2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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- Euro Recap, Day 1: Lukas Märtens Earns First World Title, Completes Epic Year In 400 Free
- Euro Recap, Day 2: Roos Vanotterdijk Wins Belgium’s First World Championship Medal Since 1998
The final of the women’s 1500 freestyle started with a bang. Freestyle legend Katie Ledecky took the race out hard, tearing away from her world record line. Australia’s Lani Pallister, who said post-race she was trying to stick with Ledecky for as long as she could, was also under world record pace.
Italy’s Simona Quadarella, who swept the 800 and 1500 freestyle at the 2024 World Championship, was well off their pace. But the race was going according to plan. “I tried to start quite slowly, check out the other girls, then try to push up and overtake Lani in the second half of the race,” she said afterwards.
The plan worked.
Quadarella was over two seconds behind Pallister at the 500m mark. During the middle 500 meters, Quadarella began to out-split the Australian. She pulled ahead of her at the 850m turn and did not look back.
The 26-year-old has been Europe’s top distance swimmer for the better part of the decade; she swept the 800 and 1500 freestyle at 2018, 2020, and 2022 European Championships. On the global international stage, she’s taken silver many times behind Ledecky.
But this medal is different. Quadarella tore to a silver-medal winning time of 15:31.79, obliterating not only her personal best, but also Lotte Friis‘s European record of 15:38.88 that had stood since the 2013 World Championships. In doing so, Quadarella became the second-fastest performer in history.
Before today, Quadarella had never broken 15:40 in the 1500 freestyle. Her lifetime best was a 15:40.89 from the 2019 World Championships, where she won gold after Ledecky withdrew due to illness. So, after not swimming a lifetime best in this event in nearly six years, Quadarella dropped 9.10 seconds from her best.
“I’m really happy and emotional about my race results, and I’m very proud that I managed to get so close to Katie,” she said.
Quadarella was 5.31 seconds behind Ledecky, but in a race Ledecky has dominated for over a decade, it’s as close as anyone has been to her in years. With this swim, Quadarella cuts Ledecky’s hold on the top performances list to the top 11 swims. Quadarella is still behind Ledecky’s pace. But just as we saw Summer McIntosh become the first female swimmer to join Ledecky sub-8:10 in the 800 free, Quadarella’s swim puts her on the brink of joining Ledecky under 15:30 in the 1500 freestyle.
Quick Hits
Anna Elendt‘s 100 Breast Gold Makes Her First German Woman To Win Worlds Gold Since 2009
On Day 1, we talked about how the German team often has a strong Day 1 at World Championships but has difficulty maintaining that momentum for the rest of the meet. With the German surge in distance freestyle swimming, it seemed likely the team would buck that trend this year. But Anna Elendt didn’t wait for the distance freestylers to do their thing. Instead, she kept the Germans riding high by winning the women’s 100 breaststroke from lane one and delivering their second gold of the pool swimming competition.
Anna Elendt (credit: Nardia Mulkerrins)
It’s a historic moment for the German women’s team, as they had not had a gold medalist since Britta Steffen at the 2009 World Championships. Elendt swam 1:05.19, lowering her German record (1:05.58) and tying Reona Aoki as the 12th fastest performer in event history.
Standing at the top of the World Championship podium is also a redemptive moment for Elendt. She won bronze in this event at the 2022 World Championships but did not make it out of prelims at the 2023 World Championships or the 2024 Olympics.
In Singapore, Elendt breezed through prelims, swimming a 1:06.01 to qualify second overall. She was slower in the semifinal, but still qualified for the final, booking an outside lane with a 1:06.13.
“When I knew I was going to start from lane one, I was only thinking about my coach, who always used to say ‘if you have a lane, you have a chance.’ I was following that, just doing everything we worked on in practice, doing my underwaters. It worked out so well,” said Elendt.
Elendt turned in second place with a 30.32 split, about a half-second behind defending world champion Tang Qianting. She came home in 34.87, surging past Tang and holding off a strong close by Kate Douglass to win by eight-hundredths.
Popovici Defends Olympic Gold, Returns To Top Of Worlds Podium
David Popovici (credit: Nardia Mulkerrins)
When asked how it felt to win the men’s 200 freestyle world title, Popovici responded “I think even better than the Olympics, to be honest. You know why? I trained a lot for the Olympics, but coming [in] a year, a more relaxed year, a more relaxed year, more easy-going after the Olympics…I’m very proud of myself.”
