2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Live Results
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Psych Sheet
The 2025 World Championships Psych Sheets came out today, and Marrit Steenbergen, a 2024 Dutch Olympian, has elected to swim the 100 backstroke rather than the 200 freestyle or 200 IM.
Steenbergen is coming into the meet with one of the fastest 100 freestyle times this season, sitting in 4th overall. She is also entered in the 50 free (20th seed), and the 100 backstroke (7th seed).
This will be the first time she does not swim the 200 freestyle or 200 IM events since her first World Championships in 2022, where she finished 15th in the 200 free and 10th in the 200 IM.
At the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka, she was 5th in the 200 free and 7th in the 200 IM, and in 2024, she finished 9th in the 200 free and 5th in the 200 IM.
Her best time this year in the 200 free is a 2:01 done in March in Edniburgh.
She holds the Dutch Record in the 200 IM at 2:08.86, which she swam at the 2024 Dutch Qualification meet. This time would currently rank 7th in the world this season, only four tenths off Alex Walsh’s 2:08.45 in 2nd, putting her in medal contention if she swam the event.
This shift is in line with where we have seen Steenbergen shifting her career since the Olympic Games, where she did not swim the 200 freestyle after winning the event at the Dutch qualifier. She did swim the 200 IM in Paris, ultimately finishing 20th, more than four seconds off her lifetime best.
She first added the 100 backstroke to her lineup in March at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet, where she swam 1:02.38, finishing 9th. In April, she swam the event again, at the Stockholm open, touching in 1:01.50. Then she raced it in June at Dutch Nationals, winning in 58.96, a time that earned her the 7th seed in the event.
Steenbergen has also been adding the 100 breaststroke to her event roster recently, swimming 1:07.90 at the AP Race London at the end of May, though she is not swimming the event at Worlds.
Suddenly their mixed medley relay looks good with steenbergen on backstroke ..
when are we going to put on our big boy pants & ditch the 200 semis?
what you did not say is where she is ranked in the world this season in 200 free
Because its’ somewhere outside of the top 100. I don’t know of any rankings that reliably go deep enough.
damn I kinda thought she could pop a 2:07-high IM after her Back/Breast pbs this year but I guess she’s been doing more individual stroke work than IM work? Will be interesting to see how much more she can drop in the 1 Back.
I think she’s trying to reduce the number of swims she has to do so she can absolutely rip in the 100 free. I have said it before, I think she’s on a tear and she’ll be the one to beat.
i agree shes underrated but she only swam 2 individual races in paris vs 4 in doha and she was much better in doha so i dont think number of races was her issue last year.
58.96 is certainly closer to 100 back bronze than her 200 free PB to 200 free bronze.
not this year. the big guns are out in the 100 back but the 200 free is all 1:54 highs after mollie. plus it’s easier to drop a full second in a 200 than a 100
Could be that she feels swimming multiple rounds of 200 free will hurt her chances in the 100 free?
To earn bronze she needs to drop another second