Women’s Sprint Freestyle: Meg Harris and Marrit Steenbergen Won Gold in 2025 But American Looming
The results from the women’s sprint freestyle events at this year’s World Championships show a pair of veterans claiming deserved, long-awaited gold medals. Marrit Steenbergen was world champion in the 100 free in early 2024, but the Singapore field she topped was fully representative of the best swimmers in the world this year. And in the 50 free, Meg Harris improved upon her Paris silver medal by claiming gold, winning by almost a quarter-second.
But these two women now face the tough task of maintaining their hold on the events moving forward into the new quad, and it will not be easy. A pair of American stars were far from their best form at this year’s Worlds and will surely seek retribution while the longtime queen of the sprint events could have a comeback in the works.
Sarah Sjostrom recently gave birth to her first child, a son named Adrian, but she has not ruled out a comeback to the sport in the future. Last year, Sjostrom won double Olympic gold in the 50 and 100 free. The splash-and-dash came as no surprise after Sjostrom had dominated the event for years, including a world-record-breaking performance in 2023, but Sjostrom had only decided to contest the 100 at the last minute. Her decision to do both paid off with the finest performance of her career.
If she does return to chase Olympic gold at age 35, Sjostrom would probably be a 50-meter specialist, with the addition of the 50 butterfly to the Olympic program giving her two medal chances. But more immediately, it’s the Americans that Harris and her fellow Singapore medalists, Chinese teammates Wu Qingfeng and Cheng Yujie, have to worry about.
Torri Huske — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske were non-factors in this year’s Worlds final of the 50, with Walsh ending up fourth in 24.40 and Huske sixth in 24.50. But the world rankings tell a different story, with Walsh still atop the pile at 23.91 and Huske second at 23.98. The gastrointestinal illness which ravaged the American team throughout the meet affected both of these sprinters, forcing both to drop one individual event apiece from their schedules at the last minute. Neither had the speed to keep up with Harris and the Chinese sprinters on the meet’s final day.
But when fully healthy, expect a different outcome. The U.S. actually has three of the top-four spots in the world rankings with Kate Douglass having gone 24.04 at Nationals; ironic that a third-place time at a domestic meet would actually have earned silver (and missed gold by just two hundredths) on the global level.
In the 100 free, Huske owns the top time in the world with her 52.43 from Nationals, a bit ahead of Steenbergen’s 52.55 and Mollie O’Callaghan’s 52.67 from the Worlds final. Huske claimed bronze in that race, overcoming her physical deficit for her lone individual medal of the meet. She jumped ahead of the field in the early going and then hung tough coming home, beating Steenbergen’s Milou Van Wijk for bronze by just two hundredths.
This is another event where the Americans’ presence is looming when looking ahead to the next three year. In addition to Huske, U.S. swimmers rank fourth, fifth and sixth in the world rankings with Walsh, Rylee Erisman and Simone Manuel, respectively, while Douglass has been sub-53 in the past and posted a 51.90 relay split this year. In any major final moving forward, we should expect two Americans contending for medals.
Of course, we cannot forget how good O’Callaghan has been at her peak, with her 2023 best time of 52.08 ranking her seventh all-time in the event. Also still active is Siobhan Haughey, a medalist at the last two Olympic Games forced out of this year’s Worlds with injury. Haughey has been even quicker, her 52.02 from October 2023 ranking third all-time.
Right now, Harris and Steenbergen have their world titles to celebrate, but the wider landscape of the 50 and 100 free suggests tight packs will vie for the medals at major meets for years to come.
