Four Storylines to Follow at the Second 2025 Swimming World Cup Stop (Westmont)

2025 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – Westmont

• October 17-19, 2025
• Westmont, Illinois
• SCM (25 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results

The opening stop of the 2025 Swimming World Cup in Carmel is now behind us. Following a slew of U.S. Open records, new World Cup marks, and even a world record at the hands of Gretchen Walsh opened this year’s competition.

Before we dive right into the Westmont stop, here are a few storylines to follow as the action unfolds this weekend.

The Continued McKeown/Smith Rivalry

One of the most highlighted rivalries in the sport today opened up its newest chapter in Carmel this past weekend. American Regan Smith and Australian Kaylee McKeown continue to showcase why they are among the greatest competitors of this current generation.

Smith took the upper hand in their first head-to-head clash in Carmel, topping the Australian by just 13 one-hundredths of a second in the 100 backstroke, touching in 54.92. McKeown would later avenge the loss by taking a commanding win in the 200 back by over a second (1:58.86 to Smith’s 2:00.07).

While outside of the pool, the two backstroke phenoms had a chance to spend some time together along with fellow World Cup athletes with the Chicago Bulls at their training facility; however, the rivalry still brews between the lane lines.

After the first stop, it’s the Australian who holds a .1 points lead over the American. The 200 butterfly gave plenty of great early momentum to Smith, going into the rest of the meet. The same goes for the 100 backstroke, getting that early edge over her Australian counterpart.

But it was McKeown who had the last laugh, taking down Smith in the second of their backstroke matchups in emphatic fashion, scaring Smith’s World Cup record of 1:58.83 in the process.

Smith is still the current world record and World Cup record holder in the 200 backstroke from her performances in 2024 (1:58.04, and 1:58.86, respectively).

Smith will not want McKeown to take down either one of her records, especially not on Smith’s home soil, so expect must see action anytime that these two are in the water together.

Gretchen Stays on World Record Watch

It seems that nowadays, anytime Gretchen Walsh dives into the pool, your chances of witnessing a world record grow immensely, and Carmel represented that thought.

After lowering her own world record in the 50 butterfly, the question is no longer when will she break these world records, but how low can she go.

The 50 fly was a great tone-setter for somebody who could seemingly break a world record any given day. Many eyes will be set on the 100 fly, an event that she has been nearly untouchable in.

Walsh knocked down the World Cup and U.S. Open records in the prelims of the 100 fly, touching in 54.43. Later in finals, she clocked 53.69, over 1.2 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. That still puts her nearly a full second off of her own world record from 2024, and there are still four opportunities for her to pass that mark during this World Cup.

There will be a buzz in the pool when she steps on the blocks for that race, and for every race that she swims, as it has become a norm that she is a can’t-miss spectacle in the water.

If Walsh is swimming, expect a record line to show up in the water, and she just may well be in front of it.

Can Anybody Catch Kos?

Hubert Kos was about as close to perfect as one can be in Carmel. Sweeping all three backstroke events, handily, against very loaded and steep competition.

The Olympic champion from Paris in the 200 back showed why he is on another level at this point in his career. After the first stop of this year’s World Cup, Kos has already put himself nearly three points ahead of the next closest competitor on the men’s side. For reference, the top five women are separated by the same amount (2.6 points).

Arguably, his most impressive swim came in the 50 back where he threw down the fastest time ever on American soil, clocking 22.65, over a quarter of a second faster than Estonia‘s Ralf Tribuntsov in 22.91.

Based on his performance this past weekend, it is hard to find anybody across all three of the backstroke distances who could compete to potentially dethrone Kos.

The most likely being Thomas Ceccon of Italy, who we know has been able to perform on some of the world’s biggest stages. Still, Ceccon only finished 3rd in the 100 back in 50.20, over a second behind Kos at 49.08, and behind Poland’s Kacper Stokowski in 49.92.

Kos is far and away the current favorite to top the overall point total come the conclusion of the World Cup in Toronto.

Other potential threats to Kos’ top ranking on the men’s side would be Noe Ponti of Switzerland, Canada’s Ilya Kharun, USA’s Carson Foster, and one of the breakout performers of the first stop, Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands.

Good Golly Miss Mollie (O’Callaghan)

Caramel treated Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan kindly.

Walking away from the first stop with a gold medal in the 200 free, swimming the third fastest time in history at 1:50.77. O’Callaghan narrowly fell to Kate Douglass in the 100 free by just three tenths of a second, and swimming to silver in the 50 back. Additionally, she ended up as the only woman in Carmel to make the podium in the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free with a 3rd place finish in the 50.

Aside from Gretchen Walsh and either of the backstroke women, O’Callaghan is the closest person to possibly rewriting world history on the women’s side.

As previously mentioned, she clocked the third fastest 200 freestyle in history and she will have the potential to swim four more times in North America to reach that world record mark.

She now is the fastest performer ever on American soil with that final time, and is just over four tenths of a second off of matching Siobhan Haughey’s 2021 world record mark of 1:50.31.

O’Callahan was actually out under that world record pace at the first 50 meter mark, splitting 26.05 compared to the world record split of 26.20. Coming home was a similar story, the Australian was considerably faster, coming home, splitting 28.01 compared to the world record split of 28.29.

If O’Callahan manages the middle of her race properly, we may see another world record be broken, this time by an Australian freestyler.