SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers which women’s freestyle barrier will go down this fall:
Question: Which women’s SCM barrier is most likely to fall during the World Cup circuit?
RESULTS
- 100 free (50) – 40.5%
- 400 free (3:50) – 40.0%
- 200 free (1:50) – 19.5%
The 2025 World Cup circuit is fast approaching, with the three-stop SCM tour set to kick off on Oct. 10 in Carmel, Ind., and then it will run the following two weekends in Westmont, Ill., and Toronto, Ontario, with each meet spanning three days.
After last year’s series saw numerous world records fall by the wayside from the likes of Kate Douglass, Regan Smith and Leon Marchand, anticipation is growing for this year’s tour with a star-studded group of swimmers, including Douglass and Smith, committed to racing all three stops next month.
Other committed swimmers include Mollie O’Callaghan and Summer McIntosh, the reigning long course world champions in the women’s 200 and 400 free, respectively, which led to SwimSwam’s most recent poll question.
The world records in the SCM women’s 100 free (50.25), 200 free (1:50.31) and 400 free (3:50.25) are all sitting on the precipice of a groundbreaking swim with the first sub-50/1:50/3:50 performance, so we asked readers which barrier is most likely to fall during next month’s tour.
Leading the poll with 40.5% of votes was the 100 free, while the 400 free trailed by just a few votes at an even 40%.
Although she wasn’t announced as one of the nine swimmers confirmed for all three stops, Gretchen Walsh is expected to race at the World Cup, where the 100 free record will be directly in her sights.
Last year, since she was competing in the NCAA, she didn’t race the circuit as it was over in Asia, but she showed up for Short Course Worlds and rewrote the record books, setting new all-time marks in the women’s 50 free (22.83), 50 fly (23.94), 100 fly (52.71) and 100 IM (55.11) while narrowly missing the record in the 100 free, having clocked 50.31 to rank #2 all-time behind Cate Campbell‘s 50.25 mark from 2017.
With a lighter schedule than Worlds, there’s no doubt Walsh has a good shot at breaking Campbell’s record, and if she does, going sub-50 will be right there.
In the 400 free, McIntosh will be taking dead aim at the 3:50 barrier after she clocked 3:50.25 at last year’s SC Worlds to shatter Li Bingjie‘s previous record of 3:51.50.
McIntosh has only improved since then, reclaiming the world record in the long course 400 free in June with a stunning time of 3:54.18, and then in July, she cruised to her first LC world title in the event in 3:56.26.
As for the 1:50 barrier in the 200 free, that option got the fewest number of votes, but still received a decent amount of support at just under 20%.
The most obvious candidate is O’Callaghan, who has won the event in three straight major international finals (2023 Worlds, 2024 Olympics, 2025 Worlds) and owns the #2 performance of all-time in long course at 1:52.48.
The last time she raced in the 25-meter pool was the 2022 SC World Championships in Melbourne, where she didn’t race the 200 free individually but split 1:52.83 on the 4×200 free relay. Given that her long course flat-start time is now faster than that, you’d have to expect she’s capable of something big.
The world record holder in the 200 free is Siobhan Haughey, who set the mark of 1:50.31 at the 2021 SC Worlds. She’s been sub-1:51 on three other occasions, including at the 2024 SC Worlds last December (1:50.62), so she can’t be counted out in this discussion if she turns up at the World Cup.
McIntosh could also be a contender if she races the 200 free at the World Cup, with her personal best of 1:52.63 nearly three years old, set at the 2022 World Cup stop in Indianapolis.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: What stands out to you the most about the new Olympic qualifying process?
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Hot take: All three of those records are going down and Lani is taking the 800 as well. Quote me!
If Lani is anywhere near Singapore form the 800 record is hers.
I already thought she had a chance at the 800 after the trials performance let alone what she did in Singapore. The short course 800 is definitely Ledecky’s weakest world record.
By a country mile… I think Ledecky has only swam it twice in her career and her record time was at some mid-olympics World Cup race where she only broke Mireia Belmonte’s WR by just under 2 seconds. Ledecky’s 800m Long Course record is 14 seconds faster than Belmonte’s best time in that event and no one, until the last couple of years, was within 9 seconds of the LCM record. So that time is very soft.
The 400 is the smallest percentage drop and arguably has the fastest improving competition racing. I guess there’s a question over how she takes to Texas training but she always seems to have responded well to a change in training environment before.
To me the MOC 1:49 feels the most inevitable in the 200. That event has been stagnant for years.
She wasn’t close to her best form at Worlds, so I don’t see why she would suddenly throw down a 1:49 at a less-important meet just a couple of months later.
Her time at worlds was still faster than Haughey’s PB and she has better underwaters. Even off her best she should beat it. If she was at her peak she’d be going a 1:48
Her swim at worlds was superior to the short course world record imo. Besides herself only Titmus and Pelegrini have been faster.
According to the french newspapers, Léon Marchand will just participate at the first stop of the World Cup in Carmel, Indiana. That’s all. Then in november a training camp in altitude in Colorado. And in december the US Open in long course in Austin. No European short course championships. It’s very frustrating 🫤to see him skipping every year the short course championships (world or european) when we know his potential in this format. He could win so many races and break so many records.
He has also never been to Euros