2025 SWIMMING WORLD CUP – TORONTO
- October 23-25, 2025
- Toronto, Ontario
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- All The Links
The final stop of the 2025 Swimming World Cup is now upon us, as the series wraps up its North American tour with a trip to Canada. With the overall title and multiple Triple Crowns up for grabs, as well as some bonus ‘Crown Buster’ prizes for swimmers who prevent those coronations, there is a lot to play for this week in Toronto. We have seen some fascinating storylines develop over the last couple of weeks, so here’s a few to keep an eye on.
Hubert Kos Gunning For The Backstroke Triple Triple
With two stops down, there are several athletes in line to take a triple crown, with multiple in line for more than one. Hubert Kos is set up in three events, level with Kate Douglass (200 breast, 100 breast, 100 free), Gretchen Walsh (100 IM, 50 fly, 100 fly). However, Kos is the only swimmer to have swept a stroke so far, taking the win in all three backstroke distances in both Carmel and Westmont.
Kos has been the star on the men’s side, leading male swimmers in terms of wins, overall points, and podiums (level with Noe Ponti and Ilya Kharun). He has had identical results at both stops so far: gold in the three backstroke events and bronze in the 100 IM, and leads the men’s rankings by 3.3 points over Ilya Kharun. Three wins will almost certainly hand him the Series Title, with Kharun not a lock to repeat his 58.5 point endeavor from Westmont, where he won the 50 free against a strong field including world bronze medalist Jack Alexy.
There are some strong backstrokers in the field in Toronto, as there have been at the previous two stops. Long Course World Record holder Thomas Ceccon and World Short Course bronze medalist Kacper Stokowski took the podium spots behind Kos in the sprint backstrokes last week, but the Hungarian looks far away the favorite.
Shaine Casas is a wildcard to threaten him, but has focused on the IM events so far, where he is in line for a pair of Triple Crowns himself. With some early Thursday scratches indicating that athletes are all-in on their own Triple Crowns with a $10,000 check on the line, Ceccon and Stokowski will be Kos’ main threats. They came within inches of dethroning the Texas Swimmer in last week’s 50 back, where Kos had his slowest swim of the Tour so far, and he will need to be at the top of his game to ensure he completes the sweep.
Triple Crown Athletes Locked In On Their Own Prizes
Every athlete in line for a Triple Crown in an event will swim that event in Toronto. Not a surprising fact, considering that previously mentioned $10,000 bonus, but it is the events that athletes are not swimming that are more interesting.
Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh and Regan Smith have all scratched races on Day 1 where they rank in the top two all-time, but have not won so far on this tour. Douglass is out of the 100 IM, in which she has finished second to Walsh twice so far this fall, Walsh is out of the 50 free, in which she raced prelims in Carmel but scratched the final, and Smith is out of the 50 back having not yet swum the event. There are other athletes in line for a triple crown in all three of those events: Walsh in the 100 IM, Kasia Wasick in the 50 free, and Kaylee McKeown in the 200 back, and even the potential for a $2,500 ‘Crown Buster’ bonus hasn’t tempted people to go hunting.
On the men’s side Shaine Casas is still entered in all three backstroke events, where Hubert Kos is in line for a sweep, but with a Triple Crown of his own to claim in the 100 IM and 200 IM expect to see his focus narrow as well.
Finn Brooks Flying The Flag For College Swimming
We saw a few long-term Indiana swimmers make the most of the first stop being held in Carmel, and athletes such as Van Mathias, Josh Matheny and Brearna Crawford competed at the Westmont stop as well, making multiple finals. In Toronto there will be just Brian Benzing, Luke Barr, and Finn Brooks – the swimmer who has shown the most impressive step up to this level.
Finn Brooks was a solid fly swimmer through his first two years in the NCAA, and was one of the top U.S. men in the long course 50. However, being an Indiana swimmer almost seems to come with an obligation to improve on breaststroke, and over the last two years he has risen right to the top of the pile in yards, breaking 50 seconds at Big Tens last season. He placed 4th at NCAAs, and has been a monster in the short course pool through the first two stops this fall.
After placing 4th in the 50 breast in Carmel, breaking 26 seconds in both prelims and finals, he went one better with a 25.75 for 3rd last weekend. That matched Nic Fink‘s U.S. Open Record (that Caspar Corbeau had just broken), and placed him one spot above long course World Record holder Adam Peaty. He added bronze in the 50 fly on the final day with a huge best of 22.09, beating out swimmers such as Josh Liendo and Dylan Carter.
For a swimmer who was not a breaststroker until two years ago, and who is racing in their first World Cup Series, Brooks is showing some serious talent. He’s made the step up from yards with aplomb, and could be in line for some serious prize money at the end of the weekend. He is currently ranked 21st in the overall standings and took home $4900 in Westmont. He was faster last week than in Carmel – repeat that and he could make some of the big boys really start to sweat.
