What Is the Most Overlooked Swimming Performance of 2025?
The results from last summer’s World Championships in Singapore list Katie Ledecky as a dominant victor in the final of the 1500-meter freestyle. The American prevailed in the 30-lap event by five-plus seconds, and followed a few days later with a title in the 800 freestyle. But as Ledecky was celebrated as a world champion in the mile for a sixth time, one hell of a storyline unfolded behind her.
A veteran of multiple Olympic Games and a consistent force on the world’s distance stage, Italian Simona Quadarella snared the silver medal behind Ledecky at the World Champs. Securing international hardware has been commonplace for Quadarella through the years, confirmed by her eight distance-freestyle medals at the World Championships and eight European titles between the 800 freestyle and 1500 freestyle.
In placing behind Ledecky in the 1500 freestyle in Singapore, Quadarella produced the finest performance of her career, going 15:31.79 for a European record. However, citing Quadarella for establishing a continental record does not do justice to the effort she unfurled on July 29, 2025. Rather, we must look at the performance with a wider lens to truly appreciate what Quadarella managed.
For starters, the 26-year-old generated a personal-best time by more than nine seconds. Entering the World Champs, Quadarella’s top mark in the 1500 freestyle was a clocking of 15:40.89, recorded at the 2019 edition of Worlds. That meet saw the Italian win gold, but with the caveat that Ledecky was forced to withdraw from the event due to illness.
More, Quadarella didn’t just break the European record in Singapore. She destroyed the standard. At the start of the race, Denmark’s Lotte Friis was the European standard bearer in the 1500 freestyle, thanks to the 15:38.88 she delivered in a battle with Ledecky at the 2013 World Champs. In that showdown, Ledecky set a world record of 15:36.53 to grab her first world title in the event. By the time Quadarella was done racing, and staying relatively close to Ledecky, the European record was a little more than seven seconds faster.
There was a time when Ledecky owned the 20-something fastest times in the history of the 1500 freestyle. Nearly every time she raced, she added to the total, and the statistic was equal parts stunning and fun to present in coverage of the sport. But Quadarella showed what she is capable of in the 1500 free, and Ledecky now “only” possesses the top-11 times in the event.
What will 2026 bring for Quadarella? The Italian should contend for additional European championships next summer, and it will be interesting to see what her recent training in Australia, under the watch of coach Dean Boxall, will produce. Meanwhile, last summer should have provided her with considerable confidence, as her effort in the 1500 freestyle was complemented by a career best in the 800 freestyle (8:12.81).
The past year has provided its share of elite performances, and Simona Quadarella should be credited for her contribution.
