2025 Mare Nostrum Tour – Monaco
- May 17th-18th, 2025
- Monte Carlo, Monaco
- Meet Central
Earlier in the month, SwimSwam reported on the release of a preliminary list of names that have committed to swim at the first stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour, which will take place in Monaco from the 17th to the 18th of May. Since then, more names have been added to the ever-changing commitment list, which can be viewed at the bottom of this article.
We originally wrote that top-end talents Ilya Shymanovich, Kirill Prigoda, and Sam Williamson would go head-to-head in the sprint breaststroke events — and now that showdown is even more stacked. 2024 Olympic 100 breast champion Nicolo Martinenghi has also committed, joining the battle alongside Italian teammate Simone Cerasuolo.
They’ll all likely clash in both the 50 and 100 breast, but on paper, the 50 appears to be the more exciting race. Shymanovich, who just clocked a world-leading 26.37 earlier this month, headlines the field that features four of the five fastest swimmers in the world this season:
- Ilya Shymanovich (BLR) – 26.37
- Ivan Kozhakin (RUS) – 26.49 (Not Attending)
- Simone Cerasuolo (ITA) – 26.59
- Sam Williamson (AUS) – 26.66
- Kirill Prigoda (RUS) — 26.70
2024 World Champion Williamson, who clocked a time of 26.66 in February, ranking 4th worldwide, recently posted a 27.10 to win the Australian Open title. Martinenghi placed 2nd (26.78) behind countryman Cerasuolo (26.59) at the recent Italian Nationals, which slots them at 3rd and 8th so far this season.
Prigoda sits 5th in the world rankings, thanks to his 26.70 winning time from the Russian World Trials last week.
2024 Olympian Benedetta Pilato will make a return to the tour after having won both the 50 and 100 breast at the Barcelona stop last year. Pilato had a strong showing in Paris, tying for 4th in the 100 breast in a new PB of 1:05.60, just .01 out of the medals.
Maxime Grousset, the 2023 100 butterfly World Champion, will make the trip to Monaco. In Paris, the Frenchman failed to reach the podium individually despite three solid chances. He placed 5th in both the 100 free (47.71) and 100 fly (50.65), and scratched out of the 50 free final after initially qualifying 6th from the semis. His fastest times in 2024 ranked him 11th globally in the 50 free (21.60), 5th in the 100 free (47.33), and 5th in the 100 fly (50.41). The 100 free time is his quickest-ever, while he has swum faster in the 50 free (21.57) and 100 fly (50.14).
Polish rising star Ksawery Masiuk is also among the commitments. He recently represented Poland at his first Olympic Games in Paris, placing 12th in the men’s 100 back (53.44) and 17th in the 200 back (1:58.01). The University of Texas commit owns elite lifetime bests of 24.44 in the 50 back, 52.58 in the 100 back, and 1:56.48 in the 200 back.
After breaking the Mare Nostrum record twice last season in the 200 free, Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey returns to the field. In 2024, she earned gold in the 200 free at all three stops, a feat she matched in the 100 free. Using the tour as a launchpad, she went on to claim Olympic bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 free events in Paris. Since then, she has continued her dominance in the 200 free, winning all three stops of the World Cup and capping it off with a gold at the Short Course Worlds.
Haughey will have some competition in the 100 free, with the Netherlands’ Milou van Wijk coming in with the third-fastest 100 free time (53.18) in the world this year, notched at the Antwerp Diamond Speedo Meet in late March. France’s Beryl Gastaldello will also be in the mix with her personal best of 53.40.
Updated Commitments:
Note: Neutral Athletes ‘A’ are competitors from Belarus, and Neutral Athletes ‘B’ are from Russia. They are required to compete as neutrals due to their nations’ suspensions, resulting from the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian sporting organizations.
- Sam Williamson (Australia)
- Bernhard Reitshammer (Austria)
- Lana Pudar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Ingrid Wilm (Canada)
- Sydney Pickrem (Canada)
- Melanie Henique (France)
- Maxime Grousset (France)
- Beryl Gastaldello (France)
- Siobhan Haughey (Hong Kong)
- Petra Senanszky (Hungary)
- Nandor Nemeth (Hungary)
- Eszter Szabo-Feltothy (Hungary)
- Szebasztian Szabo (Hungary)
- Panna Ugrai (Hungary)
- Balazs Hollo (Hungary)
- Lora Komoroczy (Hungary)
- Attila Kovacs (Hungary)
- Anastasia Gorbenko (Israel)
- Benedetta Pilato (Italy)
- Alberto Razzetti (Italy)
- Sara Franceschi (Italy)
- Alessandro Miressi (Italy)
- Ludovico Viberti (Italy)
- Nicolo Martinenghi (Italy)
- Giacomo Carini (Italy)
- Simone Cerasuolo (Italy)
- Manuel Frigo (Italy)
- Leonardo Deplano (Italy)
- Lisa Angiolini (Italy)
- Milou Van Wijk (Netherlands)
- Tessa Giele (Netherlands)
- Ilya Shymanovich (Neutral Athletes A)
- Anastasiya Shkurdai (Neutral Athletes A)
- Grigori Pekarski (Neutral Athletes A)
- Arina Surkova (Neutral Athletes B)
- Roman Shevliakov (Neutral Athletes B)
- Kirill Prigoda (Neutral Athletes B)
- Lewis Clareburt (New Zealand)
- Adela Piskorska (Poland)
- Dominika Sztandera (Poland)
- Ksawery Masiuk (Poland)
- Jakub Majerski (Poland)
- Louise Hansson (Sweden)
- Sophie Hansson (Sweden)
- Sara Junevik (Sweden)
