By Retta Race on SwimSwam
See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here
Breaking the mold of the past two years, our 2025 Swammy Award winner for Asian Coach of the Year hails from the nation of Japan.
Shin Ota of Hirakata is recognized for his impressive guidance and training of multiple World Junior record holder and our Swammy Award winner for World Junior Male Swimmer of the Year, Shin Ohashi.
To kick off his 2025 year of racing, at the Japanese National Championships in March, Ohashi powered his way to a huge feat of 2:09.35 in the 200m breast to clock the fastest time ever by a 16-year-old.
That represented a springboard off which he launched into a successful domestic and international array of performances.
For starters, Ohashi crushed an other-worldly effort of 2:07.27 in the 200m breast at the Osaka High School Swimming Championships in June, making him the fastest junior swimmer in history.
He upped the ante by going 2:06.91 in the same event at July’s Kinki High School Swimming Championships, being rendered the 10th-swiftest performer of all time and the youngest to break 2:07 by more than three years. A World Junior Record of 58.94 came the following day, as he became the first junior swimmer to crack 59 seconds in the 100m breast.
Yet more success came at the World Cup (SCM), where Ohashi notched best times of 56.79 in the 100m breast – 2nd all-time among junior swimmers by just 0.13 seconds – and 2:02.03 in the 200 breast.
The latter shattered the World Junior Record by 0.99 seconds, vaulting Ohashi up to 22nd all-time in the event.
Back in long course, Ohashi capped his year with a 2:06.96 200 breast, faster than the time Qin Haiyang won gold in this summer at the World Championships (2:07.41) and just 0.05 seconds off Ohashi’s own best, and added a PB of 27.01 in the 50 breast and a 59.38 100 breast.
As hefty a resume as Coach Ota has with Ohashi alone, his versatility as a leader was demonstrated by the fact that he also has open water ace Ichika Kajimoto under his tutelage.
21-year-old Kajimoto rocketed to the top of the podium in the inaugural women’s 3km knockout sprints at this year’s World Championships. She also earned bronze in the 5km race. The former achievement made Kajimoto Japan’s first-ever World Championships medalist in open water.
Honorable Mention:
Cui Budan (CHN): Cui’s Hebei swimming team contains such powerhouse athletes as Yu Zidi, our Swammy Award winner for World Junior Female Swimmer of the Year and Li Bingjie, our Swammy Award winner for Asian Female of the Year. Based in Hengshui, Cui’s crew made multiple headlines at this year’s World Championshps. While she was only 12, Yu earned a trio of 4th-place finishes in the individual events 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. As for 23-year-old Li, she took silver in both the 200m and 400m freestyle events in Singapore while also nabbing bronze in the aforementioned relay. 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.Past Winners:
2024 Swammy – Zheng Kunliang (CHN) 2023 Swammy – Cui Dengrong (CHN) 2022 Swammy – Jeon Dong-Hyun (KOR) 2021 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN) 2020 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN) 2019 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN) 2018 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai & Takayuki Umehara (JPN) 2017 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai (JPN) 2016 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai (JPN) 2015 Swammy — Sergio Lopez (SGP)Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Swammy Awards: Asian Coach Of The Year – Shin Ota
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