SwimSwam’s Top 100 For 2024: Women’s #20-11

After the record-setting year that was 2023, we’re gearing up for another exciting year over here at SwimSwam, and part of that is releasing our fourth annual Top 100 list—check out last year’s rankings here.

Similar to 2023, we’ve taken a statistically driven approach reliant primarily upon world rankings and World Championship medals. We’ve also taken into account things such as potential, Olympic medal opportunities, injuries, and versatility. Long course is weighted more than short course, though performance potential in both formats is factored in.

We’ve also moved Russian and Belarusian swimmers way down this list because of their likely absence from the Olympics or either World Championship meet. While that doesn’t preclude them from swimming fast at domestic meets (including whatever Russia comes up with to replace the Olympics), those swims just won’t mean quite as much without the international spotlight.

We’ll be breaking down the top 100 into multiple installments, so keep an eye out as they’re released.

These lists are, by nature, subjective. If you disagree, leave your thoughts/ranks in the comments.

Braden Keith, Sophie Kaufman, Anya Pelshaw and Mark Wild contributed to this report.

Women’s Rankings:

#20: Yu Yiting, China – Yu, who turned 19 in September, has been on an upward trajectory since breaking out in 2021 with a few World Junior Records and a silver medal in the women’s 200 IM at the Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi. After she was absent from the competitive stage in 2022, Yu re-emerged last year with a career-best performance in the long course pool, claiming bronze at the World Championships in 2:08.74. That PB was short-lived, however, as she upped her game in a big way a few months later at the Asian Games, storming to a medley sweep with times of 2:07.75 in the 200 IM and 4:35.44 in the 400 IM that ranked 4th and 7th, respectively, in the world last year. She also won silver in the 50 fly (25.71) and was 57.51 in the 100 fly last year, so there’s an outside chance she could be in an Olympic final there if she continues to improve. But her bread and butter is the IM events, and having only turned 18 in September, the sky’s the limit in terms of her potential. Yu will race the 50 fly and 200 IM later this month in Doha before turning her focus to Paris.

#19: Erika Fairweather, New Zealand –  Fairweather was SwimSwam’s Breakout Swimmer Of The Year in 2023 after taking a big step forward that was highlighted by breaking 4:00 in the 400 freestyle en route to a bronze medal at the World Championships. Coming in it looked like the three swimmers who would be on the podium was a sure thing, but Fairweather threw a wrench in things by clocking 3:59.59 to become just the fifth swimmer sub-4:00 in history at the age of 19. The New Zealander also set a new Kiwi Record in the 200 free in 1:55.44, ranking #8 in the world for the year, and went 8:18.00 in the 800 free which ranked 7th, both coming in April. After placing 11th in the 200 and 8th in the 800 in Fukuoka, Fairweather finished out the year by earning a World Cup triple crown in the 400 free in the fall. Now 20, Fairweather will be in the field in Doha, where she’s the top seed in the 400 free and in bronze medal position in the 200 and 800. Come Paris, the path to a medal remains incredibly daunting, but she proved last year she can get it done.

#18: Katharine Berkoff, USA – Berkoff broke through on the international stage in 2022 in the 50 back, setting an American Record and ultimately winning silver at Worlds, but she really elevated her game in the 100 back in 2023. The NC State fifth-year, who turned 23 in January, dropped a time of 58.01 at U.S. Nationals in June, a swim that ranks her 5th all-time in the event. She followed up by winning bronze at the World Championships in 58.25, and added two more medals as a prelim swimmer on the U.S. medleys. This year, while Berkoff may need to do something miraculous to improve on her bronze medal performance in Paris, she’s distanced herself from the rest of the field. In Fukuoka, she was more than eight-tenths clear of the fourth-place finisher, and as long as she can get through the gauntlet at U.S. Trials, an individual Olympic medal is in her sights. Once her collegiate career concludes next month, we could also end up seeing her at Short Course Worlds at the end of the year, a format she’s proven to be elite in.

#17: Alex Walsh, USA – Already one of the best 200 IMers in the world in recent years, winning the world title in 2022, Walsh extended her range last year on the international stage, qualifying for the U.S. team in the 400 IM and finishing 4th at the World Championships in a PB of 4:34.46. In the 200 IM, after claiming gold in Budapest in a lifetime best of 2:07.13, Walsh was the runner-up to training partner Kate Douglass in Fukuoka in 2:07.97, just shy of her year-best 2:07.89 from Nationals. Walsh, 22, will be in the mix for medals in both medley events in Paris, though her best chance comes in the 200 IM, where she, Douglass, Summer McIntosh and Kaylee McKeown could all realistically win.

