SwimSwam’s Top 100 For 2026: Women’s #80-71

Note: we’ve excluded swimmers who have no sign of being in the pool in 2026, and hedged on others like Sarah Sjostrom that we expect to be back but don’t really know how they’ll be. These ranks always wind up a bit wonky because there’s so much opacity to the situations.

Women’s Rankings

• #100 – #91
• #90 –#81

#80 Ksenia Misharina, Russia (2025 Rank: 77) — Ksenia Misharina, a 16-year-old distance swimmer out of Russia was just off her lifetime bests from last year in the 400 and 800 freestyles, swimming 4:07.52 in the 400 to rank 29th in the world and 8:28.69 in the 800 to rank 22nd. Her best times in the 400 (4:06.67) and 800 (8:25.08) both would have qualified for the final at Worlds in Singapore. She set a new personal best in the 1500 of 16:05.21 at the Russian National Championships in April, which was the 12th fastest time in the world last year, and also would have qualified for the Worlds final. She ended up finishing 12th in the 1500 (16:12.35) and 16th in the 800 (8:35.94). In November, Misharina swam at the Russian SC Championships, where she swam 15:42.14 in the women’s 1500 freestyle, which was a new European Junior Record in the event, taking down Merve Tuncel’s 15:45.29 from 2020. If she can start matching her best times in international meets, she will be a huge threat at Euros in the distance events.

#79 Wu Ruoxin, China (2025 Rank: NR) – Another 16-year-old distance swimmer Wu Ruoxin had an electric conclusion to her 2025 that saw her jump to 8th in the world rankings in the women’s 1500. She swam 16:00.61 in November at the Chinese National Games, finishing 2nd in the event and becoming the fastest junior swimmer last year. That time would have been 6th at Worlds and would have won World Juniors. She also moved up to 32nd in the 400 free (4:07.80), and 39th in the 800 free (8:33.07). All three of her events were faster than she swam at the 2025 Chinese National Championships, when she was 16:20.09, 8:44.56, and 4:12.41. With her age and significant improvement in all three of her primary events, she is clearly on an upward trajectory in the distance races.

#78 Mona McSharry, Ireland (2025 Rank: 23) – Olympic medalist Mona McSharry took an extended break after the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where she won bronze in the 100 breaststroke. She returned to the pool in January of 2025 for the NCAA season, and ultimately finished 2nd in the 100 breast and 5th in the 200 breast at the NCAA Championships. She went on to qualify for the World Championships by winning the women’s 100 breaststroke at Irish Nationals before she finished 11th in the event semifinals in Singapore, missing the final. She had the top prelims time of 1:05.99, which finished the year ranked 9th in the world. While her long course was not up to par with what we saw in 2024, she seemed to be returning to form in the short course season, setting Irish records in the 100 and 200 breaststroke during the SC World Cup stops in North America.

#77 Kotryna Teterevkova, Lithuania (2025 Rank: 93) – Teterevkova has been at the top of the world in the breaststroke events over the last few years. In 2025, she was off her best times in most of the breaststroke distances, though she still finished the year ranked 5th in the 200 (2:22.98) and 14th in the 100 (1:06.17) in long course, and she finished 6th in the 200 breast and 8th in the 100 breast at the World Championships. She also wrapped up her year at SC Euros, picking up the bronze medal and Lithuanian record in the 200 breaststroke with her 2:19.30. She wasn’t far off her long course bests of 1:06.02 from February of 2024 and 2:22.86 from August of 2023, and at only 24, she still has room to improve through 2026.

#76 Alex Shackell, United States (2025 Rank: 49) – Shackell was coming off an electric year in 2024 that saw her win multiple Olympic medals as a prelims relay swimmer and be part of the American World Record 400 freestyle relay at the 2024 SC Worlds. She had a bit of a flat year in 2025, particularly in long course where she didn’t drop in either of her primary fly events. She ended up finishing 4th at United States Nationals in the 200 fly and 3rd in the 100 fly missing the World Championship team in both. Despite being 4th in the country, she finished the year ranked 7th in the world in the 200 fly, though three Americans were still ahead of her in the event. In the 100 fly, she was 14th, again with three Americans ahead of her. She had a really strong World Cup performance in Carmel, swimming 2:02.51 in the 200 fly to move up to the 9th fastest performer in history. She is just 19, and Pan Pacs will be a great opportunity for her to get back under her times from 2024 and move up the world rankings.

