25th Summer Deaflympics (Swimming)
- Thursday, November 20– Tuesday, November 25, 2025
- Tokyo Aquatics Center, Tokyo, Japan
- LCM (50 meters)
- Results
The Tokyo Aquatics Center, that four years ago hosted the Olympic competition, this week welcomes in the best deaf swimmers in the world for the 2025 Deaflympics.
The meet started with a bang as Deaflympics veteran Matthew Klotz won the first final of the meet, and the first gold medal, with a 57.54 in the men’s 100 meter backstroke.
Competing in his 4th Deaflympics, the former LSU Tiger entered the meet with eight Deaflympic gold medals. That win gave him a 4th consecutive title in the 100 back, his only four-peat opportunity of the meet (though not his only gold medal opportunity).
He would then hand off the session to his Team USA teammate Carli Cronk, a Notre Dame sophomore who skipped her team’s mid-season NCAA Invite to attend these Deaflympics. She was rewarded with a pair of World Records.
That began in the 100 fly, where she won in 59.13. That cracked her own Deaf Swimming-recognized World Record of 1:01.31, though her previous best time was a 1:00.10 from May 2024. Regardless of which was the prior record, her 59.13 was her first time under a minute.
She also won one of the most-anticipated head-to-head battles of the meet over Italy’s Viola Scotto di Carlo, who was 2nd in 59.58, also under the old World Record.
Just two races later, she beat Scotto di Carlo again in the 400 free, setting another new World Record in 4:18.39. Scotto di Carlo was 2nd in 4:20.64.
Cronk’s 4:21.27 from May 2021 was the officially-recognized World Record in the race coming into the meet, and was Cronk’s previous personal best.
She now holds 10 Deaf World Records in swimming in total.
Ukraine’s Ilia Sultanov was the other World Record setter on the day, winning the men’s 50 fly in 24.13. That broke the previous World Record of 24.75 set by Russian Andrei Zhivaev at the 2017 Deaflympics.
That was one of three gold medals for Ukraine on Thursday: Myroslav Boldyrev won the men’s 400 free in 4:04.24; and Sultanov, Vladyslav Tymofeiev, Boldyrev, and Denys Nakonechnyi combined for a 3:29.49 to win the men’s 400 free relay. Nakonechnyi had the best split of the field in 51.12.
Team USA was 2nd in that race.
Other Day 1 Winners
- British 16-year-old Charlotte Gower won the women’s 200 IM in 2:21.95, which took three-and-a-half seconds off her previous personal best.
- China won the women’s 400 free relay in 4:00.23, running away from Poland by more than five seconds. Team USA finished 4th, but Cronk had the best split of the field, on her third swim of the day, by a large margin, anchoring in 56.26.
I’m curious if the Deaflympics had an open water swim event.
Nevertheless fast times in the pool!
They do not.
Congrats Carli! We know the best is ahead of you ☘️🇺🇸🥇🥇💥
Seems like a good reason to miss your team’s mid-season invite