By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Throughout the first few weeks of 2024, we released our annual Top 100 lists, ranking the top 100 women and men in swimming for the coming year.
With 2024 in the rearview mirror, it’s time to do a quick review of last year’s rankings before we kick off the Top 100 for 2025.
TOP 100 FOR 2024 – WOMEN’S RANKINGS
Rank Swimmer Individual Olympic Medal(s) 1 Summer McIntosh 3 gold, 1 silver 2 Kaylee McKeown 2 gold, 1 bronze 3 Mollie O’Callaghan 1 gold 4 Katie Ledecky 2 gold, 1 bronze 5 Regan Smith 3 silver 6 Ariarne Titmus 1 gold, 1 silver 7 Kate Douglass 1 gold, 1 silver 8 Sarah Sjostrom 2 gold 9 Zhang Yufei 3 bronze 10 Siobhan Haughey 2 bronze 11 Tatjana Smith 1 gold, 1 silver 12 Li Bingjie 13 Lilly King 14 Ruta Meilutyte 15 Shayna Jack 16 Katie Grimes 1 silver 17 Alex Walsh 18 Katharine Berkoff 1 bronze 19 Erika Fairweather 20 Yu Yiting 21 Torri Huske 1 gold, 1 silver 22 Maggie MacNeil 23 Lydia Jacoby 24 Emma McKeon 25 Claire Curzan 26 Tes Schouten 1 bronze 27 Lani Pallister 28 Gretchen Walsh 1 silver 29 Evgeniia Chikunova 30 Jenna Forrester 31 Marrit Steenbergen 32 Simona Quadarella 33 Elizabeth Dekkers 34 Isabel Gose 1 bronze 35 Benedetta Pilato 36 Abbey Weitzeil 37 Lana Pudar 38 Peng Xuwei 39 Claire Weinstein 40 Lara van Niekerk 41 Cate Campbell 42 Mio Narita 43 Kylie Masse 1 bronze 44 Bella Sims 45 Anastasiia Kirpichnikova 1 silver 46 Katie Shanahan 47 Rhyan White 48 Kasia Wasick 49 Phoebe Bacon 50 Kaitlyn Dobler 51 Kennedy Noble 52 Freya Colbert 53 Lauren Cox 54 Meg Harris 1 silver 55 Mona McSharry 1 bronze 56 Jenna Strauch 57 Ingrid Wilm 58 Airi Mitsui 59 Ye Shiwen 60 Laura Stephens 61 Sydney Pickrem 62 Ageha Tanigawa 63 Eneli Jefimova 64 Sara Franceschi 65 Alex Shackell 66 Yang Junxuan 67 Jillian Cox 68 Olivia Smoliga 69 Leah Smith 70 Dakota Luther 71 Gao Weizhong 72 Tess Howley 73 Wang Xueer 74 Anastasia Gorbenko 75 Nikoletta Padar 76 Moesha Johnson 1 silver (open water) 77 Kotryna Teterevkova 78 Reona Aoki 79 Barbora Seemanova 80 Olivia Wunsch 81 Freya Anderson 82 Sophie Hansson 83 Beatriz Dizotti 84 Kiah Melverton 85 Runa Imai 86 Lisa Angiolini 87 Louise Hansson 88 Letitia Sim 89 Abbie Wood 90 Charlotte Bonnet 91 Abbey Harkin 92 Wang Yichun 93 Isabelle Stadden 94 Liu Yaxin 95 Amelie Blocksidge 96 Lee Eunji 97 Arina Surkova 98 Ma Yonghui 99 Michelle Coleman 100 Wan LetianRevisiting the women’s rankings, it’s clear the top 11 picks were prudent ones as 10 of them won multiple individual medals in Paris and the other was Mollie O’Callaghan, who won gold in the women’s 200 free and was a close 4th in the 100 free—also winning four relay medals and ranking in the top four in the world in four events.
Specifically looking at the top eight, there could be arguments for things to look a bit different in a variety of ways. With two individual gold medals, it could be argued that Sarah Sjostrom should’ve been higher than #8, and the same could be said for Katie Ledecky at #4.
However, swimmers like Kate Douglass and Regan Smith might not have won multiple individual golds in Paris, but in addition to the Olympic success they did have, they made a greater impact throughout 2024, setting multiple world records and winning world titles in the short course pool at the end of the year.
Given it was an Olympic year, long course performances and results in Paris were the main piece of criteria in last year’s rankings, though short course certainly factored in given Short Course Worlds was in December.
At the top, #1 Summer McIntosh and #2 Kaylee McKeown backed up those rankings.
After the top 11, Li Bingjie, Lilly King, Ruta Meilutyte and Shayna Jack all failed to reach the podium individually in Paris, though all but Meilutyte managed a 4th or 5th-place finish at the Olympics. For Meilutyte, she was clearly off form in Paris, placing 11th in the 100 breast, though she did win gold in the 50 breast at both the Long Course Worlds in Doha and Short Course Worlds in Budapest.
At #21, Torri Huske outperformed her ranking with two individual Olympic medals, including a gold in the 100 fly, as did Gretchen Walsh, who was ranked 28th but broke a long course world record, picked up silver in the 100 fly in Paris, and then rewrote the record books at Short Course Worlds.
The lowest-ranked individual Olympic medalists in pool swimming were Meg Harris and Mona McSharry at 54 and 55, while Tang Qianting, Paige Madden and Emma Weyant were three medalists we left out of the Top 100 last year.
