By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
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The World Junior Championships came to a close earlier this week, and there was a lot of fast swimming. We saw four* new World Junior Records, numerous new World Junior Records, and numerous new Championship Records set over the six days in Romania, along with a few National records and impressive swims from outside the gold medal position.
We rounded up what we think are the 10 best races of the meet, along with a few bonus swims.
Honorable Mentions:
- Mizuki Hirai (JPN) 100 fly: Mizuki Hirai swam 56.87 in the girls 100 butterfly final to break the Championship Record in the event and win by almost a full second. This swim was about half-a-second off her own World Junior Record of 56.33.
- Tajus Juska (LTU) 100 fly: Tajus Juska, 16, won the boys 100 fly final in 51.83, a little more than two tenths ahead of Brazil’s Lucio Flavio Filho who touched in 52.01. Juska’s time was a new Lithuanian National Record, taking more than half-a-second off the previous time of 52.54 that he set in April.
- Audrey Derivaux (USA) 200 back: American Audrey Derivaux had an exceptional meet, taking three individual golds and a silver. Her best race came in the 200 backstroke, where she swam 2:06.99 to set a new Championship Record, hacking about half-a-second off the former record of 2:07.45.
- Jacob Mills (GBR) 100 free semifinal: Mills’ spot on this list came from more than just one 100 freestyle swim, but if we have to choose just one, his 47.76 in the semifinal to become the 3rd fastest British swimmer in history was huge.
- Jon Shortt (IRL) 200 back- Shortt won the gold medal in the boys 200 backstroke, touching in a new Irish National Record of 1:56.19. He won the heat by almost two seconds.
Top 10 Races (in no particular order)
10. Abdul Jabar Adama (NGR) Silver Medal 50 Butterfly
The first swim on our top 10 list is not going to a championship or world junior record. In fact, it isn’t even going to a gold medalist.
Abdul Jabar Adama finished 2nd in the boy’\s 50 fly bringing home the silver medal in a time of 23.64 to win Nigeria’s first ever medal at a World Aquatics meet. He set a new National Record in the semifinals, touching in 23.48 to take a little more than three tenths off his pre-meet record of 23.81 from March.
9. Yang Peiqi (CHN) 4:05.38 400 Freestyle
Yang Peiqi was the swimmer of the meet after winning seven medals throughout the meet, including five golds. All of her swims were impressive, including her 800 freestyle gold of 8:22.93, which was just half-a-second off Australia’s Lani Pallister’s Championship Record in the event, and the 4×200 freestyle relay that she anchored in a massive 1:55.54.
One of her most impressive swims, though, was the 400 freestyle, which she won in 4:05.38 to take four hundredths off the meet record of 4:05.42 set by Pallister in 2019. She was out in 2:01.86 at the 200 mark, flipping in 3rd, but she descended her race from there, splitting 30.70 and 30.28 on the final two 50s to move from 3rd to 1st and win the gold medal.
8. Women’s 200 Freestyle Final
This whole race across the board was fast with the top three swimmers all coming in under the former Championship Record in the event and the whole top eight swimming under 2:00.
The top three were each two years apart and were separated by less than a second. The win went to 18-year-old Yang in 1:56.25, taking nearly a second off the Championship Record of 1:57.08 set by Taylor Ruck in 2017. She came in more than five tenths ahead of 2nd place swimmer Rylee Erisman, whose 1:56.76 was a new personal best time by just over half-a-second, dropping from the 1:57.29 she went in June at US Nationals.
The bronze medal went to 14-year-old Alessandra Mao of Italy in 1:57.00, less than three tenths back of Erisman and more than four tenths ahead of the other American Kennedi Dobson. Mao’s swim will make her the 3rd fastest 14-year-old in history, only behind Summer McIntosh, of Canada, and Ai Yanhan, of China. It also shattered the Italian Junior Record of 1:58.02 that was set by legend Federica Pellegrini back in 2004 of 1:58.02.
Mao has dropped exactly six seconds this season, coming into the year at 2:03.00 from August of last year. In April, she dropped to 2:02.77 to break the 14-year-old age group record in the event before taking more than five seconds off that swim last week.
