By Will Baxley on SwimSwam
See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here
In a sport where many professionals’ careers follow a relatively rigid trajectory, a successful pivot story is always refreshing to hear. Such a story becomes even sweeter when it’s about a swimmer in their late 20s, and when the pivot leads to double world titles.
Moesha Johnson is the 2025 Swammy winner for Female Open Water Swimmer of the year after enjoying the fruits of a pivot she made a couple of years ago: moving from Australia to Germany and dialing up her focus on open water.
Johnson, best known as “Mo” to those who know her, spent her early 20s as a domestically-known name in Australia’s distance pool events. She narrowly missed a Tokyo 20210 berth in the women’s 1500 freestyle before qualifying for her first major international team in 2022. At that year’s World Championships in Budapest, she placed 4th in the 1500 free and was 8th in the 5k open water event, thus emerging on the global stage.
After the conclusion of the Budapest Worlds, Johnson opted to stay in Europe rather than return to her training base down under. She began what was supposed to be a stint at Germany’s renowned SC Magdeburg under prolific head coach Bernd Berkahn. Soon after starting with the group, which includes open water Olympic Gold Medalists Sharon van Rouwendaal and Florian Wellbrock, Johnson decided to move and train there permanently.
Training abroad is an unconventional decision for an Aussie freestyler. The Oceanian nation is the world’s second most successful in swimming, and particularly in freestyle, has no shortage of historic and temporary icons. Unconventional as it may be, Johnson’s decision paid dividends. Surrounded by the world’s best open water swimmers, Johnson improved rapidly to notch a silver medal in the 10k in Paris. In an interview with SwimSwam, Johnson credited her new open water focus and training group in elevating her career.
Her success last year was just the prelude for what was to come for. At 28 years old, Johnson had the meet of her life at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. She medalled in all three individual open water events at the meet, including gold in both the 5k and 10k, the latter a decisive four-second win. She followed that up with a bronze in the inaugural 3k knockout sprint event. For good measure, she added a 5th in the 4×1500 relay, 6th in the pool 1500, and 12th in the 800.
Two world titles and a bronze in open water’s most important competition mean that Johnson unquestionably leads the league. She only further added credibility to her crown in the sport’s second most important measure of success: the Open Water World Cups. Johnson won the 10k at 2/4 of the stops, touching first at the first stop in Egypt as well as the Portugal race. The Aussie also won the 3k sprint at the Cup’s last stop in Italy.
World Aquatics’ new mathematical world rankings reaffirmed Johnson’s 2025 crown. She closed the year out at #1 after not even being in the top 10 at the beginning of the year. For all of 2026, Johnson will be the woman to beat.
Honorable Mention
Ginevra Taddeucci (ITA) – Like Johnson, Taddeucci is also a 28-year-old who had a massive breakout year after winning her first individual medal on the global stage last year. The Italian earned silver medals in all four open water events in Singapore – the 5k, 10k, 3k sprint, and 4×1500 team race. Her time to strike gold came in home waters, at the World Cup stop in Golfo Aranci. She won the 10k at this meet in front of the Italian, and perhaps most impressive of all, took home the overall World Cup trophy for the year.Past Winners:
2024 – Sharon Van Rouwendaal (NED) 2023 – Leonie Beck (GER) 2022 – Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) 2021 – Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) 2020 – Anastasiia Kirpichnikova (RUS at time of award) 2019 – Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) 2018 – Sharon Van Rouwendaal (NED) 2017 – Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) 2016 – Sharon Van Rouwendaal (NED) 2015 – Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA) 2014 – Sharon Van Rouwendaal (NED) 2013 – Poliana Okimoto (BRA)Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Swammy Awards: Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year – Moesha Johnson
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