2025 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – Toronto
- October 23-25, 2025
- Toronto, Canada
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
A trio of big scratches rolled in Wednesday evening for the final stop of the World Cup in Toronto, with two superstar American women pulling out of significant events for Thursday morning.
Gretchen Walsh will not swim the 50 free, Kate Douglass will not swim the 100 IM, and Regan Smith will not swim the 50 back at the meet. That eliminates two of the best shots to ‘bust crowns’ in the new World Aquatics system.
Polish sprinter Kasia Wasick won the 50 free at each of the first two stops. If she wins again, she gets a $10,000 bonus. Walsh could have earned a $2,500 bonus for breaking up the Crown – a task that now falls most likely to Australians Alexandria Perkins and Mollie O’Callaghan.
Walsh was the top seed and is the World Record holder, though her only 50 free in the series so far was a prelims swim in the opener in Carmel. She is in the hunt for the overall series win too; a big matchup to swing that outcome could have been on the books in the 100 IM, but there Kate Douglass ceded to her teammate Walsh.
Walsh won that race head-to-head at each of the first two stops over Douglass and is in line for a $10,000 Crown of her own.
Douglass will swim the 200 breaststroke on Thursday, where she is the World Record holder.
The other big scratch is Regan Smith in the 50 backstroke, though like Walsh in the 50 free, Smith hasn’t actually raced the event at any of the World Cup stops so far. Smith is the World Record holder in the 50 back, and her Australian rival Kaylee McKeown is lined up for a Crown in that race.
Walsh and the long course World Champion Katharine Berkoff are still in that 50 back, leaving other potential landmines for McKeown in the race.
Racing kicks off on Thursday morning at 10AM Eastern Time.
I remember the good old days when the Iron Lady swam almost every race.
A legend, but also she had much less competition (I recall the World Cups back then would have maybe a couple of stars showing up, compared to these few years when it’s pretty star studded across most if not all events)
Not sure where else to post this, but in her instagram stories today Mollie posted a picture of her thumb. It looks like it would have hurt a lot – seems like the nail got broken about half way down the nail bed.
Probably to respond some Swimswam comments in an earlier article who said a bandaid is suffice and it’s not a newsworthy.
Yeah I thought the responses about her thumb were very dismissive.
Oooh that looks rough. That would be so painful.
Damn, it will probably still affect her swims then. That sucks. Feel for her
Should be a bigger incentive to bust crowns- why would one, who may be friends with their competitors, stand in the way of a 10k bonus for a chance at 2.5k? Especially if they have their own crowns to prioritize. It should be more than the 10k bonus honestly or at least equal to it.
And its giving cheap tbh
can’t be too much. It would encourage swimmers to skip (or skip events) at the first 2 for easier money.
Walsh never swims 50 free final and Regan never swims 50 back at these World Cups, so it’s not surprising. KD not swimming the 100 IM is the only news, but it makes sense to focus on 200 breast. She said she was not happy with her 200 breast times at last two stops.
KD is a smart swimmer. Behind the bright, lovely smiles is a great planner and strategist. She knows that she has a better chance with overall title by breaking the world records than winning the 100IM vs Gretchen so she canna focus on that.
KD reminds me of Maya Dirado. Smart person and smart swimmer.
It’s a risky proposition for Kate Douglass since the W 100 IM is her best insurance policy. Meanwhile, Gretchen Walsh has the W 50 BK as a fallback position.
Very smart.
Obviously the ladies had a great coffee chat in Chicago.
It’s more of a strategy thing. Under the World Aquatics rule, you have to drop a better time to finish higher in the overall ranking. The rule doesn’t encourage swimming too many events.
Very interesting