The biggest oversight is Tang, who won LC and SC world titles in the 100 breast to go along with a silver in the event at the Olympics—she raced sparsely in 2023, placing 6th in the 50 breast and 20th in the 100 breast at the 2023 Worlds.
TOP 100 FOR 2024 – MEN’S RANKINGS
Rank Swimmer Individual Olympic Medal(s) 1 Leon Marchand 4 gold 2 Qin Haiyang 3 Ahmed Hafnaoui 4 Sam Short 5 Bobby Finke 1 gold, 1 silver 6 Maxime Grousset 7 Ryan Murphy 1 bronze 8 Pan Zhanle 1 gold 9 Carson Foster 1 bronze 10 Tom Dean 11 Kyle Chalmers 1 silver 12 Thomas Ceccon 1 gold 13 Cameron McEvoy 1 gold 14 Matt Richards 1 silver 15 Duncan Scott 1 silver 16 Hubert Kos 1 gold 17 David Popovici 1 gold, 1 bronze 18 Jack Alexy 19 Nic Fink 1 silver 20 Tomoru Honda 21 Zac Stubblety-Cook 1 silver 22 Lukas Martens 1 gold 23 Daniel Wiffen 1 gold, 1 bronze 24 Hunter Armstrong 25 Florian Wellbrock 26 Wang Shun 1 bronze 27 Josh Liendo 1 silver 28 Xu Jiayu 1 silver 29 Caeleb Dressel 30 Kristof Milak 1 gold, 1 silver 31 Hwang Sunwoo 32 Ben Proud 1 silver 33 Nicolo Martinenghi 1 gold 34 Matthew Temple 35 Daiya Seto 36 Shaine Casas 37 Krzysztof Chmielewski 38 Dare Rose 39 Roman Mityukov 1 bronze 40 Arno Kamminga 41 Kliment Kolesnikov 42 Ilya Kharun 2 bronze 43 Thomas Heilman 44 Diogo Ribeiro 45 Gregorio Paltrinieri 1 silver, 1 bronze 46 Matt Fallon 47 Elijah Winnington 1 silver 48 Ksawery Masiuk 49 Ryan Held 50 Pieter Coetze 51 Chase Kalisz 52 Florent Manaudou 1 bronze 53 Michael Andrew 54 Ippei Watanabe 55 Nyls Korstanje 56 Sven Schwarz 57 Mykhailo Romanchuk 58 Guilherme Costa 59 Sun Jiajun 60 Alberto Razzetti 61 Caspar Corbeau 1 bronze 62 Bradley Woodward 63 Isaac Cooper 64 Adam Peaty 1 silver 65 Kim Woomin 1 bronze 66 Maximillian Giuliani 67 Alessandro Miressi 68 Federico Poggio 69 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard 70 Felix Auboeck 71 Dong Zhihao 72 Destin Lasco 73 Oliver Morgan 74 Ilya Borodin 75 Lucas Matzerath 76 Petar Mitsin 77 Jordan Crooks 78 Katsuhiro Matsumoto 79 Nandor Nemeth 80 Mewen Tomac 81 Szebasztian Szabo 82 Oleksandr Zheltyakov 83 Antonio Djakovic 84 Kirill Prigoda 85 Luke Hobson 1 bronze 86 Hugo Gonzalez 87 Petr Zhikharev 88 Chen Juner 89 Yan Zibei 90 Brendon Smith 91 Thomas Neill 92 Jake Foster 93 Justin Ress 94 Jacob Peters 95 Josif Miladinov 96 Oliver Klemet 97 Benedek Kovacs 98 Zalan Sarkany 99 Eddie Wang 100 Ilya ShymanovichUnlike the women, some of the top 10 male swimmers didn’t perform as expected last year, with only three of the top 10 earning an individual gold medal in Paris.
The only male to win multiple individual gold medals, Leon Marchand was a slam-dunk pick for #1, but #2 Qin Haiyang underperformed at the Olympics, #3 Ahmed Hafnaoui withdrew from the Games, and #4 Sam Short was dealing with injury and was well off form.
Looking back, some elite names who were coming off down years in 2023, David Popovici and Kristof Milak, were underrated at #17 and #30, respectively, as both won one gold and two total medals in Paris.
Our lowest-ranked swimmer who won individual gold in Paris was Nicolo Martinenghi at #32, while others ranked too low based on their Olympic performances were Ilya Kharun and Gregorio Paltrinieri, who both won two medals at the Games.
Luke Hobson, who roared to a SC world title and new world record in the 200 free in December, was the lowest-ranked swimmer to win an individual medal at the Olympics, while two who weren’t featured in the Top 100 won individual medals: Apostolos Christou and Tomoyuki Matsushita. They both won silver, with Christou doing so in the 200 back and Matsushita in the 400 IM.
Along with Qin, Hafnaoui and Short, #6 Maxime Grousset, #10 Tom Dean, #18 Jack Alexy and #20 Tomoru Honda were the other swimmers ranked in the top 20 who didn’t win any individual medals in Paris.
Grousset finished 5th in both the 100 free and 100 fly, Dean was 5th in the 200 IM but notably failed to qualify for the Games as the defending champion in the 200 free, and Alexy was 7th in a 100 free final that was close outside of gold medalist Pan Zhanle. Honda was among the swimmers off form in Paris, placing 22nd in the 200 fly after winning bronze at the 2023 Worlds and then gold at the 2024 edition in Doha.
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