Recap of Day 5 at the 2025 Worlds in North America: Despite Lingering Illness, U.S. Shows Grit With Strong Swims

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• How To Watch
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Entry Book
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

There was a stark contrast in the performances from the American swimmers on Day 5 of the World Championships in Singapore.

It was either really good, or fell well shy of expectations—including multiple scratches—and there wasn’t much in between.

The day didn’t start on a high note, with Gretchen Walsh scratching the prelims of the women’s 100 freestyle as one of the gold medal favorites, and Josh Matheny dropping the men’s 200 breast prelims after he was an Olympic finalist last summer.

During the morning session, Jack Aikins failed to advance to the semis of the men’s 200 back as the top seed, which wasn’t a massive surprise after he was well off form earlier in the 100 back.

Just as the evening session was getting underway, USA Swimming announced Carson Foster would not be contesting the final of the men’s 200 IM. As finals rolled on, Alex Walsh, who was one of the bronze medal favorites in the women’s 200 breast, missed the final by a wide margin, adding three seconds to her personal best time set less than two months ago.

That’s five medal hopefuls either scratching an event or missing out on advancing to the final, showing the stomach illness that plagued the U.S. team early in the meet is still lingering.

However, on the flip side of things, most of the swimmers who did race during Day 5 finals stepped up big and performed.

• Regan Smith opened the session by winning silver in the women’s 200 fly, clocking 2:04.99 in her eighth swim in the last four days. Summer McIntosh wasn’t going to be touched for gold, as the Canadian clocked 2:01.99 to come within 18 one-hundredths of the super-suited world record. In her World Championship final debut, Caroline Bricker had a solid swim for the U.S., placing 6th.
• In the semis of the women’s 100 free, Torri Huske, who has been fighting illness all week and been well off form in her appearances (after dropping the 100 fly), put together her best swim of the meet to qualify for the final in 4th (53.21).
• Shaine Casas was incredible in the final of the men’s 200 IM, giving Leon Marchand a real run for his money as the American won silver in a time of 1:54.30, moving up to #4 all-time and coming within 14 one-hundredths of Michael Phelps‘ career best time (1:54.16) and within three-tenths of Ryan Lochte‘s mark of 1:54.00 which previously stood as the world record for 14 years.
• Jack Alexy followed up his American Record swim in the semis of the men’s 100 free by winning silver in the final, putting together the third sub-47 swim of his career in 46.92. Patrick Sammon also impressed in his individual World Championship final debut, taking 6th in 47.58.
• Kate Douglass looked smooth in the semis of the women’s 200 breast, comfortably winning her heat and advancing 2nd into the final in a time of 2:20.96.
• Katharine Berkoff and Smith went 1-2 in the final of the women’s 50 back, marking the first time any country has won gold and silver in the same event in Singapore. At the World Championships, the last 1-2 finish for the U.S. women came in the 200 IM in 2023, when Kate Douglass won gold and Alex Walsh nabbed silver. At the 2024 Olympics, the lone U.S. 1-2 came in the women’s 100 fly with Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh.
• Racing in his first evening swim at a LC World Championships, AJ Pouch delivered in the semis of the men’s 200 breast, winning his heat to advance 2nd into the final in a time of 2:08.34.
• The U.S. quartet of Claire Weinstein (1:54.83), Anna Peplowski (1:54.75), Erin Gemmell (1:56.75) and Katie Ledecky (1:53.71) delivered a new American Record in the women’s 4×200 free relay as they won silver behind the Australians in a time of 7:40.01. For Gemmell, the split came one night after she failed to crack 2:00 in the women’s 200 free final—five seconds off her best time, indicating the illness was affecting her. The relay swim lowered the previous National Record of 7:40.73 set by the U.S. squad that won silver at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.

So, despite a portion of the team still dealing with the stomach bug that first started impacting swimmers at their pre-Worlds training camp in Thailand, with a number of medal opportunities falling by the wayside on Thursday, the athletes who did compete managed to deliver.

OTHER DAY 5 NORTH AMERICA HIGHLIGHTS

• Summer McIntosh decimated the field en route to winning gold in the women’s 200 fly in a time of 2:01.99, the second-fastest performance ever. The 18-year-old Canadian broke her own Commonwealth, Americas and Canadian Record, as well as the textile world record, which she set at 2:02.26 last month. She also broke the super-suited Championship Record of 2:03.41, but clearly wasn’t satisfied after narrowly missing the vaunted 2:01.81 world record.
• Kylie Masse matched her finish from the 2023 World Championships with a 4th-place finish in the women’s 50 back (27.33), while Canadian teammate Ingrid Wilm took 8th in 27.56.
• Oliver Dawson reset his Canadian Age Group Record in the boys’ 15-17 200 breaststroke twice on Thursday, clocking 2:11.07 in the prelims and then 2:10.32 in the semis to place 11th overall. Dawson set the previous record of 2:11.25 at the Canadian Trials in June.
• Blake Tierney throttled the Canadian Record in the prelims of the men’s 200 back, clocking 1:55.17 to erase the previous mark by well over a second, and then re-lowered it in the semis in 1:55.03 to advance 5th into tomorrow’s final.

North America Medal Table Through Day 5

Overall Medal Table Through Day 5

Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Worlds, Day 5 North America Recap: Illness Lingers, But U.S. Step Up With Gritty Swims