By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
Welcome to the SwimSwam Top 100 Swimmers of 2026: Women’s Edition. This is our outlook on the top 100 swimmers to watch globally in 2026.
Note: we’ve excluded swimmers who have no sign of being in the pool in 2026, and hedged on others like Sarah Sjostrom that we expect to be back but don’t really know how they’ll be. These ranks always wind up a bit wonky because there’s so much opacity to the situations.
#100 Katie Grimes, United States (2025 Rank: 13) – Katie Grimes has the potential to sit near the top of this list, but her 2025 year was underwhelming at best. After winning the silver medal in the women’s 400 IM at the major meets in 2022, 2023, and 2024, she seemed to be the clear favorite for silver in 2025. She moved to Virginia in January of last year and struggled at the NCAA Championships, missing the top three in all of her events. Those struggles continued as she qualified for just one event at the 2025 World Championships, the 400 IM, where she ultimately finished 6th, five seconds off her lifetime best. Her time ended the year 15th in the World which was her only top-40 ranking. She will be looking for a major bounce back this year, which is why she couldn’t be left off the list. She was a priority four selection for the United States Pan Pacs team with the 3rd fastest time in the country in the 400 IM, and in order to swim finals, she will need to be top two among United States swimmers.
#99 Louise Hansson, Sweden (2025 Rank: 68) – Sweden’s Louise Hansson was one of their top swimmers in 2025 after Sarah Sjostrom took the year off to have a baby. The 29-year-old was a finals threat in both of her events coming into the World Championships, but she missed earning 2nd swims in both, finishing 18th in the 50 fly and 22nd in the 100 fly. She had a strong split on the women’s 400 medley relay, swimming 56.92 to help the team finish 11th, only three tenths off the 56.62 she swam on the relay in Paris. Hansson bounced back for SC Euros, earning a bronze medal in the 100 fly (55.69), a 5th place in the 50 fly (25.13) and a 7th place in the 50 back (26.51). She also has huge relay duties for Sweden, and since this year’s major meet will be the European Championships, she will likely make a big impact.
#98 Barbora Seemanova, Czech Republic (2025 Rank: 61) – Barbora Seemanova had a big jump in 2025, ranking 61st in the SwimSwam Top-100. She performed well at the 2024 European Championships, and qualified for finals in the 200 freestyle in Paris. She saw a shift in her events this year, swimming the 100 and 200 freestyle and dropping the 100 fly and 200 IM from her lineup. At Worlds, she finished 5th in the 200 free in a season best 1:55.20, just over a tenth off her lifetime best 1:55.12 from May of 2024. She also earned a semifinals spot in the 100 free, finishing 10th overall in 53.72. She finished the year ranked 25th in the 100 free and 8th in the 200 free. Most of her best times are only two years old, and she wasn’t far off them at Worlds. She is a serious medal threat at this summer’s European Championships in the 200 freestyle, with only one of the four swimmers ahead of her coming from Europe.
#97 Erin Gallagher, South Africa (2025 Rank: NR) – One of the biggest things that happened in swimming this year was the addition of stroke 50s to the Olympic lineup. This has put a huge emphasis on stroke 50 swimmers and pushed them onto this list when they previously might have sat off it. South Africa’s Erin Gallagher finished 8th in the 50 fly at the World Championships, but her semifinals personal best time of 25.39 finished the year tied for 4th overall with Kate Douglass of the United States. Gallagher also finished the year at 17th in the women’s 100 fly, an incredibly deep event right now, after finishing 13th at Worlds. She is a solid medal threat in the 50 and 100 fly at Commonwealth, especially if she continues to improve. South Africa will also race at Pan Pacs, but 50 fly competition will be steeper.
#96 Rikako Ikee, Japan (2025 Rank: 95) – After being diagnosed with Leukemia in 2019, Rikako Ikee made her return to swimming following the pandemic and has been slowly returning to her 2017 – 2018 form. At the 2025 World Championships, she swam 57.89 to finish 14th overall. She was about seven tenths off the 57.03 she swam last year, but her prelims time of 57.75 was faster than the 57.79 she swam in semifinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She also qualified for the semifinals in the 50 fly, where swam 25.67 to finish 11th overall. Her season best time of 25.41 in the 50 fly finished the year ranked 6th in the world, just behind Gallagher and Douglass. In the 100 fly, she was 19th in 57.63. At just 25, Ikee could still see a return to her 25.33/54.08 from from the 2018 season.
