World Record Watch (Women’s): How Many Can Summer McIntosh and Others Break in Singapore?
Six women’s world records have already gone down in the early portion of the 2025 long course season. The first three all came May 3 in Fort Lauderdale, with Gretchen Walsh breaking her own world record in the 100 butterfly prelims, Katie Ledecky taking down her own mark in the 800 freestyle and Walsh going even faster in the 100 fly final to become the first woman ever under 55.
The remaining marks came at Canadian Trials in June as Summer McIntosh laid waste to the existing times in the 400 freestyle, 200 IM and 400 IM while coming up just behind Ledecky’s newly-established 800 free record as well as the suit-aided world record of Liu Zige in the 200 fly. The performance was one of the greatest single-meet performances in swimming history, and now, McIntosh will head to Singapore looking to improve upon her already-impressive three-gold-medal performance at the Paris Olympics.
More records will undoubtedly be going down when McIntosh, Ledecky, Walsh and other established stars share the pool at the World Championships in Singapore. In addition to those three, individual world-record holders competing in their respective events include backstrokers Kaylee McKeown and Regan Smith plus the breaststroke trio of Evgeniia Chikunova, Lilly King and Ruta Meilutyte.
How many of these records could be going down during the eight days of racing at Worlds? Most of the winning times will be within range of the quickest in history, but there is never a 100% conversion rate under the pressure of a major international competition. At last year’s Olympics, there was not a single women’s individual world record. Here is the situation for each stroke.
Freestyle
Katie Ledecky — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
No one expects the world records in the 50 and 100 freestyle to go down, especially not in the absence of world-record holder and Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom. As for the 200 free, Ariarne Titmus is taking the year away from competition, but we cannot rule out a run at the top mark from Mollie O’Callaghan, last year’s Olympic champion and the No. 2 performer in history.
The new global mark of 3:54.18 will surely be the closest competition for McIntosh in the 400 free, even with Ledecky swimming the second-fastest time of her career in May. McIntosh could break records in all five of her individual events or none of them, depending on how much speed she has left following her Trials performance. But given the lack of competition here plus the schedule — McIntosh has the 200 IM semifinals minutes after the 400 free final — perhaps this record eludes her.
As for the 800 free, we could see Ledecky and McIntosh pushing each other the entire way toward that time of 8:04.12 in a race that has the potential to become an all-time classic. In the 1500 free, Ledecky is expected to cruise to her sixth world title in the event, and the record could be within reach after she clocked the second-fastest time in history in May. That said, Ledecky has occasionally struggled to reach her in-season peaks at the major championship meets, even as she continues to accumulate gold medals.
Backstroke
McKeown and Smith have each held world records in both the 100 and 200 on different occasions. McKeown has been typically dominant in major races, including at the last two Olympics plus the 2023 World Championships, but neither one has broken a world record at an international long course championship meet since 2019. That’s not to say it can’t happen this year, particularly in the 100 back where both have clocked times in the 57-mid range on numerous occasions, but recent history suggests solid though not spectacular times in the finals.
Different story in the 50 back, though. Katharine Berkoff became the second-fastest swimmer in history at U.S. Nationals, her American record of 26.97 just 11-hundredths behind McKeown’s world record of 26.86. Berkoff, McKeown, Wen Letian and Kylie Masse will all be in the hunt and potentially in range of the record.
Breaststroke
This is the stroke where a record would be very surprising. King and Chikunova have not come close to their own records since setting them in 2017 and 2022, respectively. Maybe Tang Qianting has a chance in the 100 breast, but she swam about a second off her best time in the Olympic final. Ruta Meilutyte unexpectedly broke the 50 breast world record at the 2023 Worlds, but no one has come within two-thirds of a second of her 29.16 so far this year.
Butterfly
Gretchen Walsh — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
There will be record chances here, with one butterfly record already dropping in 2025 and real threats made to long-standing records in the other two distances. Walsh fell to Torri Huske in the Olympic final, but a repeat of that scenario in Singapore is a major longshot. Rather, the only question will be if she can chase down her own time of 54.60 from the Fort Lauderdale meet. She came up just short at Nationals, settling for the second performance ever under 55.
Walsh has also asserted her dominance in the 50 fly this year, setting herself up to take over as world champion with Sjostrom, the six-time winner of the event, sitting out. She has become the second woman to ever crack 25, and her American record of 24.66 at U.S. Nationals was just 23-hundredths behind Sjostrom’s 2014 record of 24.43.
The 200 fly record has survived even longer, dating back to the suit era, and McIntosh was a hundredth under world-record pace at Canadian Trials before recording the second-fastest mark ever at 2:02.26. Knocking off this record would be perhaps her most extraordinary achievement, and it is within range.
Individual Medley
The IM events come down to whether McIntosh has more in the tank following her pair of records at the selection meet. She beat Hosszu’s decade-old mark in the 200 IM by four tenths before blasting her 400 IM time by two-thirds of a second. Note that the 400 IM will take place on the eighth and final day at Worlds, making another record run less likely as even the intrepid Canadian will be plenty fatigued by that point.
Our Guess
The majority of freestyle, backstroke and individual medley events will feature world-record chances but also compelling reasons why the primary contenders will fall just short. Breaststroke seems like a long shot, but the butterfly records could be primed for breaking, with Walsh and McIntosh on the verge over 50 and 200 meters, respectively, while Walsh is targeting her own 100 fly record. With all that in mind, we will guess that two or three individual women’s records go down in Singapore.
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