Ranking the Top-20 Men’s Swimmers in the World, Part III (6-10): Veteran and Rookie World Champions Make Their Marks
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.
10. Thomas Ceccon, Italy
Thomas Ceccon — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
The most impressive result for this 24-year-old Italian at this summer’s World Championships was not his silver-medal finish in the 100 backstroke. Ceccon overcame the fastest field in the event’s history to secure a global medal for the fourth consecutive summer, but it was not his only podium finish in Singapore. A day earlier, Ceccon raced in the 50 butterfly final just 20 minutes after competing in the 100 back semis, and he beat out past world champions Diogo Ribeiro and Ben Proud to earn bronze. Ceccon also supplied a 47.10 split to help Italy to silver in the men’s 400 free relay.
Ceccon continued a run of remarkable consistency in his main events. He placed fourth in the 100 back in his major final debut at the Tokyo Olympics and broke the world record on the way to a world title one year later. With the entire Worlds podium this year under 52 seconds, Ceccon put forth a time of 51.90 that was only five hundredths off the winning mark. Later in the meet, he led off the Italian men’s medley relay in 51.80, just two tenths off his world record and officially the top time in the world this year, although the team would end up a tenth outside of podium position.
9. Cameron McEvoy, Australia
Cameron McEvoy — Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr / Swimming Australia
In a previous career, McEvoy was a standout across freestyle races of numerous distances. He was once considered the world’s best 100 freestyler, with a lifetime best of 47.04 that remains the Australian record, quicker than the all-time best performance of Kyle Chalmers. McEvoy has won global-level medals in all three men’s relays. But now, the 31-year-old is a pure sprinter, only racing the 50 freestyle and not concerning himself with the 100, 200 or any relays. That decision has been completely validated with years of splash-and-dash dominance.
He took a one-year break from international racing after the Tokyo Games, and since then, McEvoy has been unstoppable. He won a world title in the 50 free in 2023 before claiming Olympic gold last summer, and he secured another victory this year in Singapore. In this year’s final, McEvoy surged to the finish in 21.14, just six hundredths short of his personal best and a tenth behind the fastest time ever in a textile suit. McEvoy won by more than a tenth, and his margins could get bigger after Proud, the silver medalist in that race, defected to the Enhanced Games.
8. Lukas Martens, Germany
Lukas Martens — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Martens is the undisputed global king of the 400 freestyle thanks to a pair of victories in the most significant competitions the past two summers plus a stunning world record in April. In the Olympic final, Martens defeated Australia’s Elijah Winnington in the final length, and it was a similar story at this year’s Worlds as he edged Aussie Sam Short by two hundredths at the finish. In between, he took down the legendary, suit-aided global mark of fellow German Paul Biedermann by becoming the first man ever under 3:40.
In total, Martens has reached the podium in the 400 free at every major meet since 2022, and he has range as well. He won World Championships bronze in the 800 free this year after swimming a time of 7:39.10 earlier in the year to become the 11th-quickest man in history. Martens held the world’s fastest time in the 200 free for several months, with a 1:44.25 that still sits third globally for 2025 behind David Popovici and Luke Hobson. Martens is also a solid backstroker, having made the Olympic final in the 200 last year.
7. Pieter Coetze, South Africa
Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Coetze was a Commonwealth Games gold medalist at age 18, a world junior champion at 19 and an African-record-setting Olympic finalist at 20. Now, Coetze is clear choice as world’s best backstroker following a streak of success this summer which spanned the World University Games and World Championships. First, he won the 100 back and 50 back in Berlin plus a silver in the 100 free, and it was his Games-record time of 51.99 in the 100 that suggested a big Worlds could be coming.
Coetze made the trip to the other side of the world and improved further. The men’s 100 back final was the quickest in history, with a sub-52 performance required to make the top-three, and Coetze delivered the perfect race to win. He stayed close enough to the race’s early leaders, flipping in third place at the halfway point, and held off the likes of Ceccon, the world-record holder, down the stretch to finish in 51.85. Coetze would also take silver in the 200 back in 1:53.36 and tie for runnerup in the 50 back in 24.17. He finished the year with African records in all three distances, and in the all-time standings, he is tied for fourth in the 100, seventh in the 200 and 10th in the 50.
6. Qin Haiyang, China
Qin Haiyang — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
This 26-year-old from China has waffled between utter dominance and crushing disappointment. At the 2023 World Championships, he swept the breaststroke events, becoming the world-record holder in the 200 and the second-fastest swimmer ever in the 50 and 100. But at the Paris Olympics, Qin faltered badly, ending up seventh in the 100 and missing the final of the 200 entirely, although he did deliver the performances Team China needed in relay action.
In Singapore, Qin was much closer to his 2023 form as he returned to the top of the podium in the 100 and 200 while claiming silver in the 50. Qin overtook Nicolo Martineghi, the Olympic champion, to recapture the title in the 100 breast, and although he had to sneak into the 200-meter final in eighth position, the rest of the field was no match for his finishing speed. The only knock on Qin is that he did not come close to replicating his times from two years earlier; he finished the summer with the world’s top time in the 100 breast (58.23) but only fourth-best in the 200 and fifth-best in the 50. Qin did help China to silver in the mixed 400 medley relay, but the Olympic-gold-medal-winning men’s team did not advance to the final.