#95 Amalie Smith, Great Britain (2025 Rank: NR) – Our first junior swimmer on this year’s list is Great Britain’s Amalie Smith. Smith turned 16 in August, and became the fastest European Junior swimmer ever in the SCM 400 IM in December. Her swim of 4:30.64 broke the benchmark standard of 4:31.06, which was established in 2016. At the 2025 World Junior Championships, which swam days before her 16th birthday, she won silver medals in both the 200 and 400 IM, setting personal bests of 2:11.07 and 4:35.49 in both. She saw incredible improvement this year, dropping more than five seconds in the 200 IM and almost 13 seconds in the 400 IM long course. She ended 2025 ranked 28th in the 200 IM and 9th in the 400 IM and she will be a serious contender at the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games for a medal, particularly in the 400 IM.
#94 McKenzie Siroky, United States (2025 Rank: NR) – McKenzie Siroky’s swimming journey has been far from typical. Originally committing to play Division I Hockey, Siroky continued swimming, winning high school titles in the breaststroke events and breaking the Michigan state record in the 100 breast. In February of 2023, she decided to commit to Tennessee for the fall of 2024 after taking a gap year to qualify for the Olympic Trials. She did, and in June of 2024, she finished 7th in the 100 breaststroke. This summer, she qualified for her first international team in the 50 breaststroke after winning a swim off. At Worlds, she finished 17th in the event, touching in 30.80 to add about eight tenths from her lifetime best 30.05, which was the 6th fastest time in the world last year. Last summer was her first full summer of training, so she could be looking at some huge drops this summer, as she has already qualified for the U.S. Pan Pacs team.
#93 Moesha Johnson, Australia (2025 Rank: 90) – Let’s be clear. If this was an Open Water ranking, Australia’s Moesha Johnson would be the undisputed number one. This is not an open water ranking, however, so she falls back to 93rd. Open Water is her focus, but she still races the distance events in the pool. At the 2025 World Championships, she swept the OW events, and raced the 1500 and 800 freestyles in the pool. She finished 6th in the 1500, touching in 16:02.45, a four second add from the 15:58.53 she swam in April, which was the 7th fastest time in the world. In the 800, she finished 12th, just missing a finals swim with her 8:30.85. Her season best in the event stood at 8:25.42 from the Australia Open, also in April. Johnson will likely race the distance events at Pan Pacs in 2026, and she will be the favorite in the open water 10k.
#92 Minna Abraham, Hungary (2025 Rank: NR) – One of the top 200 freestylers in Europe, Hungary’s Minna Abraham finished 2025 tied for 17th in the world in the long course 200 freestyle with the 1:56.03 she swam at the U23 European Championships with countrymate Nikolett Padar. At the World Championships, she added about seven tenths to swim 1:56.70 in the semifinals to finish 10th overall, two spots out of the final. She had a much stronger performance at the 2025 SC Euros, which is a better indication of her performance in 2026, since this summer’s long course Euros will likely be her focus meet. She won a silver medal in the 200 free, setting a personal best 1:51.47. She also picked up 8th in the 100 free after breaking the Hungarian record in prelims, and 5th in the 400 free. She set new personal bests in all three events and could see similar improvements this long course season.
#91 Sienna Toohey, Australia (2025 Rank: NR) – Sienna Toohey is the 2nd junior swimmer on this portion of the list. She has made her impact on the world breaststroke rankings, but more than that, she is growing into a strong breaststroke leg for an Australian relay that has been searching for breaststrokers. Toohey is just 16 and has been breaking national age records in the breaststroke events for years now. She made her senior international debut at the 2025 World Championships, where she finished 22nd in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.24 and 13th in the 50 breast in a personal best 30.58. At the Australian Swimming Trials, she swam 1:06.55 in the 100, which ended the year ranked 18th in the world. The swim also marked a half-second drop from the 1:07.01 she swam in 2024, which is a good sign for her continued improvement through 2026 and Pan Pacs and the Commonwealth Games.
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