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.
Like most non-Olympic even-numbered years, the world of swimming will be scattered across the globe, with no real single meet to weigh the medals from most. That means times will rule the day in the 2026 rankings, which makes some things easier and some things harder.
The principles for ranking:
Trajectory Age Performance in 2023-2024-2025 (more recent results weighted more heavily) Anomalies to trajectories (one bad year doesn’t mean a swimmer isn’t still one of the best in the world, if it was pretty isolated or illness may have impacted performance) Versatility. A swimmer who might be #3 in the world in three events could leap a one-trick pony who is #1 or #2 in their best event and outside the top 10 in their next-best event. Competitive Atmosphere. A swimmer ranked #9 in the world in a more competitive event could be ranked higher than a finalist in a less competitive event.We start with data, and then debate, massage, re-rank, re-rank again, and eventually wind up with some vision of a top 100 that makes sense to our collective hivemind.
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.
Women’s Rankings
#100 – #91 #90 – #81 #80 — #71#70 Emma Weyant, United States (2025 Rank: 51) – American IMer Emma Weyant has consistently proven herself to be a medal threat in the 400 IM. After winning the bronze medal in 2024 at the Olympics, Weyant came into 2025 as a top contender to end up on the podium in the event in Singapore. At the Pro Swim Series in Ft. Lauderdale, she swam 4:33.95 to come in just a second off her lifetime best of 4:32.76 from the Tokyo Olympics, and a second faster than she swam in Paris. She did not quite match that time at Worlds, swimming 4:34.01 to finish 5th overall. She also finished 2025 ranked 5th in the event, though she was only seven tenths out of 2nd place Jenna Forrester’s 4:33.26. Weyant will be trying to drop back into the 4:32 range this season, and with just six tenths between the spots from 2-5, she could easily set one of the top times in the world.
#69 Lauren Cox, Great Britain (2025 Rank: NR) – Cox had a strong year in the backstroke events after missing the Olympic Team in 2024 due to finishing 2nd in the 100 back at GB Trials. She made the 2025 World Championships team in the 50 backstroke, and she ended up finishing 5th at Worlds in 27.36, just off the 27.15 lifetime best she swam in May, which was the 5th fastest time in the world last year. She also swam a personal best 59.59 in the 100 back leading off the British women’s medley relay in finals. This took one hundredth off the 59.60 she swam at the 2024 World Championships. She wrapped up her year with a massive swim at the European SC Championships, winning gold in the 100 back in 56.51. This is a good sign for the 2026 European Championships and her medal chances there.
#68 Martine Damborg, Denmark (2025 Rank: NR) – Danish sprinter Martine Damborg, 18, had an explosive European SC Championships, picking up gold medals in the 50 and 100 butterfly events against major contenders like Roos Vanotterdijk. She set new personal best times in both of 24.61 and 55.52. Her 50 fly time moves up to 11th all-time in the event and her 100 fly will move up to 22nd in history. Both swims were new European Junior and Danish records. She has not had the same level of success in long course, winning three events at the 2025 Danish Open, but she did not race at the 2025 World Championships. She swam at the World Junior Championships in August, her last major international meet as a junior swimmer. She finished 3rd in the 50 fly, 10th in the 100 free, and 6th in the 50 free. She also qualified for the 100 fly semifinal, finishing 8th in prelims, but scratched the event. If Damborg can come close to her short course success in long course, she should be a major threat at Euros in 2026.
#67 Chen Luying, China (2025 Rank: 74) – Chinese butterfly Chen Luying finished the year ranked 4th in the world in the 200 butterfly with the 2:05.20 lifetime best she swam at the 2025 Chinese National Games in November, defeating 13-year-old phenom Yu Zidi and Chinese butterfly staple Zhang Yufei. This was a huge drop from her previous best of 2:06.81. She missed qualifying for Worlds after swimming 2:08.85 to finish 4th at the Chinese National Championships in May. Luying also has proven experience in short course, having finished 5th in the 200 fly at the 2025 Short Course Worlds in Budapest, and 2026 will end with another SC Worlds.
#66 Olivia Wunsch, Australia (2025 Rank: 73) – Aussie Wunsch qualified for her first major senior meet as an individual last summer (she swam a prelims relay leg in 2024). In a fast Australian sprinter landscape, she finished 2nd in the 50 and 100 free at Australian Trials to earn her spot on the Worlds team. At Worlds, she suffered from an undisclosed illness, scratching the 100 free semifinal after finishing 7th in the prelims and scratching her 50 free final entirely. She swam well at the first two stops of the World Cup, finishing 4th in the 100 fly and 100 free at both stops and 4th in Carmel and 5th in Westmont in the 50 free. Wunsch had a flat year in 2025, partially due to her illness at Worlds, and will be looking for a major boom this year. She is only 19, turning 20 in May, and she has a lot of time left in her career.
