Which Qualification Times Have Gotten Faster For The 2025 World Championships?

The countdown to the 2025 World Championships has begun, as World Aquatics has released the qualification times for the championships. This will be our fourth straight year with a World Championships, as organizers packed World Championships into the shortened quad from 2021-2024, hosting meets in Budapest, Fukuoka, and Doha.

Next year’s World Championships should put the event back on it’s typical “once every two years” schedule. But with so many of these events over the last several years, how much faster have the qualification times gotten?

‘A’ Cuts

None of the women’s or men’s ’A’ cuts got faster from 2023 to the 2024 World Championships, which took place about six months apart. But plenty have gotten faster for 2025. 20 of the 32 events—approximately 62.5%—saw their ‘A’ cuts remain the same from 2023 to 2024, then get faster in 2025.

‘A’ Cuts Faster in 2025

• women’s 50 free, men’s 50 free, men’s 100 free, women’s 200 free, men’s 200 free, women’s 400 free, women’s 800 free, men’s 800 free, women’s 1500 free, men’s 1500 free, women’s 100 back, men’s 100 back, women’s 50 breast, women’s 100 breast, women’s 50 fly, men’s 50 fly, men’s 100 fly, men’s 200 fly, women’s 200 IM, men’s 200 IM

Per World Aquatics, the ‘A’ cuts are determined by using the faster of the two times from the 2023/2024 World Championships ‘A’ standard or the 16th place time of the preliminary heats from 2023.

The women’s 100 free, 50 back, 200 back, 200 breast, 50 fly, 100 fly, 200 fly, and 400 IM ‘A’ cuts have stayed the same across these three years. So have the men’s 400 free, 200 back, 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast, and 400 IM.

‘B’ Cuts

Unsurprisingly, the same events that saw the ‘A’ cut get faster. The women’s 400 IM ‘B’ cut has actually gotten slower over the last two World Championships. In 2023, the cut was 4:52.91, which moved to 4:52.97 in 2024, where it’s stayed for the upcoming World Championships.