SwimSwam’s Top 100 For 2025: Men’s #70-61

After an unprecedented year of racing that included the Olympics sandwiched between the Long Course and Short Course World Championships, it’s time to start releasing our fifth annual Top 100 list—check out last year’s rankings here.

As in previous years, we’ve taken a statistically driven approach reliant primarily upon world rankings and medals won at the Olympics, and to a lesser extent, Short Course Worlds and the 2024 Worlds in Doha. We’ve also taken into account things such as potential, future medal opportunities, injuries, and versatility. Long course is weighted more than short course, though performance potential in both formats is factored in.

After a large contingent of Russian and Belarusian swimmers raced at Short Course Worlds in December, those swimmers have started to move back up the rankings after they were low on the lists last year due to lack of competition.

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.

Thank you to Daniel Takata for his help with the data and compiling the rankings. 

Men’s Rankings:

• #100 – #91
• #90 – #81
• #80 – #71
• #70 – #61
• #60 – #51
• #50 – #41
• #40 – #31
• #30 – #21
• #20 – #11
• #10 – #1

#70: Lewis Clareburt, New Zealand (2024 Rank: NR) – Clareburt took full advantage of a pared-down field in the 400 IM at last year’s World Championships in Doha, winning gold in a time of 4:09.72. The 25-year-old Kiwi went on to finish 6th in the 400 IM in Paris (4:10.44), and also placed 11th in the 200 IM and 21st in the 200 fly. He’s been hovering around the same best times for the last three years, so this might be his peak, but it still keeps him in the medal hunt in the 400 IM. Clareburt was 4:08.71 in May at the Sydney Open, which ranked him 4th in the world in 2024.

#69: Yamato Fukasawa, Japan (2024 Rank: NR) – Japan has long been a factory of producing elite breaststrokers, particularly in the 200. Last year, four of the six fastest swimmers in the world in the 200 breast were Japanese, and it was Fukasawa who found himself on the outside looking in in terms of Olympic qualification. The now 24-year-old swam a time of 2:07.07 at the Konami Open last February, which ended up tying for fifth-fastest in all of 2024. Despite missing the Olympic team, Fukasawa did represent Japan internationally at Short Course Worlds, claiming bronze in the 200 breast (2:02.01) while also placing 13th in the 100 breast (57.07).

#68: Finlay Knox, Canada (2024 Rank: NR) – Knox pounced on the opportunity presented to him in the final of the 200 IM at last year’s Worlds in Doha, running down Carson Foster on the last 50 to win his first world title, resetting his Canadian Record in the process in 1:56.64. Knox lowered that record to 1:56.07 at the Canadian Olympic Trials, a time that ranked him 6th in the world for the year, and ended up 8th at the Olympics (1:57.26). The 24-year-old is incredibly versatile, having swam on Canada’s 4×100 free relay (47.96 split at LC Worlds), done both breast and fly on medley relays, and was even 9th in the 50 back at SC Worlds (23.71). He finished the year off with four medals at SC Worlds, including an individual bronze in the 200 IM. If he keeps himself in the 1:56-low range, and maybe even dips into the 1:55s, he’ll be a medal threat in the 200 IM on the big stage.

#67: Andrei Minakov, Russia (2024 Rank: NR) – Minakov has perenially been among the fastest men in the world in the 100 fly, but after breaking through to win silver at the 2019 World Championships and then placing 4th in the event at the Tokyo Olympics, his international career came to a pause due to the Russian ban. However, racing domestically, he still posted some quick long course times in 2024, ranking 7th in the world in the 50 fly (22.97), 12th in the 100 fly (50.86) and 31st in the 100 free (48.07), and closed out the year with a strong showing at SC Worlds. The 22-year-old set a best time in the 100 fly (49.19), placing 6th, and contributed on the world record-breaking 400 medley relay.

