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.
#90. Yang Chan, China (2025 Rank: NR) – We are starting this portion of the list off with another breaststroker. Yang Chan, a 24-year-old, finished 2025 with the 12th fastest time in the world in the 100 breaststroke with the 1:06.06 she swam at the 2025 Chinese National Games and the 7th fastest time in the 50 breaststroke at 30.11. At Worlds, she finished 16th in the 50 (30.91) and 14th in the 100 (1:06.84). She also won a bronze medal as a member of China’s prelims 400 medley relay, splitting 1:06.49 on the breaststroke. Yang is a strong 2nd breaststroker for China behind Tang Qianting, and she will be looking to maintain that position this season as she tries to drop under 1:06.
#89. Daria Trofimova, Russia (2025 Rank: NR) – Daria Trofimova first broke 54 seconds in the 100 freestyle at the age of 15 in 2020, when she swam 53.99, and over the last five years, she seems to have plateaued in the event. At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, she swam her first international long course meet since the 2021 European Junior Championships, racing only the 100 freestyle. She ended up finishing 13th in the event in 54.21, but she led off the Neutral Athlete ‘B’ 400 freestyle relay in 53.73. This swim left her ranked 27th in the world last year. She is only 20, though, meaning she has plenty of room to improve as she continues to compete internationally, which she doesn’t have an exceptional amount of experience with due to the sanctions. She will be looking to drop her 100 free time in 2026 at the European Championships, for which Neutral Athletes were only recently approved for participation.
#88. Milla Jansen, Australia (2025 Rank: NR) – A relay-only swimmer for Australia, Milla Jansen is a huge piece to their sprint freestyle relays. It is difficult to crack an international team in the 50 and 100 free individually for Australia, but she finished 6th at Trials in the 100 and 6th in the 50, earning her first long course senior team spot. At Worlds, she had a monster 52.89 split on the women’s 400 freestyle relay to help them beat the United States for the gold medal. She also swam the freestyle leg on their mixed medley relay (53.13), which finished 5th overall. Jansen turned 19 in November, and we typically see female sprinters get faster as they get older. She also has strong short course 200 freestyle times, swimming 1:54.98 at the 2024 World Cup in Incheon, though that is an even harder event to make the Australian team in. Her relay impact will be huge at the Pan Pacs, where the Aussies will be trying to win as they maintain their dominance in the 400 freestyle relay.
#87. Silvia di Pietro, Italy (2025 Rank: NR) – Italian sprinter Silvia di Pietro made her return to international competition at the 2024 SC World Championships in Budapest after missing the Paris Olympics. In 2025, she swam at the World Championships in Singapore, where she only raced the 50 fly, setting a new personal best and National Record time of 25.49 in the prelims before finishing 7th in the final. Di Pietro is another athlete who benefits significantly from the addition of stroke 50s to the Olympics in 2028. Her 50 fly time finished the year ranked 8th in the world. She has also made a return to her sprint freestyle prowess, and at the 2025 SC European Championships, she finished 4th in the 50 free and 8th in the 50 fly, but her most impressive swims came from relays. She started the meet with a new national record in the 50 free of 23.39 on the women’s 4×50 free relay. Then, she swam the 3rd leg on Italy’s mixed 4×50 freestyle relay, splitting 23.07 to help them break the World Record in the event. On the mixed 4×50 medley, she swam the fly leg in 24.62 to help Italy’s team break the Championship Record and win the gold medal. If she carries that 50 free speed over to the 2026 European Championships, she could be looking at multiple medals.
#86. Tessa Giele, Netherlands (2025 Rank: 46) – Dutch athlete Tessa Giele came into 2025 with rapidly improving times in the 100 fly, dropping a second and a half over the 12-month period to start the year at 57.38. She lowered that time further in April at the Bergen Swim Festival, swimming 57.17 to take another two tenths off. She tied that time exactly at the 2025 World Championships, placing 9th in the semifinal to just miss qualifying for the final. She also swam the 50 fly semifinal, finishing 15th in 25.86, and the 50 back prelims, where she touched in 28.12 for 20th. She finished the year ranked 12th in the 100 fly, 19th in the 50 fly (25.65), and 15th in the 50 back (27.53). She also raced at the 2025 SC European Championships, where she won a silver medal in the 100 fly (55.55), and finished 5th in the 100 IM (57.73), and 50 back (26.19). Only her 50 back was a new personal best time. Giele recently moved to the University of Alabama to swim in the NCAA for the Crimson Tide, and she will be looking to improve her sprint butterfly, potentially dropping under 57 seconds in the 100.