#16: Katie Grimes, USA – These rankings are solely looking at what happens inside the lane lines, but we can’t ignore what Grimes did last year in open water, winning bronze at the World Championships in the women’s 10km to become the first American athlete to qualify for Paris. In the pool, Grimes wasn’t firing on all cylinders in the freestyle events in 2023, but continued to establish herself as the world’s second-best 400 IMer, winning a second consecutive silver in Fukuoka in 4:31.41 to come within earshot of Katie Hoff‘s American Record from 2008 (4:31.12). The now 18-year-old missed qualifying for the U.S. team in the 400 and 800 free, and in the 1500, after winning silver at the 2022 Worlds, she made the team but was 20 seconds off her PB in the final in Fukuoka and finished 8th. Given her pedigree, we’re expecting to see Grimes back at the top of her game in the distance freestyle events at the Olympic Trials (8:17.0/15:44.8 best times), favoring her for three individual events (800/1500 free, 400 IM) in Paris along with the open water event. Favored for a medal in the 400 IM, a spot on the podium is well within reach in the 800 and 1500 as well.

#15: Shayna Jack, Australia – In her second year of competition after returning from a doping suspension, Jack continued to show the depth and dominance of the Australian sprint freestyle events. Individually, Jack won silver at Worlds in the 50 free, having ripped a lifetime best of 24.01 in the semi-finals to rank #14 all-time. She also blasted a personal best time of 52.28 in the 100 free leading off Australia’s prelim 400 free relay, which was fast enough for silver in the individual final—which she wasn’t a part of after taking 3rd at Aussie Trials. Jack, now 25, was clutch for Australia on the relays in Fukuoka, including a scintillating 51.53 split on the mixed 400 medley that ranks #8 all-time. She walked away from the meet with five medals, and could bring in a similar haul in both Doha—where she’s entered in the 50, 100 and 200—and Paris. The 200 is an event she hasn’t explored as much but still ranked 7th in the world last year at 1:55.37, putting her in position for a relay spot. Like all of the other Aussies, she’ll have to be on peak form at the Olympic Trials.

#14: Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania – After returning in 2022 from a swimming hiatus, storming to the world title in the 50 breast and claiming bronze in the 100, Meilutyte continued her sprint breaststroke dominance last year. She broke the world record in the 50 breast (29.16) en route to a repeat world title, and earlier in the competition, obliterated the field in the 100 breast, winning gold by well over a second in 1:04.62. Meilutyte is the favorite to repeat in both events in Doha, but she’ll have her title chances cut in half at the Olympics. If the Lithuanian star manages to win gold in the 100 breast in Paris at the age of 27 after doing so at 15 in London (2012), it would be quite the story, and that’s where things are trending. As a gold medal favorite, Meilutyte’s ranking is hurt by her only having one event where she’ll be contending.

#13: Lilly King, United States – As a whole, King has arguably been the best female breaststroker in the world dating back to 2016, and she kept that going in 2023. Despite missing the podium in the 100 breast at the World Championships for the second straight year, King ripped a time of 1:04.75 at U.S. Nationals in June, the fourth-fastest of her career and fastest since 2021, which was just over a tenth outside of Ruta Meilutyte‘s world-leading time of 1:04.62. King also went 2:20.95 in the 200 breast at Nationals, again just shy of what was required to win gold in Fukuoka (2:20.80), but she missed the podium in 4th. She did walk away with a few medals in Fukuoka, splitting 1:04.93 on the U.S. women’s medley relay that won gold and adding an individual silver in the 50 breast. Soon to be 27, King has shown she can be clutch in the big moments, and while she needs to essentially be at her peak at the Olympic Trials to get to Paris, her success this year will hinge on being at full force at the Games.

#12: Li Bingjie, China – Li is coming off the best year of her career, setting new personal bests in the 800 free (8:13.31) and 1500 free (15:45.71) at the World Championships en route to a pair of medals. She also tied her 400 free PB of 4:01.08 in May before placing 5th in Fukuoka in 4:01.65. She also led off China’s bronze medal-winning 800 free relay in 1:55.83, and wasn’t done there, reeling off a five-gold, six-medal performance at the Asian Games that included a new PB of 1:55.62 in the 200 free. After ranking #2 in the world in the 800 free, #3 in the 1500, #5 in the 400 and #12 in the 200 last year, Li clearly has numerous medal opportunities in Paris. Of course, she’s facing an unstoppable force in Katie Ledecky atop the distance events, and the field in the 400 features four of the five fastest women ever. Li, who will turn 22 in March, is probably the frontrunner for silver behind Ledecky in the 800 and 1500 in Paris, especially after she edged out Ariarne Titmus for the runner-up spot in the former at Worlds. She’ll also likely win a medal on China’s 800 free relay, and will be a medal contender in her three entries, the 200, 400 and 1500 free, later this month in Doha.

