The Most-Read SwimSwam Articles of 2025

With all of our Swammy Awards handed out, it’s time to look back at the most-read articles of 2025.

The year featured one major international championship, the Long Course Worlds, along with the World Cup circuit and European Championships to close out the season. Unsurprisingly, the top 10 most-viewed articles were all related to the World Championships.

Our Day 1 Finals Live Recap led the way, with our comprehensive How To Watch article coming in just behind. The rest consisted of other finals live recaps, with the exception of #9, where Day 1 prelims made an appearance. Live recaps dominated overall, accounting for 32 out of the top 50 articles, or 64% of the most-read pieces.

Outside of the World Championships, the most-viewed story, ranking No. 11 overall, was 50-year-old Chris Murray’s encounter with a juvenile great white shark during a Catalina Channel swim attempt. Murray was about two and a half hours into the 20-mile swim between Santa Catalina Island and the California mainland when a juvenile great white shark, estimated at three to four feet long, bit his hand twice.

Other highly read pieces included the NCAA releasing time standards, the USOPC announcing that international swimmers would be prohibited from the Olympic Training Center in Olympic years, the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim being the subject of a documentary, the Texas men’s team lighting up the tower after winning the NCAA title, the illness outbreak at the World Championships, Michael Phelps and USA Swimming’s public feud, UVA cutting their diving team, UVA associate head coach Gary Taylor being handed a two-year probation, and Team USA missing out on the mixed 4×100 medley relay final in Singapore.