#85. Chang Mohan, China (2025 Rank: NR) – Another junior swimmer, Chang Mohan was only 14 in 2025 but appeared in the top-100 in the world in three different events. Her highest ranking came in the 400 IM, where her 4:34.49 from the Chinese National Games in November ranked 7th in the world, coming in just behind fellow junior swimmer Agostina Hein’s 4:34.34. If she had swum that time at the 2025 World Championships, she would have been 6th in the final. In the 200 IM, her time of 2:11.51 from the same November meet finished the year in 32nd overall and as the 5th fastest junior. Finally, she was 44th in the 200 breaststroke with her time of 2:26.54. Chang should only continue to improve through 2026, and if she makes the Pan Pacs team, she should be a finals threat in the 400 IM at the very least.
#84. Caroline Bricker, Stanford (2025 Rank: NR) – Caroline Bricker had an exceptional 2025. It started with her winning the 400 IM at the 2025 NCAA Championships after she dropped five seconds during the season to swim 3:57.36 in the SCY event. She followed that up with a huge 200 fly at the 2025 U.S. Nationals, upsetting American Record holder Regan Smith to swim 2:05.80 and qualify for her first senior international team. She ended up finishing 6th at Worlds in 2:07.59, but her time from Nationals was 5th in the world. She was also ranked top 20 in the 200 IM with the 2:10.12 that she swam to finish 3rd at Nationals. She also finished 9th at Nationals in the 400 IM. Bricker has a significant improvement curve in the SCY IM events, and if she is able to translate that speed into long course, her impact could be big. Pan Pacs will be a great meet for her to test her speed since the United States can enter as many swimmers as they want in the prelims, and the top two from each country move onto finals.
#83. Shayna Jack, Australia (2025 Rank: #39) – Shayna Jack is a cornerstone of Australian sprinting and was coming off a very strong 2024, which saw her ranked in the top 40 for 2025. She had a bit of an off year, though, which saw her break 54 only twice. At the Australian Trials, she missed the World Championships team, finishing 8th in the 100 free (54.03) and 5th in the 50 free (24.80), swimming season best times in both. She swam another long course meet at the Queensland Championships in December, finishing 2nd in the 50 free (24.79) and 100 free (53.85). She finished the year ranked 36th in the 50 and 29th in the 100. Her lifetime best times stand at 52.60 and 23.99, and if she is able to drop back to those times in 2026, she will easily make Australia’s international teams and will be a key relay swimmer and finals contender.
#82. Abbie Wood, Great Britain (2025 Rank: #47) – Great Britain’s Abbie Wood set two personal best times in April, dropping to 2:08.85 and 4:36.66 in the 200 and 400 IM events at the GB Swimming Championships in April. The 26-year-old swam both events at Worlds, finishing 6th in the 200 IM in 2:09.92 and 10th in the 400 IM in 4:41.73. This was the 2nd year in a row she was off her best times at the major international meet after she finished 5th at the Paris Olympics in 2:09.51. Great Britain will field teams for the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships, and Wood will likely race at least one of those meets. She finished the year ranked 8th in the 200 IM and 17th in the 400 IM. If she can match her midseason times at the big meet, she could be looking for a medal in the 200 IM, especially with many of the top 200 IMers coming from outside Europe and the Commonwealth.
#81. Mizuki Hirai, Japan (2025 Rank: 52) – Hirai turned 18 in 2025, and after having a breakout year in 2024 that saw her break the WJR in the 100 fly, she did not drop time in the event during 2025. She came in at 56.33, which she swam at the Japanese High School meet, and her fastest time last year was the 56.80 she swam in July. At the 2025 World Championships, she swam 56.83 to finish 7th overall. She also swam the 50 fly, touching in 25.63 to finish 9th and just miss the final. She swam again at the World Junior Championships less than a month later, where she won the 100 fly in a meet record 56.87, and finished 2nd in the 50 fly (25.66), and 8th in the 100 free (55.04). Hirai bounced back from not dropping in her 100 fly during long course, though, with another World Junior Record in the women’s SC 50 backstroke. She swam 25.95 to be the first junior swimmer under 26 seconds in the event at the Japanese Short Course Championships. Hirai is supposed to start at Tennessee this month, and NCAA training could be just what she needs to get back to that 56 low range.
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