mean fields generally limping into this meet, the sprint butterfly races have a group of frontrunners who are hitting this meet at full-speed.

Chief among those is Switzerland’s Noe Ponti, the top seed. At the Short Course World Championships in December, he broke World Records in both the 50 fly and 100 fly; in total, he broke the 50 fly record in short course four times between October and December of 2024, lowering it from 21.75 to 21.32.

While short course success doesn’t always mean long course success, Ponti has been raging in the 50 meter pool in 2025. While his best time (and seed time) remains a 22.65 from April 2024, the next five best times of his career, and eight out of the ten best times in his career, have all been swum in the 2025 calendar year.

Canada’s Ilya Kharun has shifted his focus to speed this year (photo: Jack Spitser)

But he’s not the only one. Ilya Kharun of Canada, who trains in the U.S. with Arizona State University, really elevated his sprint abilities during the collegiate season. That’s no surprise now that sprint coach Herbie Behm has taken over the program from Bob Bowman, who is now at Texas.

Kharun posted some of the fastest 50 yard fly splits we’ve seen, including the fastest ever at the NCAA Championships in March. He also took his 50 free to new highs. And somehow he did this while maintaining his medal-contender status in the 200 fly.

Short course, again, does not necessarily lead to long course results, but this is another spot where the disclaimer is not needed. At Canada’s Trials meet in mid-June, he dropped a 22.68 in the 50 meter fly, which is his best time by .41 seconds. He has swum the five best 50 meter butterflies of his career in 2025, and dropped his best time from a 23.27 in 2023 to a 22.68 currently, making him the #2 seed.

Then there’s Maxime Grousset of France, who Sam Blacker picked to win the 100 fly earlier this week. His recent level-up in this 50 fly hasn’t been the same as the other guys, but he did go a best time in June at the French Trials.

There he swam 22.70, shaving .02 seconds off his previous best from summer 2023, earning him the #3 seed. He was the 2023 bronze medalist in the event.

Marching down the entry list reveals more of the same. Netherlands’ Nyls Korstanje swam 22.72 at the AP Race International in May, which was his best time by .16 seconds and a new Dutch Record (at a meet where his 100 fly was well off his best at 51.27). Abdelrahman Sameh of Egypt set a new African Record at the Mare Nostrum in May in 22.80, beating his best time of 22.94. Sameh was 8th in this race in 2023.

23-year-old Luca Armbruster of Germany broke 23 seconds for the first time in May after a two year stagnation in this event, swimming a 22.92, making him the 7 seed. Brazil’s Gui Santos is best known for his freestyle exploits in the NCAA, but he also dropped about seven-tenths of a second in this 50 fly at the Brazilian Championships in April, which continues forward his momentum from his record-setting collegiate season with the Tennessee Volunteers.

Conspicuous Absences From Swimming Giants

There are nine swimmers who are seeded under 23 seconds in this event, but that a handful of notable absences from that list.

Italy’s Thomas Ceccon has not had a great season in 2025. credit Giorgio Scala, Andrea Masini e Andrea Staccioli / DBM

One is the 2023 World Champion Thomas Ceccon of Italy, who is seeded 10th in 23.00. Ceccon was training in Australia, but recently returned to Italy (in part because of Australia’s policy shift toward mostly only allowing Australian swimmers in its supported training centers).

His lifetime best of 22.68 came in his gold medal effort at the 2023 World Championships, but his best time in the two years since was a 23.00 done at the Australian Open Championships in April.

Ceccon has a big schedule ahead of him with entries in five individual events, and it’s kind of murky where he’s at overall because he really hasn’t been that fast this year, and has been a bit foreboding in his social media posts.

The other noticeable absences in this preview so far are swimming’s two super powers: the United States and Australia. The two countries have combined to win 14 medals in the 13 years this event has been held, and have only been locked out of the podium twice (2015 and 2017).

The highest seeded swimmer from either country is American Dare Rose, who is the 16th seed in 23.06. He has a best time of 22.79 swum at the 2023 World Championships, which was the best meet of his life to date (he won three medals, including bronze in the individual 100 fly).

He finished 6th at last year’s World Championships with a 23.01 in finals.

Seeds, US and Australia, Men’s 50 Fly

• Dare Rose (USA) – 16th @ 23.06
• Michael Andrew (USA) – 23rd @ 23.21
• Jesse Coleman (Australia) – 29th @ 23.36

The far more intriguing American in this race is Team USA captain Michael Andrew, who is the 23rd seed in 23.21. After missing the Olympic Team, Andrew shifted training this season to Herbie Behm at Arizona State, where he trains alongside Kharun, among others.

