2025 World Championship Previews: Can Popovici Hold Off Hobson For the Men’s 200 Free Title?

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Psych Sheet

By the Numbers– Men’s 200 Free

• World Record: 1:42.00 – Paul Biedermann, Germany (2009)
• World Junior Record: 1:42.97 – David Popovici, Romania (2022)
• World Championship Record: 1:42.00 – Paul Biedermann, Germany (2009)
• 2023 World Champion: Matthew Richards (GBR)- 1:44.30
• 2024 Olympic Champion: David Popovici (ROM)- 1:44.72

Returning Olympic Finalists: Gold- David Popovici (ROM), Silver- Matt Richards (GBR), Bronze- Luke Hobson (USA), 5th- Danas Rapsys (LTU)

The men’s 200 freestyle is gearing up to be one of the most interesting men’s events at this year’s World Championships.

Lukas Maertens and Duncan Scott, two of the top swimmers in history in the event, will not be swimming it. There is still plenty of star power in the event, however, who are making the event difficult to nail down when it comes to predicting finish order.

Olympic Letdown

The men’s 200 freestyle has been a weird event the last few years. Some of the top athletes in the world regularly swim slower than their personal bests at major meets, and it was widely considered to be one of the “slowest” events at last year’s Olympic Games.

The 200 free also has one of the few remaining super suit World Records, and it is fast. Paul Biedermann swam 1:42.00 at the legendary 2009 World Championships, and the next fastest swimmer in history, Michael Phelps, is almost a full second back in 1:42.96.

Since Biedermann broke the World Record in 2009, no World Championship final has been faster than 1:44, except Popovici in 2022. That could be changing this year.

David Popovici won the gold medal last year, touching in 1:44.72. Not only was this almost two seconds slower than his best time, but six other athletes in the field had faster personal best times and three of them had been faster that season.

David Popovici (photo: Jack Spitser)

This year is shaping up to be different, though. Four athletes will be seeded with times faster than last year’s Olympic gold medal time, and three have been faster in the last six months.

Popovici is seeded first with the 1:43.13 he swam at the 2024 European Championships, which is the closest he has been to that 1:42.97 since he did it. He hasn’t been quite that fast this season, but at the European U23 Championships, he came in at 1:43.64 to set the fastest time in the World this year.

There are a few factors that could affect his performance, however. One of which is that Popovici swims the fastest at outdoor pools, which is where he went the 1:43.64 leading time. Singapore is an indoor facility. He also has struggled in this event the last few years at the World/Olympic level. In 2023, he finished off the podium in 4th overall.

Faster Than Gold

American Luke Hobson is waiting in the wings for him to falter, coming in as the 2nd seed with the 1:43.73 he swam at the U.S. Nationals in June. This time was about a second faster than his lifetime best of 1:44.79, which he did in the Olympic final to win the bronze medal.

Luke Hobson (photo: Jack Spitser)

Hobson is coming off an exceptional year, having broken Biedermann’s SCM 200 freestyle World Record at the 2024 SC World Championships by almost a second. He also set the NCAA record in the men’s 200 freestyle at the NCAA Championships, swimming 1:28.33, seven tenths faster than anyone else has been in history in that event.

His 1:43.73 in the U.S. Nationals was a new U.S. Open record, and could be a very good sign for how Hobson is gearing up to perform at the end of the month.

Great Britain’s Matt Richards will be looking to maintain an era of excellence in British 200 freestylers, coming into the meet as the 3rd seed in 1:44.69, which he swam at the 2024 British National Championships. His lifetime best in the event stands at 1:44.30, which he did in pursuit of the 2023 World Championships gold medal.

So far this season, he hasn’t broken 1:45, coming into the meet as the 11th fastest swimmer in the world this year with the 1:45.35 he swam at the British Swimming Championships at the end of April. He is a very good bet for a medal position, and depending on performances by the others, he could reprise his 2023 gold medal swim.

American Gabriel Jett is the final swimmer who will be seeded under the Olympic gold medal time. At the 2025 U.S. Nationals, he went an absolutely massive best time, dropping two-and-a-half seconds from his previous best of 1:47.13 to swim 1:44.70 and lock up the 4th fastest time in the world this year, and the 3rd seed at Worlds.

The biggest question surrounding Jett, is how much more does he have in the tank in the event? His 1:47 time was from last April, and two-and-a-half seconds in a year is a significant drop. Can he go any faster or can he even replicate the performance? If he can, he could also be challenging for a podium position.

Double-Four Quartet

On top of the athletes mentioned above, there are four more swimmers who have broken 1:45 in the event.

Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys, the 5th place finisher last summer, has the fastest time of the four, coming in at 1:44.38, the 12th fastest time in history. He swam this time at the 2019 World Cup in Singapore.