#11: Tatjana Schoenmaker, South Africa – Despite seeing her world record shattered in 2023, Schoenmaker remains the big favorite to repeat as Olympic champion in the 200 breast this year with Russia’s Evgeniia Chikunova unlikely to be in the field. Schoenmaker, 26, won the world title in 2:20.80 and had her best swim of the year come in December, clocking 2:20.30 which indicates she’s trending towards the 2:18.9 form she was on in Tokyo. In the 100 breast, she’s also in the medal hunt after taking silver in Fukuoka, the same position she finished in Tokyo, though she only ranked 5th in the world in 2023 (1:05.53) and will likely need to get back sub-1:05 to get on the podium again.

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Nick the biased Aussie
9 months ago

Lilly and Ruta the wrong way around

Swimz
9 months ago

This ranking are bias,
How king is over jacoby..when they both compete together, jacoby shined..even king has a hard chance in 200..macniel, huske both deserve to be on top than King

Swimfast315
10 months ago

My prediction

10siobhan
9 yu fei
8 regan
7 ariarne
6 Kate
5 sarah
4 mollie
3 ledecky
2 kaylee
1 summer

Dinuka
Reply to  Swimfast315
10 months ago

1 Summer
2 Kaylee
3 Mollie
4 Douglass
5 Ariarne
6 Ledecky
7 Sjostrom
8 Meilutyte
9 Yufei
10 Shayna

Age Of Winters
Reply to  Dinuka
10 months ago

Shayna and Ruta are already in this article

Chlorinetherapy
10 months ago

Would love to see a list based purely on individual success and not including relay medals

Jackie O
Reply to  Chlorinetherapy
10 months ago

How far back is “Individual success”?

For example, if “individual success” is stretched to 2021, Emma McKeon would be top 2 female swimmer of 2024. Or Dressel would be top male swimmer of 2024 based on his 2021 results. It doesn’t make any sense.

jeff
Reply to  Jackie O
10 months ago

individual success in 2024

Sub13
Reply to  jeff
10 months ago

That’s just the Swammy Awards isn’t it?

jeff
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago

No, the swammy awards consider relay performance too to my knowledge, and they’re also a recap of the past year instead of predictions for the current year anyway

Last edited 10 months ago by jeff
Jackie O
Reply to  jeff
10 months ago

“individual success in 2024”

Huh? 2024 barely began when Swimswam published the first batch.

Almost all swimmers haven’t even competed. And registered a time.

How tf would you do it?

Last edited 10 months ago by Jackie O
jeff
Reply to  Jackie O
10 months ago

In case you missed it, these rankings are already for 2024 performance lol, so I guess however they’re currently doing it minus relay performances

Last edited 10 months ago by jeff
Jackie O
Reply to  jeff
10 months ago

They’re obviously not based on 2024 performance because otherwise swimmers like Kaylee McKeown who haven’t competed in 2024 won’t be ranked at all.

That’s absurd.

jeff
Reply to  Jackie O
10 months ago

swimmers who have indicated that they are not going to compete in 2024 are indeed out of the running, but Kaylee has not said anything about that to my knowledge

Sub13
10 months ago

As I said on the last article, McKeon/MacNeil/Huske could all have been placed above Berkoff/Walsh/Fairweather. None of them have realistic gold chances (maybe Walsh like 1:1,000 but the other 2 zero).

King might be a little high considering she’s kind of flopped at the big meet 2 years in a row. Bingjie is probably a bit high too considering she has zero gold chances.

Guess this part is where Doha potential might come in for some, and also a bit of subjectivity. If someone has a slim chance at gold in 2 events but far from favourite in either (King), is that better than strong favourite in one event (Meilutyte)?

My guess for the top 10:

1. McIntosh… Read more »

Noah
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago

I don’t disagree that those 3 should swap but Walsh’s chances are much better than 1:40,000.

Andy
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago

Mostly the same as my order. I would have Ledecky over MOC just because she’s basically guaranteed 2 individual gold and strong chance of a medal in the 400 free. MOC is the favourite for two individual gold but she could just as easily walk away with zero, j guess the upside is she’s basically guaranteed two relay golds and strong chance of two other relay medals

I also think Haughey has a better chance of gold in her 2 events than Regan is in any of her 3 events

Troyy
Reply to  Andy
10 months ago

Smith has relay medal chances while Haughey doesn’t.