Popovici backed up his Olympic gold with a 1:43.53, using a fiery 26.43 closing split to pull ahead of the American Luke Hobson and win by .31 seconds. “This time I think I cut it [his closing surge] a little too close. But thankfully, it turned out in my favor”
It’s the fourth-fastest swim of Popovici’s career and his first 200 freestyle world title since the 2022 World Championships.
European Men Put Two Swimmers On Sub-52 Men’s 100 Back Podium
Ten days after winning gold at the World University Games, it was South Africa’s Pieter Coetze who won the world title in Singapore with an African record 51.85. Behind him, Europeans Thomas Ceccon (51.90) and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (51.92) took silver and bronze as the entire podium was sub-52 seconds for the first time since the 2022 World Championships.
Men’s 100 backstroke podium (credit: Nardia Mulkerrins)
Ceccon and Ndoye-Brouard swam the race very similarly. They were the 7th and 8th swimmers at the turn, with Ndoye-Brouard splitting 25.37 and Ceccon 25.39. Both came tearing home on the back half; Ceccon put in a field-best 26.51 second 50 split as he powered from last place onto the podium. Ndoye-Brouard split 26.55.
In 2022, Ceccon stood atop the podium after breaking the world record in 51.60. This was his first sub-52 swim since that meet; he won his Olympic gold last summer in 52.00.
For Ndoye-Brouard, this was his first time under the 52-second barrier. He’s the ninth man to accomplish the feat. He also broke Camille Lacourt‘s French record of 52.11 that had been on the books since 2010. “I knew I had this time in the heats,” he said after the race. “I didn’t swim slow, but I was not at 100%, so I knew I had the time. Tonight, I wanted to do the good things–my turns, my starts, I focused on those things.”
“This medal means a lot,” he continued. “It’s been three championships where I finished not on the podium. Fourth, five [sic], seventh at the Olympics, so I really wanted this medal so much.”
National Records
Men’s 800 Freestyle
- Victor Johannson continued his excellent meet during prelims of the men’s 800 freestyle. He torched his Swedish record by 2.23 seconds, dropping from 7:47.04 to 7:44.81 and qualifying for tomorrow’s final. Earlier in the meet, Johansson lowered his 400 freestyle national record twice, all the way to a 3:44.68 for 4th place.
Men’s 200 Butterfly
- During prelims, Krzysztof Chmielewski broke the super-suited Polish record in the men’s 200 butterfly. The record had stood at 1:53.23 since Pawel Korzeniowski hit that mark at the 2009 World Championships. Chmielewski brought the record below 1:53, swimming 1:52.89. He was slightly off that swim in the semifinals, but easily qualified for the final and will have another shot at the record as he looks to return to the podium after winning silver in 2023.
Men’s 100 Backstroke
- Hubert Kos knocked another hundredth off his Hungarian record in the men’s 100 backstroke final. Kos swam 52.20, bettering the 52.21 he swam to lead the semifinals last night.
Men’s 50 Breaststroke
- Koen de Groot won the first men’s 50 breaststroke semifinal in national record time. He popped a 26.71, shaving .07 seconds off the Dutch record he posted in June at the Dutch Championships. He has another opportunity to take the record lower in the final.
- Antoine Viquerat also lowered his national record from June. Viquerat posted a 26.93 French record in the semifinals, taking nine-hundredths off his former record of 27.02. The time tied Viquerat for 8th, but he lost the ensuing semifinal to Luka Mladenovic and will finish 9th overall.
Continental Medal Table Thru Day 3
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Germany | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| France | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Romania | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Italy | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Belgium | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
I think people fail to see just how insane this is, Ledecky “only” won gold in Paris with a time of 15:30 and was seconds slower then this in Tokyo.
How did she do it!?! Excited and a little nervous for the 800 final
The range and depth across the European men is exceptional – the Americans have A LOT of work to do
Honestly, seriously, best swim of the meet so far. And a swim for the ages. I could dwell on the camera barely showing it Rowdy barely mentioning it but that does not change the fact what a great 1500 it was for Quadarella!
Nobody has ever seen anyone within 5.5 seconds of Ledecky in the last 500 of the race on a 1500. She was close to being a gold medal threat.
For the last 900, she swam 1 second slower than Ledecky. I hope she will keep it up and beat her own record in LA.
Sullivan was in 2021 Tokyo but historically that was a bad time for Ledecky.
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