Marchand, Kos, McEvoy, & Others Speak To World Aquatics Ahead Of Singapore World Championships

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

On the eve of competition at the World Championships in Singapore, which run from July 27 to August 3, several of the sport’s biggest stars spoke with World Aquatics.

French sensation Leon Marchand, Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi, Switzerland’s Noe Ponti, Australia’s Cameron McEvoy, Australia’s Lani Pallister, Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto, and Hungary’s Hubert Kos all shared their thoughts as they prepare to take the stage at one of swimming’s premier competitions.

Their conversations covered post-Olympic transitions, new training approaches, family milestones, and ambitious goals for world records and personal bests.

Here’s what they had to say:

Leon Marchand (France)

Reflecting on how his life has changed since winning five medals, including four individual gold, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Leon Marchand shared his perspective on the lifestyle transition he is experiencing.

“I would say it’s more of a transition year for me after the Olympics, which was a big goal for me and a lot of athletes, mostly French,” Marchand told World Aquatics.

“I would say it’s getting back into the game. I had a pretty good year of relaxing, getting back into it, but taking the time for it. I’m excited for Worlds, I want PBs in every single one of my races. Of course, I want to break world records in the next few years, I don’t know when that’s going to happen. But I still have a lot to do in the swimming world,” he added.

Marchand also discussed how his lifestyle has shifted with his new level of fame, saying, “My life in France changed a lot. I have to plan things. I can’t just go on my own in the city and get some bread. I have to do different things before, after, and during. It’s been a lot to handle at first. I also enjoy the positives that happened to me after that.”

He also reflected on how he has adapted to these changes, stating “I’m getting used to it, I know how to handle it better, I know how to say no better. It’s been different, but I’m also learning a lot. It’s been good. I got a lot more peace when I travel out of France. I was able to train better and just do my own things like usual.”

Florian Wellbrock (Germany)

After winning five gold medals last week in the open water events, Florian Wellbrock spoke openly about his disappointing performance at the Paris Games. He finished eighth in the open water 10k despite entering as a slight pre-race favorite alongside eventual gold medalist Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary.

“We didn’t achieve what we trained for,” Wellbrock said. “I had a really long break after Paris, eight weeks. I had thoughts in my mind about retirement, and wasn’t sure to come back and go into the water again. But after eight weeks of recovering, I had the feeling that I wanted to be back in the water, with my group, with my coach. We decided, ok, let’s try and go all the way to LA 2028. I did a lot of work with a new mental coach, and I think I found a good way to be back. It’s so nice to be back on top of the podium,” he added.

Nicolo Martinenghi (Italy)

Nicolo Martinenghi, who won the 100 breaststroke gold medal in Paris, reflected on his mindset following an extended break post-Olympics.

“It was so tough after Paris,” Martinenghi said. “It was like a dream come true but it was also a lot of difficulty in my mind. I stopped, not for eight weeks, but for five months. I decided to change my life. I moved to Verona…new coach, new life, new people. It helped me to discover again how to enjoy my life, the swimming world. Now I can say that I’m ready to come back to push again. I feel good,” he shared.

He described the reality of returning to competition after winning Olympic gold, saying, “When you go out there to win a gold medal, you feel like no one can touch you or beat you, but it’s not like that. It’s just a medal. You have to push again, to push and start to work hard and win again. It’s difficult, but it’s our job. I’m here to do it again.”

Regarding his plans to swim the 50 breast, and its inclusion at the LA 2028 Olympics, he added, “I’m happy about swimming the 50m. Nothing’s changed. 50 is another race to prepare for. If it means for me to prepare more in the 50? No, I don’t think so. I’ll continue to do my job. My job is to swim from A to B in the least time possible. I’m really happy about it. That’s a new goal. You can be a two-time Olympic champion if you’re a sprinter.”

Noe Ponti (Switzerland) 

Noe Ponti, who dominated the sprint butterfly events at the Short Course Worlds in December, discussed the addition of the 50 fly to the Olympic program, saying “50m means one more chance to win at the Olympics.”

“I don’t know if I’ll swim the 200m again, but who knows? LA… potentially three races where I can aim for a medal, but that doesn’t mean that my training has changed or anything. I’ve never trained for the 50m, so the focus has never been on the 50m for me. But I’ve always been able to swim a fast 50 metres. I’ll keep training for the 100, maybe the 200. The 50 will come with it. The 50s will gain more respect from people, from press, from everybody. I’m happy about it, and it’s going to be fun,” he added.

Cameron McEvoy (Australia)

Reigning Olympic 50 freestyle champion Cameron McEvoy spoke about his taper process with a week to go before his race.

“I’ve got my regular training cycle that I’m tapering down going into that race,” McEvoy said. “I’ve got two suited-up sessions where I try to replicate what I want to do. Outside of that, it’s just relaxing, letting the nervous system come up, try not to get in my own way. Letting it go,” he added.

He also reflected on the recent birth of his first child, Hartley James, who was born on July 10, stating, “It happened so fast,” McEvoy said.

“It was the blurriest yet clearest moment of my life. It’s really special. It’s definitely changed my perspective in the grand scheme of things. I’m also learning that you can hold that, but still maintain and go after your passions as well. I’ll continue to learn how to do that as we go forward. It’s been wild, I’m still processing a lot of the changes that come with it, but I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he concluded.

Lani Pallister (Australia)

Lani Pallister spoke about the 800 free, reflecting on the upcoming race with Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh, who are both close to the world record, saying, “Katie’s done incredible things for the sport and arguably she’s the greatest distance swimmer of all time.”

“We have someone like Summer making waves in her events as well. For me, this is a meet where I want to see the training I’ve done with Dean (Boxall), being in a new programme. I just want to put together a time and race that I’m happy with. They’re both so close to the world record. There are goals and race plans in place, but it’ll be really cool to see from the outside as well as being in it,” she added.

Ichika Kajimoto (Japan)

After winning two medals at the Open Water Championships last week—a gold in the 3km knockout sprint and a bronze in the 5k—Ichika Kajimoto spoke about the impact of those results on her pool swimming, saying, “Right after finishing the open water swimming (OWS) events, and with hardly any time to pause, I moved straight into pool swimming.

“Winning medals in OWS events gave me a huge boost in confidence. There’s absolutely no downside to it. I want to carry that confidence from winning medals in OWS into my pool races as well,” she concluded.

Hubert Kos (Hungary)

Discussing his season-best 52.24 in the 100 backstroke, which currently ranks fifth in the world this year and would have earned silver at last summer’s Olympics, Hubert Kos reflected on the incredible depth of the event this season. Leading the pack is South Africa’s Pieter Coetze (51.99), followed closely by the Russian duo Kliment Kolesnikov (52.04) and Miron Lifintsev (52.15), with British ace Oliver Morgan (52.12) positioned right between them.

“I really want to do well in that event because I don’t want to be confined to one single event,” Kós said at the press conference. “I want this to be the championships where I can show that I’ve been working on it a lot. The past couple months, everybody’s just sort of become a monster in that event. So we probably got like eight or nine people under 52.2 or something, which is unbelievable,” he added.

Reflecting on the Olympic bronze medal time of 52.39 from last year, he offered perspective on the rising standards, saying, “That might not even be enough to make the final this year. So I’m really excited to do it, and I want to show in a field like that, where everybody’s really strong and everybody’s doing their best that I can still hold myself with these sprinters compared to myself.”

Quotes courtesy of World Aquatics.