By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here
This year’s World Championships was an historic one for the continent of Africa. For the second time in two years it claimed three gold medals at Worlds, and came away with an 16-year high of six medals overall.
This success was far from expected. Their five medals in 2023 came from just two swimmers – Ahmed Hafnaoui (three) and Tatjana Smith (two). Neither of those athletes were in attendance in Singapore this summer, and it was another pair of swimmers from the same two countries responsible for the hardware.
While both Ahmed Jaouadi and Pieter Coetze shocked the European and American favorites in distance freestyle and backstroke respectively, it is the former who takes home the Breakout Male Swimmer of the Year Award after becoming the man to beat in distance free.
Jaouadi had ended 2024 as a world champion, claiming the 1500 free title at short course worlds in a time of 14:16.40. However, that was a relatively lightly attended meet in the distance free events – no Bobby Finke, Sam Short, Dan Wiffen, or Gregorio Paltrinieri. He did beat 2021 world champion and World Record holder Florian Wellbrock, but had a lot still to prove if he was to move up from his 4th- and 6th-place finishes at the Olympics in the 800 and 1500 respectively.
He did exactly that with a pair of gold medals in Singapore. He had not been quite as electric in the leadup to this summer as he was a year previously, coming into Worlds with slower Season Bests in both distance free events than he did coming into Paris 12 months prior, but having been 7:46.37 and 15:02.53 he was expected to be in a similar position – good enough to final but a step below those fighting for medals.
Jaouadi placed 4th in the 800 free in Paris in 7:42.83, a sizeable 3.45 seconds behind 3rd-place Gregorio Paltrinieri. A year on, he won the event with nearly as large a gap over 2nd – 3.08 seconds ahead of Sven Schwarz, as he blazed to a time of 7:36.68.
That is the third-fastest swim in history, and the fastest outside of the 2009 World Championships final – where all eight swimmers wore supersuits. He dropped 5.39 seconds over the course of the year, and 7:42.83 was not a low starting point.
Going from 7:42 to 7:36 is huge. There have been 54 swims in history under 7:42, coming from 19 different swimmers. When it comes to breaking 7:37, the numbers are three and three.
It is a quirk of the numbers that all of the top three swims in history in the 800 free have been negatively split, so that Jaouadi’s 3:47.70 back half is only the third-fastest in history. That is less than two seconds slower than his flat start best of 3:45.95 in the 400 – his next act will surely be in that event.
Back in 2023 we saw probably the deepest field in history at the world championships – five men under 7:40 and three continental records broken in the final. Jaouadi, without a Sam Short-esque figure to push him in the manner Ahmed Hafnaoui had, went faster than any of them.
Another huge drop came in the 1500 four days later. Jaouadi hacked nine seconds off his 2024 best of 14:43.55 to win gold in 14:34.41, pulling away down the stretch thanks to a Finke-like 26.14 final 50. He won Tunisia’s third World Championships gold medal in the 1500 free when doing so, and cemented himself as the man to beat in distance free – a mantle that 12 months prior would have been almost fanciful.
Ahmed Jaouadi, Distance Freestyle Progression
800 free 1500 free 2024 7:42.07, #23 all-time 14:43.55, #21 all-time 2025 7:36.68, #3 all-time 14:34.41, #7 all-timeJaouadi did not compete at the World Cup this fall and skipped the U.S. Open, but had an explosive start to life in yards in his first semester at Florida. He threw down swims of 1:33/4:10/14:39 in the 200/500/1650 freestyles, and his times in the shorter of those is another indication there could be big things in store for his 400 free. That event is a free hit for him – with how good his 800 and 1500 are he doesn’t need a third event to be considered one of the best swimmers in the world.
Jaouadi heads into a 2026 which, for him, will be without a major championship. Despite that, it will take something special from one of his rivals next year for him to be anything other than a favorite in Budapest and then LA a year later.
Honorable Mentions:
Pieter Coetze: Coetze was a double Olympic finalist in the backstroke events last year, but wasn’t quite in the medal conversation and certainly not in the fight for gold. Fast forward 12 months and he is debatably the top two-distance backstroker in the world, and certainly the top three-distance one. He sliced 0.73 seconds off his best in the 100 back in Singapore, overcoming the deepest field in history to take gold in a new African Record of 51.85, the 3rd-fastest swim in history at the time. The 200 back saw bigger improvements, going from 1:55.60 to 1:53.36 and seriously challenging Hubert Kos for gold, before he swam 24.17 for silver and yet another African Record in the 50 back. To make his new position on top of the world even more impressive, it came just over a week after he competed at the World University Games on the other side of the world. He was 51.99 to take 100 back gold in Berlin, also won the 50 back, and took silver in the 100 free in 47.88. He will have the Commonwealth Games as his only major meet next year, but is the clear favorite – even with Oliver Morgan also in that field, testament to the rarefied air Coetze now holds. Sven Schwarz: Schwarz has the misfortune of being around at the same time as at least three other elite German distance free swimmers in Lukas Maertens, Oliver Klemet, and Florian Wellbrock, with a fourth in newly-minted World Junior Record holder Johannes Liebmann waiting in the wings. However, this year he has risen to the top to become their best 800/1500 freestyler, and ends the year with a European Record in the 800 free and a pair of silver medals in the distance free events from the World Championships. He has also soared up the all-time rankings, from 17th to 6th all-time in the 800 free and 21st to 9th in the 1500, and will be the favorite for the titles at the European Championships next year. His best times of 7:38.12 in the former and 14:35.69 in the latter would have medalled at every major competition in history. He has progressed from not making the German team in 2023 to making a final in Paris last year, but reached another level in 2025 – beating out significant internal competition en route. Jack McMillan: McMillan did not have an individual swim at Worlds this summer, but showed what could have been with a huge 1:45.28 leadoff for Great Britain’s 4×200 free team in the heats. He was slightly slower in the final, but still a critical part of the 7th-fastest time in history and took his second gold in this relay in 12 months, having been part of the prelims squad in Paris. It was at the European Short Course Championships that we saw the form that will make him a serious contender at Europeans and Commonwealths this summer though. He won the 400 free in 3:36.33, briefly becoming Great Britain’s 2nd-fastest performer in the event and beating out 2023 champ Dan Wiffen and long course World Record holder Lukas Maertens, before notching silver in the 200 free in 1:40.94. both were big bests – the 200 by a second and the 400 by five – and he now looks a key component of a British mid-distance squad that was crying out for new blood. Harrison Turner: Turner’s senior international debut came at the short course World Championships last December, where he was only called up after Kaylee McKeown withdrew, and that turned into a springboard for a fantastic year for the Nudgee college swimmer. He took a year-long break from the sport after the Tokyo Olympic Trials, but has now blossomed into Australia’s premier 200 flyer and broke the longstanding super-suited national record held by Nick D’Arcy this summer, clocking 1:54.17 to win bronze in Singapore out of lane 8. Turner had a best of 1:57.07 coming into 2025, and hacked nearly three seconds off this year to establish himself as a bona fide medal contender. Podiums at one or both of the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs next summer seem probable.Past Winners
2024 — Ilya Kharun (CAN) 2023 — Sam Short (AUS) 2022 – Thomas Ceccon (ITA) 2021 – Bobby Finke (USA) 2020 – Emre Sakci (TUR) 2019 – Andrei Minakov (RUS) 2018 – James Wilby (GBR) 2017 – Zane Grothe (USA) 2016 – Masato Sakai (JPN) 2015 – Mitch Larkin (AUS) 2014 – Adam Peaty (GBR)Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Swammy Awards: Breakout Male Swimmer of the Year – Ahmed Jaouadi
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