The Longest Current Medal Streaks in International Swimming
At last summer’s World Championships, Katie Ledecky continued one of the all-time great streaks in athletic competition. In the women’s 800 freestyle final, Ledecky held off spirited charges from Lani Pallister and Summer McIntosh to secure her record-setting seventh world title in the event. Ledecky has never lost the event in international competition, a run that dates back to her win at the 2012 Olympics and includes four Olympic gold medals plus two Pan Pacific Championships wins in addition to the aforementioned global honors.
But Ledecky has not been the 800 freestyle winner at every international meet in the past decade, having skipped numerous events that were not the year’s most significant competition. Like many big-name swimmers, Ledecky opted out of the February 2024 World Championships held in Doha to prepare for the Olympic campaign. She has never competed at the Short Course World Championships, turning down spots on seven different occasions to focus on long course competition.
That absence in early 2024 meant that Ledecky does not own the title for most consecutive world titles in one event on her own. Instead, she shares that title with Sarah Sjostrom, the Swedish legend with six consecutive crowns in the 50 butterfly from 2015 through 2024. However, that run did not continue into 2025 as Sjostrom took the year away from racing to welcome her first child.
So who does own the longest streak of winning titles when including all contests officially labeled as worldwide? There have been four such meets in the last two years alone, with the Paris Olympics, two long course World Championships plus one edition of the 25-meter meet — and not a single swimmer has swept any event at all four meets. Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte has been the 50 breaststroke champion at every major meet (long course and short course) dating back to 2022, but the event was not on the Olympic program in Paris.
The swimmer closest to going four-for-four was American Kate Douglass, who is clearly established as the world’s dominant 200 breaststroker. She took down defending champion Tatjana (Schoenmaker) Smith in Paris before easily surpassing Evgeniia Chikunova for short course (2024) and long course (2025) world titles. But before that, Douglass was the runnerup in the event at the 2024 World Championships, finishing behind the Netherlands’ Tes Schouten.
Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Two other swimmers who were gold medalists in Tokyo have captured both short course and long course world titles since then: McIntosh in the women’s 400 IM and 200 butterfly and Hubert Kos in the men’s 200 backstroke. McIntosh was close to another three-for-three, but she ended up with silver behind Ariarne Titmus in the Paris final of the 400 free. In a similar situation was Gretchen Walsh, who lost out to American teammate Torri Huske in the 100 fly in Paris before crushing the next two global finals. Douglass had a 200 IM silver (behind McIntosh) in between short course and long course world titles in 2024.
We cannot forget about Cameron McEvoy, never a medalist at the Short Course World Championships but an utterly dominant force in the long course 50 free. He has captured gold in the splash-and-dash each of the past three summers, only for a slip-up at the February 2024 meet to interrupt a would-be streak. McEvoy was second at that meet to Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bukhov by one hundredth.
If only end-of-summer long course championship meets are considered, the longest streak of dominance obviously belongs to Ledecky, going back to 2012. Only one other swimmer has a run dating back to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown in the 200 backstroke. Those who have four-year winning streaks dating back to 2022 include Meilutyte in the 50 breast, McIntosh in the 200 fly and 400 IM and Leon Marchand in both IM events.
As for medal-winning streaks, the only additional swimmers to reach the podium at every summer championship meet dating back to Tokyo are Nicolo Martinenghi in the men’s 100 breast, Regan Smith in the women’s 100 back and Bobby Finke in the men’s 1500 free. Alex Walsh would be on that list for the 200 IM if not for her heartbreaking disqualification in the Paris Olympic final. There would be too many four-year stretches to note, but a special mention should be made for what Douglass has done in the 200 breast. She first raced the event internationally at the 2022 World Championships and has made the podium every time. That includes Olympic gold, a long course world title plus two silver and a bronze and two short course wins.
Finally, Kyle Chalmers deserves recognition for his amazing run of excellence in the 100 free. He has never missed an international podium in his best event, although he has skipped several big meets; he was completely absent from Worlds in 2017 and 2024 and raced only butterfly and relays in 2022, and he has only been to Short Course Worlds once. But his career accomplishments include Olympic gold and two silvers, one medal of each color at the long course World Championships and a short course world title in 2022.
