By Retta Race on SwimSwam
See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here.
For the fourth consecutive year, our Swammy Award for Asian Female of the Year is bestowed upon a swimmer from the nation of China.
Already a winner in 2022, 23-year-old Olympic medalist Li Bingjie surged to the top of the candidate list, primarily due to her impressive performances at this year’s World Championships.
In Singapore, Li collected a pair of silver medals, earning runner-up status in both the women’s 200 and 400 freestyle events. She also nabbed bronze after anchoring the Chinese women’s 4×200 free relay in 1:54.84.
Li’s top swim in Singapore came in the final of the 400 free, where she put up a time of 3:58.21 to shatter her previous Asian and Chinese Record and beat Katie Ledecky (3:58.49) head-to-head.
Entering the competition, Li’s PB and Asian Record stood at the 3:59.99 she put up at the 2025 Chinese National Championships in May. That previous performance represented the ace’s first-ever time under the 4:00 barrier, becoming just the sixth woman ever to do so.
Her 3:58.21 also moved her up to #4 all-time, only trailing Summer McIntosh (3:54.18), Ariarne Titmus (3:55.38) and Ledecky (3:56.46).
In the 200 free, Li dropped a full second off her best time to win silver in 1:54.52, putting her just 26 one-hundredths back of the Chinese Record (1:54.26). That swim impressively came just one night after she placed 4th in the women’s 1500 free in 15:49.54.
Not resting on her laurels, Li raced at this year’s edition of the prestigious Chinese National Games in Shenzhen. She picked up a trio of gold medals, hitting 4:01.17 in the 400 free, 8:19.00 in the 800 free and 15:55.40 in the 1500 free to sweep the mid-distance events.
Li concludes her 2025 year of racing ranked 2nd in the world in the 200 free, 3rd in the 400 free, 4th in the 1500 free and 5th in the 800 free.
Li has been on the elite international racing scene since she broke through with a trio of golds as a 14-year-old at the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Championships. Nine years later and Li continues to improve, perhaps providing some foreshadowing of her potential at the 2028 Olympic Games.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Yu Zidi (CHN) – Our Swammy Award winner for World Junior Female Swimmer of the Year had a solid case for this award as well, as the now-13-year-old Yu stunned the world with her enormous feats this year at such a young age. While she was only 12, she earned a trio of 4th-place finishes in the individual events at the World Championships in Singapore. In addition to her individual performances, Yu also swam the lead-off leg of the Chinese women’s 4×200 free relay in the prelims, clocking 1:59.28, and then the team went on to win bronze in the final. That made Yu the youngest swimmer ever to win a medal at the World Championships, having already become the youngest to reach a final when she did so at the beginning of the meet in the 200 IM. Prior to Singapore, however, Yu first started making headlines in May at the China National Championships in Shenzhen, where she won the women’s 200 fly (2:06.83) and 400 IM (4:35.53) and placed 2nd in the 200 IM (2:10.63), qualifying her for the World Championships while going well under the existing 11-12 age group records in the United States–for both boys and girls. Mizuki Hirai (JPN) – Eighteen-year-old Olympic finalist Hirai represented Japan in spades at the World Championships and beyond. In Singapore, the now-University of Tennessee athlete placed 9th in the women’s 50 fly and 7th in the 100 fly as the nation’s top female performer. The teen also did damage on the short course circuit, establishing a new World Junior Record of 25.95 in the 50 back and 55.10 in the 100 butterfly this year. The Lady Vol ends her 2025 year of racing ranked 5th in the world in the SCM 100 fly (55.50) and 9th in the world in the LCM 100 fly (56.60). Tang Qianting (CHN) – Last year’s Swammy Award winner, Tang picked up three medals at the 2025 World Championships despite not being on top form, claiming silver in the women’s 50 breast (30.03), bronze in the 100 breast (1:05.64) and adding a second bronze on the Chinese women’s 4×100 medley relay. In the semis of the 50 breast in Singapore, she went 29.84 in the 50 breast, and at the Chinese National Games in November, she clocked 1:05.36 in the 100 breast, with both swims ranking her 3rd in the world for the year.PREVIOUS WINNERS
2024 – Tang Qianting, China 2023 – Zhang Yufei, China 2022 – Li Bingjie, China 2021 – Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong 2020 – Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong 2019 – Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong 2018 – Rikako Ikee, Japan 2017 – Li Bingjie, China 2016 – Rie Kaneto, Japan 2015 – Kanako Watanabe, Japan 2014 – Ye Shiwen, China 2013 – Aya Terakawa, JapanRead the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Swammy Awards: Asian Female Swimmer Of The Year – Li Bingjie
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