Swimming World made the decision to construct a list of the top 10 swimmers in the world as we look ahead to yet another Olympic year and put 2020 in the past.
The first three months of 2020 (before to the pandemic) saw a lot of fast swimming, and despite spending a lot of time out of the water over the summer, many of the world’s top swimmers returned to the ISL or other regional meetings to post times that were faster than anticipated.
We considered each athlete’s performance in the recent years as well as what occurred in the olympics while making this list.
Although there was no ideal way to rank every swimmer in the world, we made an effort to be as impartial as we could.
After the list of the Best sports for girls, Here is the list of top 10 best women swimmers of all time.
10. Katinka Hosszú
Katinka Hossz is a competitive swimmer from Hungary who specialises in individual medley competitions.
She has won the long-course world championships nine times and three individual olympic gold medal.
She is co-owner and captain of Team Iron, a founder member of the International Swimming League, and the owner of the swim club and school Iron Swim Budapest, which is situated in Budapest.
IS Katinka still a world record holder?
Hossz currently holds the world records for the 200-meter backstroke, the 400-meter individual medley, the long course 200-meter individual medley, and the 100-meter individual medley (short course).
She was the first swimmer—male or female—to simultaneously hold world records in each of the five individual medley events.
She is the owner of two-thirds of the national records for Hungary.
Hosszu received the SwimSwam Swammy Award for Female Swimmer of the Year in 2013, and she was awarded the FINA Swimmer of the Year in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018.
9. Sarah Sjöström
Swedish competitive swimmer Sarah Fredrika Sjöström specialises in the butterfly and sprint freestyle events.
She currently holds the world records for the 450-meter medley relay, the 50-meter freestyle (long course), the 100-meter freestyle, the 50-meter butterfly (long course), and the 100-meter butterfly (short course).
She formerly held world records in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, and 200-meter freestyle events (short course) (short course).
She is the first woman from Sweden to win an Olympic swimming gold medal. In 2017 and 2018, she won the overall swimming world cup.
She made history in 2022 by being the first European-representing swimmer to win 10 individual World Championship gold medals.
She is presently the Energy Standard representative in the ISL.
Sjöström achieved the unheard-of accomplishment of being the only female swimmer to win five individual medals at a single FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2019.
She now leads all female swimmers in history with 19 individual medals earned at long course World Championships as of 2022.
More individual medals have only been won by Michael Phelps (20). Sjöström became the first swimmer in history to earn over 1000 MVP points in the International Swimming League over his career in 2021.
At the LEN European Aquatics Championships in 2022, she became the first swimmer from any nation to win a total of 28 medals. She competes in swimming and has won 112 medals.
8. Regan Smith
Regan Smith, an American competitive swimmer, was born on February 9, 2002. She was formerly the world record holder for the 100-meter backstroke and now has the long course title in the women’s 200-meter backstroke.
Smith represented the United States in three events at the 2020 Summer Olympics and took home medals in the 200-meter butterfly, the 4100-meter medley relay, and the 100-meter backstroke for bronze, silver, and silver, respectively.
Did Smith win olympic medals at the 2020 Olympic games?
On day two of competition, Smith went to the semifinals of the 100-meter backstroke prelims and established a new Olympic record in the event with a time of 57.96. Kaylee McKeown later beat Smith’s mark with a time of 57.88.
Smith once more broke the Olympic record in the semifinals with a time of 57.86, moving forward to the final in first place.
Smith finished third and won the bronze medal in the competition with a timing of 58.05. She has never before won an Olympic medals.
Smith may have missed her olympic gold medals but this does not change the fact that she is one of the best female athlete around.
7. Emma McKeon
Emma Jennifer McKeon is a competitive swimmer from Australia who was born on May 24, 1994. In the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, she has set four world records—one current and three previous—for herself.
Her overall career haul of 11 Olympic medals, which includes four gold medals from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and one gold from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, making her Australia’s most decorated Olympian at the olympic games with the most olympic gold medals with just four gold medals being from 2020.
She matched for the record for the most medals won by a woman in a single Olympic Games with her four gold and three bronze wins in the 2020 Summer Olympics, making her the most decorated athlete overall.
Additionally, she has the world records 20 medals, including 14 gold, in the Commonwealth Games and 17 medals, including four gold, at the World Championships.
With five overall gold medals won at her first two Olympic Games, McKeon equaled Ian Thorpe in 2021 for the most Olympic gold medals won over the course of a career by an Australian athlete.
She finished the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup with a total of fourteen medals, including ten gold medals, making her the best scoring athlete overall, male or female.
How Did Emma win her first gold medal at 2016 Olympic games?
McKeon was chosen in April 2016 to represent Australia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Since John and Ilsa Konrads in 1960, the duo became the first brother and sister to swim for Australia at an Olympic Games.
Her brother David was also chosen. She started the four-person, 100-meter freestyle relay at the 2016 Summer Olympics, which resulted in a gold medal and a world record time of 3:30.65.
In addition, McKeon won two silver medals for his participation in the 4 x 200-meter freestyle and 4 x 100-meter medley relay teams.
6. Ariarne Titmus
Australian swimmer Ariarne Elizabeth Titmus was born on September 7, 2000. She won both the women’s 200 and 400 metre freestyle events at the 2020 Summer Olympics and is now the world record holder in the long course 400 metre freestyle.
She previously held the world mark in the short course 400 metre freestyle. She participated in competitions with the Cali Condors in the International Swimming League in 2019 and 2020.
Titmus won two medals at the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, which were held in August in Hawaii, United States.
