2025 World Championships Previews: Torri Huske Hoping to Win Empty 100 Free Field ...Middle East

By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam

2025 World Championships

By the Numbers: Women’s 100 Free

Returning Olympic Finalists: Silver- Torri Huske (USA), 4th- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 7th- Marrit Steenbergen (NED), 8th- Gretchen Walsh (USA)

Half of the Olympic final from the women’s 100 freestyle is not returning for the 2025 World Championships, which makes predicting finals spots interesting, particularly with the gold and bronze medalists Sarah Sjostrom and Siobhan Haughey both being out of the meet.

The field is even more different from the 2023 World Championships where only two athletes in that final are back this year.

These gaps with some of the best 100 freestylers either retiring or struggling in recent years leaves a lot of the final wide open for new talent, or old talent that is getting faster.

Same Letters, Different Order

The United States (USA) and Australia (AUS) both have two athletes that are not only threats for the final, but potential podium contenders.

Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan is the top seed, coming in at 52.24 which she swam leading off Australia’s 400 freestyle relay at the Olympics four days before the individual event. In the actual event, she did not perform as well, finishing 4th in 52.34.

Mollie O’Callaghan (photo: Jack Spitser)

She has been injured for most of the season, having dislocated her kneecap, which could affect her performance, especially over a long meet and her overwhelming relay duties for Australia. She will have the women’s 400 freestyle relay, the 200 freestyle, the women’s 800 freestyle relay, and potentially the mixed medley relay all before the 100 freestyle final. That is at least 1300 meters of racing not counting the mixed medley.

She swam well at Australian Trials, touching in 52.87, which is good for 4th in the World this year. The 100 free was also her 4th event of the meet, but she had a rest day beforehand. She also is 1-for-3 when it comes to dropping time from Australian Trials to the meet. In 2022, she swam 52.49 at Trials and 52.67 en route to the gold at Worlds. In 2023, she dropped about three tenths from 52.48 to the 52.16 she swam to win. Last summer, she swam 52.33 at Trials and a hundredth slower at 52.34 in Paris.

She is practically a lock for the final and a serious threat for the podium, but will she be able to stand atop it?

Olivia Wunsch is the other Australian athlete in the event, coming in as the 6th seed, when we account for Haughey’s withdrawal. She is seeded at 53.17, which she swam last June at the Australian Swimming Trials where she finished 5th overall. She swam the prelims edition of the relay in Paris, coming in at 53.94 on the leadoff leg. She has the 12th fastest time in the world this season at 53.38, which she swam at the Australian Trials in June. She likely won’t challenge for the podium but she could find her way into the final.

If you rearrange the letters in AUS you can get USA, where there are two women who could top the podium.

Torri Huske is the only returning medalist from the Paris Olympics, having finished 2nd overall in 52.29, which is the 2nd seed in the event. She had an exceptional Olympics last summer, winning gold in the 100 fly and swimming on two World Record and one American record relay. On the women’s 400 free relay, where they finished 2nd to Australia, she split 52.06, the 2nd fastest split in the field. On the World record breaking mixed medley, she was 51.88 anchoring the relay to gold, out splitting O’Callaghan’s 52.01 by more than a tenth of a second.

She has also had a very strong year so far, qualifying for the World’s team in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles and the 100 fly. She scratched the 200 free to focus on the other events and the hefty relay duty she has for the United States.

At Nationals, she swam 52.43 in the 100 free, the top time in the world this year, and she has a history of dropping time in this event from Trials to the meet. She has only swam the event at a long course international meet twice, but in 2022 she went from 53.35 at Trials to 52.92 at Worlds to finish 3rd overall at a four tenth drop. Last summer, she swam 52.90 as her best time at the Olympic Trials, which she dropped six tenths from at the Games.

If she continues this pattern, she could run away with the gold medal and drop into the 51 second range in the event.

Fellow American Gretchen Walsh is the 4th seed, and she is also coming off an exceptional year, having set four individual World Records at the SC Worlds in December. She also won the 100 free at the 2025 NCAA Championships, beating Huske head-to-head, but that was SCY.

Gretchen Walsh (photo: Jack Spitser)

At Nationals, she finished 2nd in a personal best time of 52.78, the 3rd fastest time in the world this year, and she is a very comfortable finalist in the event. She also dropped a little bit of time from last summer’s Trials to the Games, where she finished 8th overall, dropping from 53.13 to 53.04, but nowhere near as much as we saw from Huske.

Walsh is a comfortable finalist, and if she locks into the speed she had at SC Worlds, she could top the podium.

Seeing Double

On top of the United States and Australia having two athletes, there are a few other countries that could end up with two swimmers in the final.

The Netherlands boasts the reigning World Champion in Marrit Steenbergen, and this is one of the events, where the reigning champion could end up repeating their title.

Steenbergen is the 3rd seed after finishing 4th at the Paris Olympics. She is seeded in 52.72, which she swam at the Eindhoven Qualification meet in April of last year. She has been very close to that time again this season, swimming 52.77 at the AP Race London in May.