Andy
Reply to  Troyy
10 months ago

I mean if you’re gonna weight relays more than I’d argue you should put Shayna Jack above Regan. Almost two guaranteed relay golds (potentially two other relays), and would still be decent medal chances in the 50/100 free if she qualifies given she went 24.0/52.2 last year

23/51/1:52
Reply to  Andy
10 months ago

It is an interesting debate.
Ledecky’s expected value is within an extremely narrow range, 2G,1B individual/1 minor relay.
MOC’s is quite a lot wider, 1-2G individual/2G 2 minor relay.
There is one big factor missing, WR potential. MOC could WR both the 100/200 and 2 relay WR’s potentially.
Ledecky hasn’t scared her WR’s in a very long time, that 800 last year was very good but still over 2 seconds off her PB.
MOC’s ceiling is therefore quite a lot higher and her trajectory has been consistently strong, so she is my pick. The main risk factor with her is just how stupid the 100 depth will be at Trials.

ecoach
Reply to  23/51/1:52
10 months ago

Almost any time Ledecky does will objectively be better than what MOC does unless she breaks the WR. If Ledecky again goes faster than anyone else but herself that is better than MOC unless she breaks the WR.
If MOC wins 2 in WR and gold on 2 or 3 relays than she is better likely unless Ledecky stuns for 3 gold.

Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
Reply to  ecoach
10 months ago

Disagree.

100/200 double has never been done except by East Germans who obviously don’t count. 100/200 freestyle double is the most competitive double in swimming. W800/1500 double is the least competitive double in swimming. If MOC wins 100/200 and then 2+ relays, she outshines anything Ledecky does unless Ledecky breaks an individual WR and MOC breaks none.

96Swim
Reply to  Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
10 months ago

Saying the W800/1500 double is the least competitive double kinda undercuts your argument. It is the least competitive because Ledecky is so dominant. You are basically saying that if Ledecky was a lot slower and therefore allowed the races to be more competitive, it would be more impressive.

Hooked on Chlorine
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago

No way I’d have McIntosh ahead of McKeown, but it’s your list, not mine.

Sub13
Reply to  Hooked on Chlorine
10 months ago

I am officially a Kaylee McKeown Stan account but this is why I chose that way:

1. McIntosh has a theoretically higher ceiling. 4 individual gold and 2-3 relay medals (no gold). McKeown is 3 individual gold and 2 relay medals (possible gold). It’s extremely unlikely that either will hit their ceiling, but if they do, McIntosh will be slightly higher

2. McIntosh has a slightly higher floor. I would say McIntosh’s worst case scenario is gold in 400IM and then 1-2 minor medals in 200 fly, 400 free or 200IM. Kaylee has Smith nipping at her heels in both backs, so it’s more likely Kaylee ends up with no gold than Summer does. Again, I don’t think either swimmer… Read more »

ooo
Reply to  Hooked on Chlorine
10 months ago

Rationale here is to have McIntosh as a shoe in winner over 400IM and a good likelihood of winning 200, 400, 200Fly and 200IM. McKeown, in my view, has no gold being written for her in any one of her events.

Troyy
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago
  1. McIntosh
  2. McKeown
  3. Ledecky
  4. O’Callaghan
  5. Titmus
  6. Douglass
  7. Sjostrom
  8. Smith
  9. Haughey
Sub13
Reply to  Troyy
10 months ago

You have Zhang Yufei 10th? She is a legitimate gold threat in 100/200 fly and a medal threat in 50 free, as well as strong gold chance in mixed medley, and strong medal chances in a few others.

I also don’t see Douglass above Sjostrom. Sjostrom is almost a lock for 50 free gold, strong medal chance in 100 free and a wildcard pick for 100 fly. Douglass isn’t favourite in any event, maybe the 200 breast but only if Chikunova doesn’t turn up.

Troyy
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago

I somehow forgot to insert Zhang. Ooops. I was undecided where to put her but she’s somewhere after Titmus and before Smith but I’m not sure what order. I really don’t like her chance of defending her 200 fly gold but I think she’s the favourite in the 100 fly albeit not a strong one.

Chikunova can’t be called the favourite and be ranked as low as she is so I’m just assuming she’s not going which makes Douglass the favourite. So far there’s been no indication at all that she’ll be in Paris and I think her only chance of going is probably the CAS appeal against the Russia ban.

I think if Sjostrom were going to swim… Read more »

Dinuka
Reply to  Sub13
10 months ago

1to8 OK. 9 Meilutyte 10 Jack

John26
10 months ago

Shayna would be an excellent value bet for 100free Olympic champion

Robbos
Reply to  John26
10 months ago

So would Emma McKeon.

Sub13
Reply to  John26
10 months ago

I don’t care who wins it as long as it’s one of the Aussie girls. MOC, Jack or McKeon. Cate Campbell would be so funny that I almost want that to happen.

Kate Douglass' Biggest Fan
10 months ago

Damn I really went 4/10 on my predictions for these

Chlorinetherapy
10 months ago

King and Schoenmaker too high.

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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