Given the dramatic shift away from USRPT that he locked in on for a decade, the progress was never expected to be linear, though there have been some positive signs, especially on the technique side. With only two short-axis speed races, the 50 breast and 50 fly, to lock in on, and his first real experience with a traditional taper, Andrew is a wildcard to make a mess of the top of the results. He won silver in this event in 2024 against a lightly-attended field and bronze in 2022 against a full field; in 2022 he swam his lifetime best of 22.79 at Worlds.

Former Medalists

Diogo Ribeiro, the World Junior Record holder from Portugal, is entering his prime years at 20 years old. He won the World Championship in both the 50 and 100 fly last year (again, against a light field), but hasn’t been a best time since swimming 22.80 at the 2023 World Championships as a teenager, which earned him silver.

Andrew, as mentioned above, won silver last year, and last year’s bronze medalist Cam McEvoy of Australia is focused on just the 50 free this season.

Others missing from the entries include British 24-year-old Jacob Peters, who was under-the-radar 4th place in 2023; he has struggled this season and was 3rd at British Trials in 23.4.

Don’t Sleep on These Low Seeds

Canadian Josh Liendo‘s best time in the 50 fly was done as a split en route to a 100 fly at the Olympics last year. (photo: Jack Spitser)

There’s a bunch of serious medal contenders in this race way down the rankings. Because it’s such a tight field, there will probably be some low seeds who at least final, if not medal.

One leading candidate is the other Canadian entry Josh Liendo, who is the 24th seed right behind Michael Andrew. Liendo’s lifetime best in the 50 fly is 23.24, from the front-half of his 100 fly at the Olympic Games. That was the Canadian Record at the time.

Given that he’s a medal contender in both the 100 fly and the 50 free, it seems fitting that he would also be a medal contender in this 50 fly. He only swam the race once in 2024 and hasn’t in 2025, and with big Canadian relay duties, don’t be surprised if he scratches the race.

He hasn’t swum the event this year and didn’t race it at Canadian Trials, where he was racing with a beard (indicating that maybe he wasn’t fully shaved).

Ben Proud of Great Britain is the 2017 World Champion in the 50 fly, among many other major international medals in the event. The man in the field who looks most like a prototypical 50 butterflier, the 30-year-old Proud is one of the oldest in the field.

His best time remains a 22.75 that he swam at those 2017 World Championships, and he’s only been 23.20 this year after not racing the event at all in 2024. He feels like a guy who could plow on to the Los Angeles Olympics with some focus on this 50 fly, now that it is an Olympic event, and extend his career.

Hungarian Szebastian Szabo is a former World Record holder in short course and has a season best of 23.17, but a lifetime best of 22.90. He didn’t have a great 2024 season while trying to work out his 50 free for Olympic purposes, but his 2025 has been better so far.

Simon Bucher of Austria is seeded 21st in 23.19; he made the final in 2023. Dylan Carter from Trinidad & Tobago, a 2022 and 2024 World Championship finalist who just missed a medal in 2022, had a good swim of 22.93 at the T&T National Championships. That was his best time in two years.

Other Names to Watch For

• Neutral athlete Oleg Kostin from Russia is just two years removed from a 22.62 in this race, and was a 2019 silver medalist, but at 33 years old, every year is amplified. A 22.85 at the Mare Nostrum series still puts him in position to make the final, however.
• Meiron Cheruti from Israel swam 23.01 last year to break the National Record. While he hasn’t matched that this season, he still showed quality at the Israeli Championships with a pair of 23.1s in a non-competitive field.
• Ireland’s Shane Ryan has been fairly quiet in his specialty backstroke events the last few years, but the American-born 31-year-old has really popped in the 50 fly this season. He smashed the Irish Record with a 23.10 at the Irish Open Championships in Dublin in April and has dropped a total of .57 seconds so far in 2025.
• Taikan Tanaka of Japan set a new National Record in the 50 fly earlier this year in 23.06. The 24-year-old has a chance to break new ground for a country not known for its sprinters: Japan has never had a finalist in the men’s 50 fly at a long course World Championship meet. He enters this meet as the 15th seed, but is just a few hundredths from a possible finals swim.

In Conclusion

Ilya Kharun feels like a runaway train now, and while I recognize that this has not always been his primary event (while it has been for Ponti), I think that Kharun’s new focus gives him a real shot at the World Record.

Liendo would be one of the lowest seeds to ever win a World Championship medal, and while I still think there’s a 50/50 chance that he scratches it, he could be on a bee-line for a two-Canadian podium in Singapore.

SwimSwam’s Picks:

Darkhorse: Sean Niewold, Netherlands – Speaking of guys with momentum, the 23-year-old has been locked in this season in the 50 fly. Korstanje’s running mate, Niewold has lowered his best time in the 50 fly from 23.40 to 23.14 this season, and has posted the five best times of his career. Those drops have come in spite of not dropping any time in the 50 free or 100 free, his other two primary events (where he went 21.99 and 48.14 last season). If we do some transitive math, that implies that with a good taper, Niewold has a 22-second 50 fly in him.