2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
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The 2025 World Junior Championships in Otopeni, Romania are officially in the books, and China’s Yang Peiqi and Italy’s Carlos D’Ambrosio have been named the Swimmers of the Meet.
18-year-old Yang compiled seven total medals throughout the six-day competition, five of which were gold.
She kicked off the meet anchoring the Chinese girls’ 4×200 free relay to gold with a 1:55.54 anchor leg, before going on to win the 400 free the next day in 4:05.38. Her swim erased the six-year-old championship record of 4:05.42 set by Australia’s Lani Pallister back in 2019. Her personal best of 4:02.53 was logged at the Chinese National Championships in May.
On day two, Yang put on a masterclass in the 800 free to win the gold medal by over three seconds. In her middle 600, all of her 100m splits were within seven tenths of each other, and all of her 50 splits were within four tenths. She even-split her race, flipping in 4:11.10 at the 400m mark and coming home in 4:11.83 for the second 400m, crushing her previous best of 8:26.06.
On the penultimate night, Yang hit the wall first in the girls’ 1500 free for her third individual gold. She swam 16:08.37, about four seconds off her lifetime best from the World Championships last month.
Wrapping up the meet today, she eclipsed the 200 free meet record of 1:57.08 set by Canadian Taylor Ruck at the 2017 edition of these championships. Yang also undercut her previous personal best of 1:56.59 from the Chinese Nationals in May.
Besides her golds, she also helped her country earn silver in the 4×100 medley relay and bronze in the 4×100 free relay.
Speaking to World Aquatics regarding earning this honor, Yang stated “I didn’t expect this. I just focused on my event, one by one. I felt honored and want to contributed this to my team China. It will boost my confidence to compete in the future. It is a new start for me as I overcame myself and learned how to deal with difficulties.”
D’Ambrosio kicked off his individual campaign on night one in the 4×100 free relay, where he blasted a 47.20 anchor leg to help Italy to silver.
Day two saw the Italian score gold in the 200 free in 1:45.15, breaking both the Championship Record and his own Italian National Record while winning by 1.52 seconds. He shaved 0.08 off his lifetime best, shattering the previous Championship Record of 1:46.18 that was set by Romania’s David Popovici in 2022. D’Ambrosio had just set the Italian Record in Singapore with a time of 1:45.23 during the semifinals of the 200 free before placing sixth overall.
He ended the day with a 47.02 split to help Italy to fifth in the mixed medley relay.
Day three saw him take on mixed 4×100 free relay duties, hitting 47.40 on leg two with his squad coming in for bronze. He also produced a 22.10 best time in the 50 free semifinals. He raced to bronze in the 50 free (22.14) a day later.
The final two nights saw him take gold in the 100 free (47.88) by nearly four tenths after hitting his second-fastest time ever of 47.76 in the semifinals and anchor Italy to bronze in the 4×100 medley relay with a 47.27 split.
“I’m very happy because this has been a very hard championship. It’s very difficult only because it’s very competitive. I am very happy win this trophy,” D’Ambrosio said.
He added, “I have worked very hard to earn this trophy. I am proud that my time was a national record and also a championship record. Wow, I didn’t have any words to say to you after my performance. There were so many amazing spectators and great volunteers supporting the swimmers.”
He continued, “The Italian team deserves cheers. Being a part of the Italian team was wonderful, the staff was so beautiful and our coaches worked hard.”
“I’m looking forward to the next three years and I hope it might be possible to swim in Los Angeles. I don’t want to imagine that possibility right now because I am superstitious,” he concluded.
Yang Peiqi 18, Erisman 16, Mao 14.
Gretchen Walsh 22, Mollie O’Callaghan 21, Summer McIntosh 19, Yu Zidi 12
Yu Zidi will never win with Summer McIntosh
Based on what?
Very deserving 🙌, incredible swimming all week.