Carson Foster‘s Distance Free Renaissance?
Considering Carson Foster‘s career so far, you’d probably dispense with the pencil when writing down his expected event list and go straight to sharpie to put down the 400 free, 200 IM and 400 IM. Instead, he will likely forgo the 200 IM in favor of the 1500 free on Day 2, just as he did in Carmel (with the 1500) and Westmont (with the 800).
This is a pair of events Foster has hardly swum since starting college, but he’s shown himself to be more than just a passenger in these races. He was just ten seconds behind 2023 World bronze medalist Sam Short in the 1500 in Carmel, breaking 15 minutes for the first time with a solid 14:40, before placing 3rd in the 800 behind World Champion Zalan Sarkany and Short again last week. He notched a swim of 8:34.10 in the latter, less than four seconds off the American Record David Johnston set at the Australian Short Course Champs in 2022.
Foster is seeded 3rd in the 1500 this week, behind Short and Charlie Clark, and it will be fascinating to see how his swim compares to two weeks ago. He’s gone out with the Australian in both of their distance battles so far, and hung on better in the 800 last week than in Carmel. If he can stick through halfway, he could raise some interesting questions about his future.
This will not be the first battle between the pair this week either. Foster and Short will lock horns in the 400 free once again, separated by just 0.04 seconds on the psych sheets. They have split the wins in this event so far, Foster winning in Carmel and Short in Westmont, so there is no Triple Crown on the line. We have an inkling that it will be a fantastic race regardless.
Records Galore For The Aussie Women
We have seen a lot of phenomenal swims over the last two weeks, and a fair few of those have come from the land Down Under. Stop 1 saw new Oceanian Records for Alexandria Perkins in the 50 fly and 100 fly and Mollie O’Callaghan in the 200 free, but with an additional week to adapt to the time zone difference and short course meters, the Australian women were phenomenal last weekend.
Lani Pallister set a new Australian and Oceanian Record in the 400 free of 3:52.42 to kick off with, breaking the recently-retired Ariarne Titmus‘ mark by a second and a half. Mollie O’Callaghan then set a World Record in the 200 free, breaking 1:50 for the first time in history, before Perkins broke her own 50 fly Oceanian Record and Kaylee McKeown got the touch in an absorbing battle with Regan Smith in the 200 back, breaking the World Record in the process. Among all of that, Pallister also became the #2 swimmer all-time in the 1500 free, behind only the great Katie Ledecky.
All four women will be back in the pool in Toronto, and with a second week of adaptation under their belts the results could be flaming hot. They sit 4th through 7th in the overall standings, likely a little too far back to challenge Gretchen Walsh or Kate Douglass for the win, but indicative of how well they’ve performed so far in North America.
Don’t forget about New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather either. She sits 8th overall and set a New Zealand record in the 200 free last week, as she improved her times from stop 1. She could be saving her best for last as well.
Bonus(es)
- Sidney Pickrem‘s Final Meet?: Pickrem announced she was taking a step back from swimming earlier this year, skipping Canadian Trials after taking bronze in the 200 IM at 2024 Worlds. She has not swum at a major meet since that announcement, but is entered in the 50 breast and 100 breast here in Toronto.
- Caspar Corbeau Chasing Kamminga’s records: Corbeau has been on fire so far, ranking 4th overall and setting best times at all three breaststroke distances, which included a new Dutch Record in the 50. That was his first individual record, and he is just tenths away on the 100 and 200. He has been 2:01.6 at both stops so far in the 200, setting him up for a Triple Crown, and needs to shave just two tenths off to get down to Arno Kamminga‘s mark of 2:01.43.
- Shaine Casas Showing Medley Chops: Casas won the 100 IM and 200 IM at Stop 1, notably defeating World Record holder Leon Marchand, and swept the medleys last week. That included an impressive 3:57.41 in the 400 IM, knocking six seconds off his best time set just a week before. He now ranks #7 all-time, and is #5 in the 100 IM and #2 in the 200 IM. He has the chance to improve those rankings further this week, having been significantly faster in the 100 and 400 at Stop 2 than at Stop 1.
- Regan Smith with the 2:00 barrier in her sights?: Regan Smith has been training with Summer McIntosh, which she said is “doing wonders for my confidence”, and that is clear to see in the 200 fly. This is McIntosh’s pet event, as is the #2 swimmer in long course and owns the World Record in short course as one of only two swimmers under the two minute barrier. Smith is inching ever-closer though, setting American Records at both stops so far and improving to go 2:00.28 last week. Could she be in line to become just the second woman (after McIntosh) to dip under that mark on both butterfly and backstroke?