He won a silver medal in the 4200 metre freestyle relay with a time of 2:00.13, which contributed to the relay’s overall time of 8:05.43, and a bronze medal in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 4:09.81, which lagged China’s Li Bingjie by 2.29 seconds.
In the women’s 200-meter freestyle competition at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, Titmus placed 17th overall.
Titmus won three gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 400-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle, and the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay. She also took up the silver in the 200-meter freestyle.
She is one of the best female athlete around.
5. Kaylee McKeown
Born on July 12, 2001, Kaylee Rochelle McKeown is an Australian swimmer who has won three gold medals at the olympics.
At the 2020 Summer Games, which will be held in Tokyo in 2021, she won the 100- and 200-meter backstrokes as well as the 4×100-meter medley. She currently holds the women’s 100-meter backstroke world record (long course).
When she joined her elder sister Taylor on the Australian Dolphins swim team, Kaylee McKeown was just 15 years old. One of the newest members was her. Currently, she practises swimming with the Griffith University team under the guidance of Michael Bohl.
McKeown, then 15 years old, participated in the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, which were held in August in Maui, Hawaii, in the United States.
She won the 200-meter backstroke gold medal with a time of 2:10.01 and the 100-meter backstroke bronze medal with a time of 1:01.01.
McKeown participated in the women’s 200-meter backstroke competition at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships the following year.
McKeown was the fastest swimmer in the 200-meter individual medley in the lead-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics, but she withdrew from the competition to focus on the backstroke.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won the 100-meter backstroke in 57.47 seconds, breaking the previous Olympic record.
McKeown was added to the roster for the 2022 World Short Course Championships as a result of her efforts in the 2022 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships, which were held in Sydney in August.
4. Lilly King
American breaststroke swimmer Lillia Camille King, born on February 10, 1997, is one of the best in the world. She is presently a member of the International Swimming League squad known as the Cali Condors.
She earned a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke race at the 2016 Summer Olympics as well as a gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, where she swam the breaststroke leg.
King competed in the preliminary rounds of the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she placed second in the 4×100 medley relay, second in the 200 metre breaststroke, and third in the 100 metre breaststroke. She currently holds the long course 100 metre breaststroke world record.
How did the female athlete perform at world championships ?
King took first place in the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:04.93 during the 2019 World Championships. With a 29.84, she easily won the 50-meter breaststroke as well.
King was disqualified in the preliminary heats of the 200-meter breaststroke because she didn’t contact the wall with both hands simultaneously during one of her spins.
In the 4×100-meter mixed medley relay, King raced the breaststroke leg with Ryan Murphy in the backstroke, Caeleb Dressel in the butterfly, and Simone Manuel in the freestyle.
Out of the eight relays competing in the final, she was the only female swimmer to complete the breaststroke leg.
Silver was won by the relay team, which came in second place, two hundredths of a second behind the Australian team.
Last but not least, King ran a 3:50.40 in the world-beating 4×100-meter medley relay alongside Regan Smith, Kelsi Dahlia, and Simone Manuel.
3. Natalie Coughlin
Natalie Anne Coughlin Hall, an American former competitive swimmer and 12-time Olympic champion, was born on August 23, 1982.
Ten days before turning 20 in 2002, she set a record for a woman by swimming the 100-meter backstroke (long course) in less than one minute while enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.
She won six medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics, making her the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to do so, and the first woman ever to win the 100-meter backstroke gold at two different Summer Games.
She won a bronze in the 4100-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Due to her accomplishments, Coughlin has received three American Swimmer of the Year Awards and one World Swimmer of the Year Award.
Sixty medals in all, including twenty-five gold medals, twenty-two silver, and thirteen bronze, have been won by her at significant international competitions, including the Olympics, the World, the Pan Pacific Championships, and the Pan American Games.
2. Simone Manuel
American competitive swimmer Simone Ashley Manuel, born on August 2, 1996, is an expert in freestyle competitions.
She earned two gold and two silver medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, taking first place in the 4×100-meter medley relay and 100-meter freestyle, respectively.
As the first Black American woman to win an individual swimming gold medal at the Olympics, Manuel tied Penny Oleksiak of Canada for first place in the 100-meter freestyle event. She also established both an Olympic and an American record.
As the American 4100 metre freestyle relay team’s anchor in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she took home a bronze medal.
One of the first three African American women to finish in the top three places in the 100-yard freestyle event at any Division I NCAA Swimming Championship, Manuel also holds three world records as a member of a relay team and is a six-time individual NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships champion.
She attended Stanford University from 2014 to 2018, where she competed for the Stanford Cardinal and helped the school win the women’s swimming and diving NCAA team title in 2017 and 2018. In July 2018, she went professional.
1. Katie ledecky – Best women swimmers of all time
American competitive swimmer Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky competes in swimming. She holds the record for the most gold medals ever won by a female swimmer with 19 world championship golds and seven Olympic golds.
Katie Ledecky set records in women’s swimming with her six individual gold medals in the Olympics, her 14 individual gold medals at the World Championships, and her 22 total medals there.
Katie Ledecky holds the long-course and short-course world records for the women’s 800- and 1500-meter freestyles, and she formerly held the record for the 400-meter freestyle (long course).
Additionally, she now owns the records for the 500, 1000, and 1650 yard freestyle races for women. She is largely recognised as the best female swimmer and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Due to her accomplishments, Ledecky has been named the Female World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World a record-breaking five times.
Ledecky also won the titles of Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 2017, L’Équipe International Female Champion of Champions in 2014 and 2015, USOC Female Athlete of the Year in 2013, 2016 and 2017, Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year in 2017, and ESPY Best Female Athlete in 2022.