#75 Brittany Castelluzzo, Australia (2025 Rank: NR) – At 25-years-old, Australia’s Brittany Castelluzzo had a huge breakout in the 2025 season, making her first long course international team after primarily racing international short course meets. Her massive drops started in December of 2024 at the Queensland Championships when she swam 2:07.76 to take a second off her previous best of 2:08.79 from 2022. From there, she dropped to 2:07.37 in March and then 2:06.86 in April at the Australian Open Championships, marking two full seconds improved in less than 12 months. That swim was the 10th fastest time in the world last year. At the 2025 Australian Trials, she finished 2nd in the 100 fly and 1st in the 200 fly before going on to finish 9th in the 200 fly in Singapore. She also participated on Australia’s 800 freestyle relay, swimming 1:56.01 to help the team win the gold medal. Pan Pacs will be perhaps the most competitive meet in the world in the women’s 200 fly, but if she continues to improve, or she can find that improvement in her other events, she could be a medal threat.

#74 Moon Sua, South Korea (2025 Rank: NR) – South Korea’s Moon Sua was another junior swimmer who exploded in the latter half of the 2025 calendar year, though Moon’s case was slightly different. After first qualifying for the Korean World Championships team at just 13-years-old in July of 2022, she missed the team in 2023. In 2024, she raced at the World Championships in Doha, finishing 11th in the 200 breaststroke and 28th in the 100 before missing the Korean Olympic team at Korean Trials. She returned to international competition at the World Junior Championships, taking the bronze medal in the 100 breast (1:07.86) and winning gold in the 200 breast (2:24.77). In October, she had a massive 2:23.21 swim at the Korean Sports Festival, which finished the year ranked 6th in the world. She will be looking to have more consistency going into 2026, but she is on an upward curve as she finds her groove in international competition.

#73 Erin Gemmell, United States (2025 Rank: NR) – American Erin Gemmell set new personal bests in both of her primary events at the 2025 USA Swimming National Championships, swimming 53.51 in the 100 and 1:55.23 in the 200 to earn her spot on the World Championships team. She did not drop in her 200 freestyle in 2024, and came into the season with a lifetime best of 1:55.97 from the 2023 World Championships, marking a seven tenth drop. In the 100, she hadn’t dropped since she swam 54.13 at the Junior Pan Pacs back in 2022, and she almost exactly matched her 100 free time at Worlds, swimming 53.52 on the leadoff leg of the prelims 400 freestyle relay. She ended up finishing 8th in the 200 freestyle in 2:00.16 in the midst of massive American illness. The following night, she had a gutsy race in the women’s 800 free relay, splitting 1:56.75 to help them break the American Record. If she can stay healthy, she will be a major asset to American relays and sprint/mid freestyle races. Her 100 free time finished the year ranked 17th in the world and her 200 free was 9th.

#72 Ella Ramsay, Australia (2025 Rank: 72) – Australian 21-year-old Ella Ramsay had three top-20 times in the World last long course season. Her highest rank came from the 200 IM where her 2:09.21 from the Australian Team Trials was the 10th fastest time in the world. Her whole Australian Trials performance was incredibly strong as she walked home with wins in all four of her events. She swam 1:06.86 in the 100 breast (25th in the world), 2:23.92 in the 200 breast (18th in the world), and 4:36.12 in the 400 IM (13th in the world) to set personal best times in the 100 breast, 200 IM and 400 IM. At Worlds, she finished 21st in the 100 breast, 9th in the 200 breast, and 11th in the 200 IM. She has made a number of international teams, but she struggles at major meets, and always adds from her Australian Trials times, but she has the speed to compete for finals spots.

#71 Beryl Gastaldello, France (2025 Rank 43) – Beryl Gastaldello, 30, has been a staple of French swimming for more than a decade, making her Olympic debut in 2016, and she had a very strong year in 2025. The 30-year-old set new personal best times in both the short course and long course 50 and 100 freestyle events. In long course, she was 24.49 in the 50 and 53.30 in the 100. Both times ranked 14th in the world last season, and in Singapore, she finished 13th in the 50 and 6th in the 100 free. She had a very strong SC Euros to wrap up 2025, setting new French Records in the 50 and 100 free of 23.41 and 50.60 to pick up silver medals in both. She also finished 3rd in the 50 fly and 4th in the 100 IM at SC Euros. She is a better short course swimmer, and with a SC World Championships in 2026, she will likely be a strong medal threat there.