Beyond their record-setting swims at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand further cemented their legacies by climbing the all-time long course individual gold medal rankings.
McIntosh doubled her gold medal count from before the meet with her four individual wins in the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 fly, and 400 free. Coming into the week, the 18-year-old had four gold medals to her name from the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, where she swept the 200 fly and 400 IM.
With her wins, she jumps to a tie for #7 on the all-time individual gold medal rankings list, tying American sprinter Caeleb Dressel with eight golds. Despite the historic meet, McIntosh wasn’t fully satisfied with the outcome, telling World Aquatics after her final race:
“I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds. Time just didn’t matter. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall first five times.
“I fell short of that, but I think it’s just going to keep me hungry and motivated and keep moving forward. Even if I were to get five golds, I would still want more. That’s just my mentality.”
As for Marchand, he now ties Australian distance legend Grant Hackett and American Aaron Peirsol for 9th on the all-time list with seven gold medals, after winning both IM races. He swept the IM races at both the 2022 and 2023 Worlds, in addition to winning the 200 fly in 2023. The 23-year-old Frenchman didn’t even contest his two other primary events last week—the 200 fly and 200 breast—where he likely would have been a major threat for gold, especially in the latter.
Outside of McIntosh and Marchand elevating themselves into the top ten, Katie Ledecky further extended her lead on the list by adding two additional gold medals in the 800 free and 1500 free. She now has 18 gold medals, 3 more than 2nd-ranked Michael Phelps, building upon the lead that she took at the Fukuoka 2023 Worlds.
Updated List:
- Katie Ledecky (United States) – 18
- Michael Phelps (United States) – 15
- Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden) – 14
- Sun Yang (China) – 11
- Ryan Lochte (United States) – 10
- Katinka Hosszu (Hungary) – 9
- Caeleb Dressel (United States) & Summer McIntosh (Canada) – 8
- N/A (tie at 7th)
- Grant Hackett (Australia), Aaron Peirsol (United States), & Leon Marchand (France) – 7
Katie Ledecky is without a doubt the greatest freestyler history has ever seen.
and people think Marchand is better than McIntosh… she’s literally 5 years younger too
yes but in my opinion marchands quality is just better. as in if he tried for all events i could see him challenging the world records for them
I’ve always found these comparisons useless and vain.
Let’s just enjoy and be lucky to have these two great athletes.
They are amazingly versatile and that’s just the beginning !
and yes Léon could try many events in the future, that’s the way he works (more than addin up titles) I guess tryin’ to challenge himself (we’ve seen this with his 200im wr).
All of 200’s 100br and 400 fr (for 800 and 1500 his ex swimmer uncle has already said why not? he really wants to try them)
But breaking worlds records in so many events, i don’t think so or else we could seriously argue about being the best swimmer of all time… Read more »
For everyone saying that Ledecky isn’t the GOAT or one of the GOATs because she exclusively swims freestyle…it’s hard to argue with the number one on the list of individual golds.
There’s a lot you can argue about it. I don’t care and I’m not trying to make a case, but saying “GOAT can be determined by who has the most world championships medals” with no understanding of context is extremely silly
She’s a goat swimmer regardless of the stroke…even those who swim or swam multiple strokes are not even close.
Ledecky not only is the greatest long distance freestyler (by wide margin), but – given her range – is also the greatest freestyler.
However I would hesitate to call her the greatest swimmer overall, since she excels in only one style.
On the women’ s side we don’ t have something like Michael Phelps who possesed longevity, versatility and range at the same time.
Who knows, maybe in a few years from now Summer McIntosh will fit into the equation.
Mollie O has 10 World goals now (2-5-3, across 2022, 2023 and 2025)
That’s irrelevant to this article.
She has 11 total golds (3,5,3). Equal to Ian Thorpe as the most for Australians. But this article is about individual golds. Mollie has 4 of them.
Katie could be the first swimmer to reach 20 Individual Gold medals at the World Championships, but if Summer continues like she did this year or close to it she could pass 20 Gold Medals 2031/2033
and Léon would surpass Phelps individuals at the end of his career (if everything goes right, course !) , i’m sure of this.
how many, frankly i don’t know depending of his longevity (18, 20 or more)
7th at 18 is crazy, though I guess everything aligned right with her getting an extra 2022 worlds + having a late summer birthday. She’d be 4th if she went to Doha lol (yes I know we all don’t really count Doha)
I count Doha. Why would anyone not count Doha? Once those lists are covering multiple decades there’s no room to remember and subjectively nitpick every situational influence that supposedly makes this number higher than it should be or others lower than rightful.
Bill Parcells had the best summary, when frustrated that win totals were being altered by Happy Adjusters. He emphasized, “You are what you are.”
Why would anyone not count Doha? Because we know that attendance was drastically down due it occurring half a year before the Olympics? It’s not like this is only a spectator opinion, Curzan for example referred to her 200 back bronze as her first medal in the 200 back
Curzan swept the backstroke golds at Doha (8 months after Qin and Kaylee did it for the first time ever) and didn’t even make the US Olympic swimming team at the trials a few months later.
Doha doesn’t count
8 before college… insane
Great swimming Summer just continue to have FUN n congrats to Leon