2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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- LCM (50m)
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The men’s 400m final took place on day one of the 2025 World Championships, with Germany’s reigning world record holder Lukas Märtens claiming gold in 3:42.35 followed closely by Australia’s Sam Short who touched just .02 later in 3:42.37 for silver. South Korean Kim Woomin rounded out the podium in 3:42.60.
Several potential contenders were missing from tonight’s final, such as Aussie Elijah Winnington, the World Championships and Olympic silver medalist from last year. Winnington finished 10th out of the heats (3:46.37) to miss out on his chance for hardware.
Another key name absent from tonight’s main event was Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen of Ireland.
24-year-old Wiffen placed a distant 16th this morning, hitting a time of 3:47.57. That was well off his lifetime best of 3:44.35 from 2023.
Although that PB wouldn’t have made tonight’s podium, Wiffen did make the final last year in Doha so his name was in the mix of those at least poised to make the Singapore final.
So what happened?
According to a report in The Belfast Telegraph, Wiffen had recently suffered from appendicitis, a condition which indeed impacted his training in the lead-up to these World Championships.
Wiffen stated, “I was pretty disappointed with the overall time. I didn’t follow the race plan I was meant to.
“Honestly though I’m happy, it’s a warm-up for my main events later in the week. I’m looking forward to the 800m in the next two days.
“I had appendicitis about five weeks ago, but I’m not using that as an excuse, as I’m hopefully fully recovered at this point. I’m not letting it affect me at this World Championships. I’m here to race and race fast.” (The Belfast Telegraph)
Among his events, the 400m free is Wiffen’s weakest, as he earned 800m free gold and 1500m free in Paris. In fact, our SwimSwam previews picked the Irishman to bag the bronze in both longer events.
Wiffen isn’t the only one recovering from illness. We’ve reported how USA Swimming confirmed that around 10 of the nation’s athletes were hit with acute gastroenteritis during the team’s training camp in Thailand leading up to this competition.
As a reminder, Wiffen recently changed up his training home base, moving away from Andi Manley at Loughborough to return to Ireland in the lead up to the 2028 Olympic Games.
Why bring it up if it wasn’t a factor?
“it wasn’t a factor” is often something athletes have to say to deal with an illness or injury. If you say it’s a factor, it can manifest or exaggerate into more of a factor than it was for an athlete with a certain mindset.
If you’re a super chill dude like Aaron Peirsol, maybe you can say “yeah it was a factor, but I’m here to race my best” and go with that. Not many dudes that chill make it to this level.
His vlog about it was kinda funny because every single interview question was clearly AI and was basically the same 2 questions over and over again rephrased.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yImIJLuzSZo
I’ve found their video series to be nearly unwatchable so good luck if you try to watch this video I attached
Washed
Sam Short had Covid in the training camp
I wonder if swimmers are more often sick these days (maybe after Covid?) or if there is more reporting? Just focusing on distance freestyle in the past years, almost all the time, someone was sick before or out of the meet:
2021: Paltrinieri with mono before
2022: ???
2023: Martens was sick before, Paltrinieri was out during the meet
2024: Short was sick before
2025: Short was sick before, Wiffen was sick before, Paltrinieri out
1986 World Championships in Madrid — 1/2 the US team, similar thing. And of course search Michael Phelps food poisoning in Indianapolis 2004. The US media covered that one heavily. In Indianapolis!! Can’t blame Asia for everything.
Nooooooooo 😭.
A somewhat useless worlds in regards to some events such a shame.
This meet is brutal. First the slow pool in Paris, now the decimated ranks of would-be competitors via illness, injury, etc.
Rough time to be a swim fan