Ranking the Top-20 Women’s Swimmers in the World, Part IV: Legends Atop the List
At the recent World Championships, swimmers competed for medals in 42 pool events, and the results clearly show the best swimmer in the world for each race. Comparing swimmers across events is a subjective task, with factors including versatility, dominance, longevity, big-race performance and relay contributions all considered. With the summer competition season concluded, we will again try to stack up the various competitors from one through 20.
These rankings will be based largely on performances at the World Championships but results from other meets will be considered. Swimmers who sat out this year’s major competitions will not be included on this list.
5. Kate Douglass, United States
Kate Douglass — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
She won Olympic gold in the 200 breaststroke last year, but Douglass faced a supreme challenge in maintaining her hold on the event as world-record holder Evgeniia Chikunova re-entered the international fray after a three-year absence. In their long-awaited showdown at the World Championships, the American came through with aplomb. Douglass went out fast and never allowed Chikunova to get back into the race, finishing in 2:18.50 to win gold convincingly and post the second-quickest time ever.
Dominance in one event is great, but what has always made Douglass special is her versatility. This year, she dropped the 200 IM from her slate despite being two-time defending world champion and added the 100 breast for the first time. She came within eight hundredths of winning gold in that race, and she later had the fastest split on the U.S. women’s world-record-setting 400 medley relay. Douglass also maintained her strong level of performance in sprint events, finishing the year ranked fourth globally in the 50 free and 50 fly while posting 100 free relay splits as fast as 51.90 at Worlds. Three golds and two silver brought the career total for Douglass to 17 at the World Championship level.
4. Gretchen Walsh, United States
Gretchen Walsh — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
The remaining swimmers on this list all won multiple individual world titles this year, including this one who has officially conquered long course following her historic run through both short course yards and short course meters. Seven gold medals at the Short Course World Championship in December 2024 was a preview of the show Walsh could put on at a major international competition, and she produced in Singapore despite suffering from a severe gastrointestinal illness.
Walsh was forced to drop out of the 400 free relay and 100 free, but she still collected golds in the 100 fly and 50 fly, both in dominant fashion and neither far off her own best times. Earlier in the year, Walsh twice broke her world record in the 100 fly while setting American marks in the one-lap race. She was well off her best time in the Worlds final of the 50 free but still finished the summer ranked first in the world with an American-record-tying mark of 23.91. Walsh joined Douglass, Regan Smith and Torri Huske to finish the global meet with a flourish in the 400 medley relay. With the top times in the world in three events and a quickly-improving 100 free, Walsh is poised for a potentially-dominant run in the sprints moving forward.
3. Kaylee McKeown, Australia
Kaylee McKeown — Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr / Swimming Australia
In international backstroke finals, McKeown is money. Each year, she faces off against Regan Smith at the biggest meets and delivers down the stretch. A year after becoming the first Australian woman to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in two different swimming events, McKeown again won the 100 and 200 back at the World Championships.
Smith popped a time of 57.35 in the 100 back final, but McKeown was even better, going 57.16 for her best time and almost a world record (only three hundredths off). McKeown was more dominant in the 200, winning by almost a second as her time of 2:03.30 was merely 0.19 off her own global mark. Moreover, McKeown holds sterling international credentials in both the 50 back and 200 IM, although she did not contest either at this year’s meet. In the last five years, this 24-year-old Aussie has won 10 international gold medals in backstroke, her lone hiccup coming with a fifth-place finish in the 50 back in 2022. Add in consistent medley relay success, and McKeown’s total of World Championship medals is 15.
2. Katie Ledecky, United States
Katie Ledecky — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
The greatest female swimmer in history still ranks as the second-best swimmer in the world today, and the 2025 season was surely her best in nine years. That’s because Ledecky broke a seven-year drought of long course world records, lowering her own mark in the 800 freestyle in early May, before overcoming the greatest challenge of her career in Singapore.
All of Ledecky’s best times this year came at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series meet, including her second-fastest results ever in the 1500 free and 400 free and that historic time of 8:04.12 in the 800. At Worlds, Ledecky continued her streak of reaching the podium in the 400 free at every major meet (aside from the London Olympics, where she did not contest the event) before earning her sixth world title in the 1500. One of the best splits of Ledecky’s career secured a silver medal and American record for the U.S. women in the 800 free relay.
And in the finale, Ledecky went stroke-for-stroke with Summer McIntosh and Lani Pallister and never gave an inch. Her record-breaking seventh world title in the event came in a championship record, with all three podium finishers going quicker times than Ledecky had ever gone in a major final aside from the Rio Olympics. Her career total of World Championship medals has now reached 30, with 23 of them gold, but her medal record from this year do not reflect the extent to which Ledecky recaptured the magic of her early career this year.
1. Summer McIntosh, Canada
Summer McIntosh — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
There should have been no doubt as to the identity of the best female swimmer in the world right now. McIntosh was magical in 2024, earning three individual Olympic gold medals, and even better this year. At the Canadian Trials, she crushed world records in the 400 free, 200 IM and 400 IM while just missing historic marks in the 800 free and 200 fly, and then she embarked on a highly-public quest to go five-for-five at the World Championships. She came up just short in the 800 free thanks to the efforts of Ledecky and Pallister, but McIntosh was not challenged in any of her other events.
The margins of victory for the Canadian were enormous: 1.95 seconds in the 400 free, 1.89 in the 200 IM, exactly three seconds in the 200 fly and an incredible 7.48 in the 400 IM. Perhaps the single most impressive race by a female in Singapore was McIntosh’s 200 fly as she flirted with the world record, held by China’s Liu Zige at 2:01.81 since the polyurethane-suit era. McIntosh was under world-record pace with 50 meters remaining, and even though she ended up only 0.18 off that vaunted mark, she did not hide her displeasure in the aftermath.
Without a doubt, this run will continue in future years, and Liu’s mark will bite the dust just like Katinka Hosszu’s records in the medley events and the time posted by Ariarne Titmus in the 400 free. McIntosh will still be coming for Ledecky in the 800 free, or maybe she opts to add the 200 free or 200 back to her program at major meets. The potential for McIntosh, who only turned 19 last month, remains immense.
