2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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The 2025 World Championships are complete but were not without many swimmers that came down will illness, specifically gastrointestinal (GI) issues. In addition, other athletes went down due to other forms of injury or illness.
Reports have said that some athletes lost 15-20 pounds while fighting the GI/food issues, such as Jack Aikins who had teammates commenting on his Instagram post saying, “Dude may have pooped out 20 pounds of weight.” Overall, the numbers seem to show that the 2025 World Championships were more affected by this illness even more than last summer’s Paris Olympics were by COVID-19.
In Paris, some of the Australian team tested positive for COVID-19, Great Britain’s Adam Peaty was among other names , along with Blake Pieroni, David Johnston, and Luke Whitlock of the US. Sasha Gatt of Malta and Romania’s Vlad Stancu were among other names that tested positive for COVID-19 as well.
Because USA Swimming and other organizations have refused to share more details on who all was sick, we suspect that this list is wholly incomplete, but with that in mind…
Here is a list of athletes we know had some sort of GI/food issues. We have only included swimmers where it has been confirmed.
- Ben Proud, Great Britain (Details)
- Kaylee McKeown, Australia (Details)
- Evgeniia Chikunova, Neutral Athletes ‘B’ (Details)
- Regan Smith, USA (Details)
- Katharine Berkoff, USA (Details)
- Gretchen Walsh, USA (Details)
- Nicolo Martinenghi, Italy (Details)
- Sam Short, Australia (Details)
- Kaii Winkler, Germany (Details)
- Mona McSharry, Ireland (Details)
- Katie Shanahan, Great Britain (Details)
- Rebecca Meder, South Africa (Details)
- Tara Kinder, Australia (Details)
- Ben Goedemans, Australia (Details)
- Jack Aikins, USA (Details)
- Lilly King, USA (Details)
- Michael Andrew, USA (Details)
- Kasia Wasick, Poland (Details)
- Shane Ryan, Ireland (Details)
- James Guy, Great Britain (Details)
US swimmers that scratched events but never spoke on being ill during quotes or on Instagram:
Other Injuries:
- Daniel Wiffen, Ireland (Appendicitis)
- Carson Foster, USA (Tweaked Ankle)
- Mary-Sophie Harvey, Canada (Shoulder)
Sooooo, Heilman just Hemaned? Didn’t have the elephant petting sickness? Luka?
They didn’t make public statements about being sick, so are not “confirmed.”
Tara Kinder was sick: https://www.instagram.com/p/DMzTZ9pxGg4/?igsh=MW54a2loZjdmOHkzOA==
Despite being ill Team USA topped the medals count at 29 and received the Team of the Meet Award. I think the team rebounded at the end showing their resilience and depth. Any negativity towards them and their performance is stupid and ignorant.
Just bigger, far from the best
USA is always the best
Jillian Cox
Photos or it didn’t happen.
James Guy mentioned on insta that he also caught it
Pretty sure Torri and Claire mentioned multiple times they were sick on Instagram and on interviews
While I’m sure it’s true, we couldn’t find anything to verify, and we wanted to be sure before we put anybody on the list.
Do you have any links or screenshots?
Strange to see the disconnect between reporting illnesses in swimming vs team sports. If an elite nba/nfl player get sick before a playoff game it’s minute by minute updates with cameras on them while they’re warming up and the subject of national news. Michael
Jordan’s playing with food poisoning was like the most talked about thing in the world in the hours leading up and after the game and it is part of his legacy to this day. When swimmers get sick, the general response is something to the tune of “they deserve privacy” or “why even compete they need to be protected from themselves”
Makes me wonder how much gambling is a factor is this disconnect and… Read more »
I suspect that part of the secrecy is that if people knew the full extent of the illness, athletes or teams would have been removed from competition due to the nature of swimming taking place in the water where viruses and bacteria can be more easily transferred. With Jordan having food poisoning, it was, in fact food poisoning. This was most definitely not food poisoning but that’s the “official story.”
Agree. I was very surprised that Team USA was not totally isolated from other teams as the illness spread. And, lets be realistic: this was not food poisoning. This was nasty virus that ran rapidly through Team USA (and, yes, pun intended) and then fled. Sadly, it affected so many performances, but Team USA bounced back well. We can all be proud of that.
I mean in tennis, players that have signed up for tournaments have to give a medical reason to withdraw. But most players just cite a recurring injury anyway, or even fatigue is an acceptable reasoning. So usually no new information is learned anyway.