World Aquatics Championships – Doha 202402 – 18 Feb 2024

She was 7th at the Olympics in 52.83, but she has a lifetime best of 52.26 which she swam to win gold in Doha. She also dropped both of her typical 200s from her schedule to focus on the sprint events. If she swims that time again, or even drops from it, she could defend her title.

She will be joined by Dutch teammate Milou van Wijk, who is the 9th seed in the event at 53.38. She swam at this year’s Dutch Nationals to qualify for the meet. This time was just off her lifetime best of 53.18 from a club meet in Belgium at the end of March. She has dropped more than a second in the event this year, coming in with a previous best of 54.52 from November of last year.

This significant improvement always begs the question about how much more she can drop, but even if she is in the 53.18 range she swam in March she could be a potential finalist.

China has two athletes who are seeded in the top-8, but neither one is Yang Junxuan, the 100 free National Record Holder who was in the 2023 World and Olympic final. Yang did not compete at the 2025 National Championships, and thus was left off the World’s roster entirely.

Wu Qingfeng is the 7th seed at 53.25 which she swam in April of 2024 to just come in just ahead of countrymate Cheng Yujie’s 53.27 in the 8th seed, also from April of 2024

Wu finished 9th at the Olympics last summer in 53.34. She was also on China’s 400 free relay, where she anchored in 52.31 and their medley relay where she was 54.25 in the prelims. This inconsistency even in the same meet raises questions about where she will end up, but 52.31, even from a flying start, is no joke and could easily end up in the final or on the podium.

Cheng has a standing best of 53.26, which she swam at the 2023 Chinese Nationals. In Paris, she also swam on the 400 freestyle relay for China, splitting 52.76 to help them win the bronze. She was very close to her lifetime best, but while she did not go a best time in the event, she dropped four-tenths in the 50 and almost five seconds in the 200 so it looks like she has the potential to see a new best in the 100 next week, potentially ending up in the final.

Other Contenders

There are a host of other athletes who have performed well at previous World Championships, or who have strong lifetime bests in the event that could end up in the final.

Italy’s Sara Curtis is the 5th seed in 53.01, which she swam at the Italian National Championships in April. This was a new best time by more than a second from the 54.22 she swam last June, but at just 18-years old, it is not unheard of to have huge drops in a single season.

Sara Curtis credit Andrea Staccioli/Deepbluemedia

Daria Klepikova from the Neutral Athletes is seeded 10th in 53.48, just two-hundredths ahead of Czechia’s Barbora Seemanova.

Klepikova’s best time is 53.36, which she swam in July of last year at a meet in Russia, which slightly improves her chances of a finals swim. She currently sits in 14th this season, but when you account for multiple athletes from the same country, or athletes who are not swimming the event, she moves up to 9th.

Seemanova qualified for the final at the 2024 World Championships, finishing 8th in 54.64. She is seeded in 53.50, which she swam in June of last year. She was 13th at the Games, stopping the clock in 53.94 to miss the event final, She sits in 23rd in the world this year at 53.74, which she swam at the Mare Nostrum stop in France, but many of the athletes ahead of her are not swimming. If she wants to make the final, she would probably need to see a drop from that 53.50.

There are 16 athletes under 54 seconds in the event, and just a small drop could earn any of them a spot in the final.

The Picks

Torri Huske is the highest returning finisher from the Olympics, and she has been healthy and fast this season. She also has history on her side when it comes to getting faster at big meets. She is already coming in with the fastest time in the world this year, so if she gets faster, it doesn’t seem like anyone can catch her.

The one factor affecting her potential gold is the food poisoning going around Team USA, but operating under the assumption she was not one of the athletes affected, she is our pick for gold.

The podium could be decided on a coin flip with four athletes all having the potential to finish in any spot, but when considering times this season, and who has been healthy, Steenbergen is getting the nod for silver. She has one of the fastest best times in the field, and is the 2nd fastest swimmer in the World this year.

Deciding the bronze is challenging because a fully healthy O’Callaghan finished 4th at the Olympics last year, and her schedule is not any easier this year. She also doesn’t necessarily get faster just because it’s Worlds, but she has the fastest lifetime best, and we picked her to win the 200 freestyle regardless of these factors.

On the other hand, Walsh has been on a tear this year and had exceptional performances in both the SCM and SCY versions of this event in the last 12 months which makes it hard to predict she won’t end up on the podium. She also has the faster season-best time.

Ultimately, I think Walsh has the slight edge because unlike in the 200 where O’Callaghan has a best time that is more than two seconds faster than everyone else in the field, she does not have the same cushion in the 100 and she sits a tenth behind Walsh this season. I would not be surprised, though, to see O’Callaghan not only end up on the podium but stand atop it with the right swim.

Dark Horse: Freya Anderson (GBR)– Anderson is seeded 17th in 54.09, which she swam in April to qualify for the Worlds team back in April, but her lifetime best stands at 53.31 from the 2019 World Championships. This is one of the fastest best times in the field, and while she has not been back at this time since 2019, her time at Trials was the fastest she has been in more than two years, and it could be a good sign for what she is capable of. She also finished 7th in the event at SC Worlds in December.

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