Danas Rapsys (photo: Jack Spitser)

Rapsys has a few things going for him in regard to his potential event final. Despite the fact that his best time is from six years ago, he has been back under 1:45 recently, swimming 1:44.96 in the semifinals at the 2024 World Championships. He went on to win the silver medal in 1:45.05, just behind another athlete on our list, Hwang Sun-woo. He also finished 5th at the Olympics last summer, and Duncan Scott, who will not be competing, was one of the athletes ahead of him.

He has not been exceptionally fast this season, coming in at 1:46.54, which he swam at the Lithuanian Championships in April. This doesn’t mean much, though. For comparison, the same week last year, he swam 1:46.41 at the Stockholm Open, and he turned around and went a second faster in Paris.

Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo has the next best time, coming in at 1:44.39 from the 2023 Asian Games. He is also the reigning World Champion in the event, having won the 2024 meet in 1:44.75.

He did not have the strongest Olympic Games, finishing 9th in the semifinals to just miss the final by four-hundredths of a second, finishing in 1:45.92. Hwang took that in stride, though, and currently has the 6th fastest time in the world this season at 1:45.03, which he swam at the Korean National Sports Festival in March.

He likely won’t defend his world title, but he could end up back in the final, redeeming his Olympic finish.

Edward Sommerville broke 1:45 for the first time in June, swimming 1:44.93 at the 2025 Australian Swimming Trials. That time is good for 5th in the world this year, and it will have him seeded 6th in the event.

Sommerville is in a similar situation as Jett, though his is far more extreme. He came into the season at 1:48.66 from November of 2023, having only swam the event once in 2024. His swim at the Australian Trials marked a near four second drop, which makes it hard to imagine he has more left in the tank to drop. If he can repeat the 1:44.93 performance, he will likely earn a spot in the final.

The final swimmer in the field who has been sub-1:45 is 100 freestyle World Record holder Pan Zhanle. At the 2023 Chinese Nationals, Zhanle swam 1:44.65, which ties for the 16th fastest time in history in the event. He has not been able to replicate that swim at a World or Olympic meet since then, swimming 1:46.05 at the 2023 Worlds and 1:49.47 at the Olympics.

At the 2025 Chinese Nationals, he turned in a time of 1:45.45, which is good for 12th in the world this year, though four of the swimmers ahead of him are not competing in the event at Worlds.

He has been tinkering with the 400 free, though, including a 3:45 at Chinese Trials. This shows that he’s not giving up on the endurance that was a hallmark of his early career, so don’t count out the World’s best 100 freestyler (an interesting parallel with Popovici, the world’s 2nd-best 100 freestyler)

The Other Contenders

There are a host of 1:45 swimmers who can also contend for the final, not the least of which is British swimmer James Guy, who comes in only four-hundredths over 1:45.

Guy won the event at the British Championships in April, swimming 1:45.08, just four-hundredths off his lifetime best of 1:45.04, which he did leading off the prelims leg of the 800 freestyle relay. In the relay final, he led the team off in 1:45.09 showing an incredible amount of consistency.

James Guy (photo: Jack Spitser)

At the 2024 British Trials, Guy finished 4th in 1:45.28, about two tenths slower than he went at the Games. If he has a similar drop this year, he could be the next athlete to break 1:45. Regardless, he is a very likely pick for the final, especially as he will likely swim in the 1:45-low range, and many of the athletes ahead of him can be wild cards.

Japan’s Tatsuya Murasa is seeded just behind Rapsys in 1:45.67, which he did at the 2025 Japan Swim to break the National High School Record in the event. The 18-year-old has burst onto the world scene in this event over the last year, clocking three 1:45s in the last 12 months. At the 2024 Japanese Trials, he swam 1:47.57 to finish with the bronze, and he swam his first 1:45 in November eight months later.

Just a week after the Japan Swim, he broke the SCM High School National Record in the event, touching in 1:41.47. This was over a second-and-a-half faster than the 1:42.95 he swam at the SC World Championships in December, which could be a promising sign for a huge drop in this event at the end of the month.

The Picks:

Popovici and Hobson have both been under 1:44 this year, but can they put those times up when it matters in the final? Can they break 1:43?

Popovici has been sort of inconsistent in this event in the past, but he is having an exceptional long course season so far, and we have seen no indication that the Olympic Champion is in anything but top form, notching the fastest time in the world this year at the end of June.

Luke Hobson has also had a very good year, and could challenge for the gold, but he would potentially have to see another massive drop in the event, but he comes into the meet almost a second ahead of the 3rd seed and is a safe bet for silver.

After Hobson, the waters get murky, especially when consistency is factored into the equation, not just speed.

Dark Horse: Lucas Henveaux (Belgium)- Henveaux is coming in as the 15th seed with his lifetime best time of 1:46.04. He swam this time in the Olympic preliminaries to qualify 3rd for the semifinal where he ultimately finished 11th. He has shown some promising signs in the event, though. At the 2024 SC World Championships, he won the bronze medal in 1:41.13. If he is able to translate that SCM speed into a long course race, he could end up in the final.