2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
- World Aquatics Championships Arena
- LCM (50m)
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We were treated to the final of the women’s 50m butterfly tonight in Singapore on day seven of the 2025 World Championships.
American Gretchen Walsh roared to the wall in a speedy effort of 24.83 for the gold, adding the medal to the 100m butterfly gold she already won.
Australia’s Alexandria Perkins was next to the wall in a mark of 25.31, a lifetime best for the 25-year-old. Her swim also tied the existing Australian and Oceanian record.
Roos Vanotterdijk of Belgium continued her impressive campaign here with the bronze in 25.43.
This is the same podium as the 100m fly, albeit in a different order. In that longer event, Walsh still won gold, but it was Vanotterdijk who captured silver and Perkins the bronze.
Entering this competition, Perkins’ career-swiftest performance rested at the 25.36 she notched just this past June at her nation’s World Championship Trials. She managed to slice .05 off that effort to snag the silver.
Her time tied the same 25.31 retired Aussie Holly Barratt put on the books at the 2019 World Cup stop, which took place in this same country.
Further down the line this evening, Germany’s Angelina Köhler established a new national record of 25.50 en route to placing 4th, just .07 off the podium.
24-year-old Köhler, the reigning world champion in the 100m fly, shaved .05 off her previous best-ever swim of 25.55 logged at June’s Sette Colli Trophy.
WOMEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY – Final
- World Record: 24.43 — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden (2014)
- World Junior Record: 25.46 — Rikako Ikee, Japan (2017)
- Championship Record: 24.60 — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden (2017)
- 2023 World Champion: Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 24.77
Final:
- Gretchen Walsh (United States) — 24.83
- Alexandria Perkins (Australia) — 25.31
- Roos Vanotterdijk (Belgium) — 25.43
- Angelina Kohler (Germany) — 25.50
- Arina Surkova (NAB) — 25.59
- Lily Price (Australia) — 25.61
- Silvia Di Pietro (Italy) — 25.64
- Erin Gallagher (South Africa) — 25.66
Gretchen Walsh, the heavy favorite coming into this race, did her thing in the women’s 50 butterfly final. She got back under the 25 second mark once again, firing off a 24.83 to confirm her golden double in the sprint butterfly events this week.
Walsh was the only swimmer in the field to break the vaunted 25-second barrier. Almost half a second behind her, Australia’s Alexandria Perkins picked up the silver medal, the second individual long-course Worlds medal of her career (and this meet, as she took bronze in the 100 butterfly). Perkins tied the Oceanian record Holly Barratt swam in 2019 to earn the medal, touching in 25.31.
Roos Vanotterdijk got back on the podium for the second time this week after a busy schedule. Vanotterdijk began her excellent meet in the 100 butterfly with three Belgian records in three round and a silver medal. Now, her 25.43 has put her back on the Worlds podium.
Though Perkins and Vanotterdijk switched steps, these are the same three swimmers that made the women’s 100 butterfly podium earlier this week.