#66: Yu Hanaguruma, Japan (2024 Rank: NR) – Hanaguruma is in a similar boat to Fukasawa as one of the elite 200 breaststrokers out of Japan. The two set identical lifetime bests last year, 2:07.07, to rank tied for 5th in the world in 2024, but Hanaguruma gets the slight upper hand given his swim came at Japanese Nationals, which qualified him for the Olympics over Fukasawa. Despite finishing a respectable 5th in the 200 breast Olympic final, Hanaguruma was well off his PB set in April, clocking 2:08.79. He has stepped up with big swims in the past, including winning silver in the 200 breast at both the 2022 Worlds and 2021 World University Games (held in 2023), and has some upside in the 100 breast after his 59.46 clocking ranked 25th last year.

#65: Sam Williamson, Australia (2024 Rank: NR) – Williamson has long been looked at as a 50 breast specialist, but he made big gains last year in the 100-meter event. To kick off the year, he won gold in the 50 breast at the 2024 Worlds, setting an Oceanian Record of 26.32, which ranked #1 in the world at year’s end. He was 59.21 in the 100 breast, placing 4th, and then broke through with multiple sub-59s at the Australian Olympic Trials, culminating with a 58.80 clocking in the final. That swim ranked him 6th in the world for the year, though he ended up faltering at the Olympics and finishing 24th. Having turned 27 in December, Williamson has a legitimate chance to defend his world title in the 50 breast in Singapore. The 100 is harder to gauge.

#64: Melvin Imoudou, Germany (2024 Rank: NR): Imoudu had a breakout year in 2024. The German native came into the calendar year having never swam at a World Championship or Olympics, and ended the year having competed at three. In February, he went 1:00.08 at the Doha World Championships to finish 14th in the 100 breast, missing the final. That lit some kind of fire because he swam the 100 breast 16 more times in long course, and only went slower than that once. Up to this point, he had only been under 1:00 twice in the event. He has now done it 17 times. In June, he dropped to 58.84 at the European Championships, which remains his best time and ranks him 7th in the event. At the Games in July, he won a swim-off to qualify for the final, where he eventually finished 4th in 59.11. His performance at the SC Worlds was underwhelming in comparison, finishing 18th in the 100 breast and 10th in the 50 breast. If he swims more like he did at the Games, he could be a serious medal contender in the event at Worlds.

#63: Sun Jiajun, China (2024 Rank: 59) – Sun has the rare skillset of being elite in sprint breast and fly. After winning bronze in the 50 breast at the 2023 Worlds, he broke through with a 58.73 clocking in the 100 breast at Chinese Nationals in April 2024, qualifying him for the Olympics—albeit #2 on China’s depth chart behind Qin Haiyang. He also earned a spot on the team after clocking 51.52 in the 100 fly, and went on to swim the fly leg of China’s winning 4×100 medley relay in Paris, splitting 51.19. Now 24, Sun was a bit off individually at the Games and missed second swims, but closed out the year strong, earning a pair of bronzes at the Shanghai World Cup in the breaststrokes. His medal opportunities are alive in the 50 and 100 breast at Worlds, and until someone surpasses him, will be the go-to fly swimmer on China’s medley relay.

#62: Hugo Gonzalez, Spain (2024 Rank: 86) – The incredibly versatile Gonzalez claimed World Championship gold in Doha in the 200 back, clocking 1:55.30 to edge out Switzerland’ Roman Mityukov. Gonzalez also claimed silver in the 100 back (52.70), just .02 shy of gold, and then a few months later, ripped a Spanish Record of 1:54.51 in the 200 back, which ranked him 3rd in the world for 2024. The 25-year-old ended up placing 6th in both backstrokes at the Olympics, though his 200 back PB would’ve been good for silver. He also finished the year ranked 8th in the world in the 200 IM (1:56.48), and is an outside medal threat at the World Championships in the backstroke events given how wide open they’ve been in recent years.

#61: Alberto Razzetti, Italy (2024 Rank: 60) – As a short course specialist, Razzetti comes in lower on the list than some of his recent results might suggest, including winning four medals (three individual) at Short Course Worlds. The 25-year-old did win the first two LC World Championship medals of his career last year in Doha, albeit in relatively weaker fields. At the Olympics, he was 5th in the 400 IM, 6th in the 200 IM, and 8th in the 200 fly, showing he’s among the world’s best in all three races, but maybe has yet to show that high end to earn a medal when it’s best on best. However, he’ll have plenty of medal chances, likely even gold, at SC Euros.