#65 Florine Gaspard, Belgium (2025 Rank: NR) – Florine Gaspard has a rare collection of events, presenting as an elite freestyle and breaststroker. At the 2025 World Championships, she finished 7th in the 50 free (24.63), 11th in the 100 free (53.87), and 16th in the 100 breast (1:07.46). Her prelims 100 breaststroke time of 1:06.89 was a new Belgian Record, and, earlier in the year, she set the national record in the 50 free at 24.42. In 2025, she was ranked 12th in the world in the 50 free, 24th in the 100 free, and 29th in the 100 breast. She wrapped up the year at the European SC Championships, finishing 3rd in the 50 breast (29.34), 2nd in the 100 breast (1:03.73) though her semifinals time in the 100 was a new personal best of 1:03.61. During the 2025 SCM season, she set national records in the 50 free (23.80), 100 free (52.57), 50 breast (29.33), and 100 breast (1:03.61). She is clearly on an upward trajectory and improvement curve and will only be looking for more in 2026.
#64 Anastasiya Kirpichnikova, France (2025 Rank: 18) – Distance freestyler Anastasiya Kirpichnikova came into 2025 riding an absolute high of winning the Olympic silver medal in the women’s 1500 freestyle, touching in 15:40.35, which was 4th all time, and finish the year only behind Katie Ledecky. She swam well at the French National Championships, winning the 400 (4:07.74), 800 (8:26.73), and 1500 (15:55.27) freestyle events, though she was off her best times in all three. At Worlds, she finished 19th in the 400 (4:13.92), 11th in the 800 (8:28.97), and 5th in the 1500 (15:57.40). For the 2nd year in a row, her fastest 800 freestyle time came from the opening 800 of her 1500, and at Worlds she opened her 1500 in 8:26.13 to rank 15th in the World. She finished the year ranked 5th in the 1500. While she didn’t set any new personal bests this year, she is less than two years removed from an Olympic silver medal and has proven she has the capacity to throw down major performances, even if she was slightly flat in 2025.
#63 Agostina Hein, Argentina (2025 Rank: NR) – One of the biggest breakouts this year came from Argentine IMer Agostina Hein, who turned 17 in April. She started making headlines in August at the Junior Pan American Games, which started just nine days before the World Junior Championships. At that meet, she opened with a 4:06.96 in the 400 free, just three tenths off the Argentine Record in the event. She followed that up with a new record in the 200 free at 1:59.45 leading off the 800 free relay, and wrapped up her meet with another record in the 200 IM of 2:12.12. The next week, she traveled halfway across the world to Romania to compete in the World Junior Championships. There, she won the gold in the 400 IM in her 3rd national record in a week, touching in 4:34.34. This swim finished the season ranked 6th in the world. She also won the silver in the 800 free (8:26.19), and took 4th in the 400 free (4:07.06) and 7th in the 200 IM (2:14.54). Through the remainder of the year, she continued to take down Argentine Records, setting new marks at six meets in six months from July to December. She rebroke her own 200 free record (1:58.82) and set new records in the long course 100 fly (58.83) and the SCM 100 free (54.16), 200 free (1:56.30), 100 fly (58.90), and 200 IM (2:10.57).
#62 Audrey Derivaux, United States (2025 Rank: NR) – Derivaux walked away from 2025 with three World Junior titles and no spot on the 2026 American Pan Pacs team. She won the 200 back (2:06.99), 200 fly (2:07.59), and 200 IM (2:10.58) at the World Junior Championships, just weeks after turning 16. She also wrapped up 2025 with the 6th fastest time in the world in the 200 backstroke (2:06.68) and the 10th fastest time in the 200 fly (2:06.46), and she was the top junior swimmer in the 200 back and the 2nd in the 200 fly. The only reason Derivaux is this far back on the list despite two top 10 rankings in the world, is the fact that she did not earn a spot on the American Pan Pacs team, though she is still eligible for the Junior Pan Pacs roster, which will be selected at the end of the summer in 2026.
#61 Angelina Köhler, Germany (2025 Rank: 42) – Kohler had a strong year in the 50 fly, setting new national records in both the long course and short course versions of the event. At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, she finished 4th in the 50 fly, touching in 25.50 which was the 9th fastest time in the world last year. She also made the 100 fly final, stopping the clock in 56.57, a tenth off the 56.49 she swam in prelims, finishing 6th in the event. Her prelims time was 5th in the world, but she was almost half a second off her lifetime best of 56.11 that she swam in February of 2024. At the SC European Championships in December, she swam 25.06 in the 50 fly semifinal to set a new German record before finishing in 25.14 in the final for 6th overall. She also finished 6th in the 100 fly at 56.17, which is more than half a second off the 55.50 she swam at the same meet in 2023. While she saw improvement in the shorter distances, Kohler will be looking to drop back into the 56 low and 55 range in the 100 butterfly events for top times in the world for 2026.
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