Singapore 2025 Bids Farewell to a World Aquatic Championships to Remember.

By Dáire McConville

The swimming world turned its attention to Singapore during July and August as the World Aquatic Championships delivered a stunning showcase of speed, skill, and stamina. The event came to a close following 24 days of recording breaking performances, dramatic finishes, and unforgettable moments in the pool, with the globes top swimmers converging in Southeast Asia for the biennial event. With world records shattered and new talents emerging alongside veterans of the sport, nations battled for podium dominance in races where the time taken to flip a switch can define a career.

The competition format follows that of the Olympic Games, with the only difference being that the World Championships have a 50m event for all four strokes. The Olympics up to this point has only had a 50m freestyle, however the back, breaststroke, and butterfly 50s are being introduced to LA 2028, an immensely popular call among swimming fans as the races are intense, at raw speed and maximum effort with just hundredths of seconds between competitors.

So how is the event coordinated? Following several heats, the 16 best times advance to a semi-final where the top 8 swimmers between both semis compete in a final to fight for silverware. Longer distances like the 400m freestyle and above go directly from heats to finals, piling the pressure on peak performance from the start. The races include 50, 100 and 200m of each stroke (with 400, 800 and 1500 also for freestyle), 200 and 400 individual medleys (all four strokes), as well as freestyle and IM relays both mixed and single gender.

It was no surprise to viewers when it came to naming the male and female ‘Swimmer of the meet’ awards. Just a year on from their success at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it was Frenchman Leon Marchand and Canadian Summer McIntosh that would receive the award based on their outstanding individual performances. A points breakdown determined the winner, where the first four swimmers received points based on their position and any world records earned swimmers an added two points.

Summer McIntosh picked up her first ever ‘Swimmer of the meet’ and with-it honorary recognition and of course a monetary prize. In what was classed as some of the most dominant racing in years, the Canadian swimmer went on to win four individual gold medals in the most enduring events of the 400 and 200 IM, 200m butterfly, 400m freestyle, whilst also obtaining a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle.

En route to her medal haul, McIntosh delivered some of the fastest swims in history, setting a new championship record of 2:01:99 in her butterfly race, narrowly missing Liu Zige’s long standing world record of 2:01:81 set back in 2009 when McIntosh was just 2 years old. However, it was the swimmer’s main event of the 400 IM that would see her obliterate the championship record with a time of 4:25:78, just shy of her own world record of 4:23:65, a record she had recently set in June 2025 during the Canadian Olympic trials in British Columbia. These exceptional swims earned her 22 points toward the overall swimmer rankings.

For the Frenchman Marchand, it was his second ‘Swimmer of the meet’ title after previously winning the award in 2023. Following a much less packed schedule than what he followed in Paris 2024, Leon still managed to deliver in Singapore snatching up two individual gold medals, and with it a new world record. Early into the week, Marchand destroyed Ryan Lochte’s 14-year-old record of 1:54:00 in the 200 IM during the semi-finals with a time of 1:52:69, and went on to win a gold medal in the same event with a time of 1:53:68- the second fastest time ever recorded, only behind himself of course.

In his only other individual event, the 400 IM, he surged well ahead of the field with a finishing time of 4:04:73, more than three and a half seconds ahead of the pack to snatch gold. His record breaking 200IM made him the only athlete across every event in Singapore to set a new world record, and he finished on 12 points for Male swimmer of the meet.

The Irish squad endured a challenging championship, with results that fell short of expectations, however still highlighted areas of promise for the future. High hopes weighed on the shoulders of Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen and and Olympic bronze medalist Mona McSharry.

For the Sligo swimmer, McSharry was unable to replicate her performance in the heats of the 100M breaststroke in the semi-finals, missing a place in the final. Following an appendicitis in June affecting his performance, Wiffen was forced to withdraw from the championships before he could try defending his 1500m freestyle title, saying that his stomach was ‘in pieces’ after the halfway point during his 800M final.

More promising performances from Danielle Hill in the 50M backstroke and Ellen Walshe setting a new Irish record in the 200 IM gave the Irish camp more hope for Budapest 2027.

References

[1] Miller, N., (2025), “2025 World Championships: Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand Win “Swimmer of the Meet””. SwimSwam, 4 Aug 2025.
https://swimswam.com/2025-world-championships-summer-mcintosh-and-leon-marchand-win-swimmer-of-the-meet/

[2] “Olympic champion Wiffen withdraws from the Worlds”. BBC Sport, 31 Jul 2025. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/articles/cx23v0mg3zgo

[3] Keane, E., (2025), “Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry spearhead Ireland at World Aquatics Championship”. RTE, 28 Jul 2025. https://www.rte.ie/sport/swimming/2025/0716/1523860-wiffen-and-mcsharry-spearhead-ireland-at-worlds/