7. Agostina Hein (ARG) 4:34.34 400 IM
Agostina Hein set three different records in the 400 IM final, touching in 4:34.34 to cut more than four seconds off her previous best in the event of 4:38.41 and break the Championship Record, South American Record, and Argentine Record.
Each record was broken by more than two seconds, with the South American and Argentine records being broken by more than three. Georgina Bardach owned both records in 4:37.51 which she swam back in 2004 to win the bronze medal in Athens, Argentina’s only Olympic swimming medal from the last 90 years. The former Championship Record belonged to American Leah Hayes at 4:36.84 from the 2023 World Junior Championships.
6. Carlos D’Ambrosio (Italy) 1:45.15 200 Freestyle
Italian freestyler Carlos D’Ambrosio has broken completely onto the world scene this year, starting with an incredibly impressive World Championships in Singapore, where he first broke the Italian 200 freestyle record, touching in 1:45.23
He had an exceptional meet in Romania, including a new Championship Record in the 200 freestyle. His swim of 1:45.15 was more than a second faster than the previous record of 1:46.18 that was set by David Popovici in 2022, and was also a new Italian record in the event.
He led from start to finish, splitting the fastest time in the field on three of the four 50s to win the event by a second-and-a-half over China’s Xu Haibo’s 1:46.67.
5. Rylee Erisman (USA) 52.79 100 Freestyle — Championship Record
American Rylee Erisman broke the Championship Record in the 100 freestyle three times over three swims on days two and three of the meet, culminating with a massive 52.79 in the event final to win the gold medal by more than a second.
She started off her record-breaking spree in the prelims of the race on day 2, where she swam 53.17 to demolish the former Championship Record of 53.63 from 2017. She took the record down again in the semifinals when she touched in 53.09 to qualify 1st for the final.
On day three, she took another three tenths off her time to stop the clock in a blistering 52.79 to grab the gold medal, knock the Championship Record under 53 seconds and become the 2nd fastest junior swimmer in history with only Penny Oleksiak coming in ahead of her at the 52.70 she swam to win the Olympic gold in 2016.
Erisman, who turned 16 earlier this year, has two more years to drop a tenth of a second and break the record.
4. Filip Nowacki (GBR) 2:07.32 200 Breaststroke
On day two of the meet, Filip Nowacki upset World Junior Record Holder Shin Ohashi in the 100 breaststroke. He followed that performance up in the 200 breaststroke by winning the gold, upsetting Ohashi again, in 2:07.32, a new European Junior Record and Championship Record.
His time was also faster than the 2:07.41 that China’s Qin Haiyang swam to win the gold medal a few weeks prior at the World Championships, and he was only two hundredths away from the British record in the event of 2:07.30 that has stood since 2014. This swim marked a more than five second drop for the 17-year-old who came into the season at 2:12.74 in the event.
4. World Junior Record 400 Free Relays
There were two individual World Junior Records and two relays set at the 2025 World Junior Championships, and we are going to combine the relays into one swim in this ranking since both were set in the 400 freestyle relay
The first WJR went to the Neutral Athlete ‘B’ delegation for their boys relay of 3:15.38. Mikhail Shcherbakov (49.13), Roman Zhidkov (48.37), Egor Proshin (48.98), and Georgii Zlotnikov (48.90) came together to break the former record of 3:15.49 set by the Americans back in 2023. They won by just under seven tenths over the Italian team that was buoyed by a massive 47.20 split from D’Ambrosio on the anchor leg.
The other WJR went to the United States girls’ 400 free relay team of Rylee Erisman (53.41), Liberty Clark (53.85), Julie Mishler (54.65), and Lily King (53.62) in 3:35.53. They touched almost half-a-second under the former record of 3:36.19 set by Canada in 2017, and they beat the NAB team by more than two seconds.
2. Nikita Sheremet (UKR) 21.75 50 Freestyle (semifinal) — World Junior Record (tie)
Nikita Sheremet, from Ukraine, won the men’s 50 free semifinal in 21.75, tying the World Junior Record and Championship Record mark set by Michael Andrew back in 2017.
He broke 22 seconds for the first time in the prelims, dropping to 21.82 before cutting another seven hundredths off in the semifinal. This swim makes him the 3rd fastest Ukrainian in history in the event. This swim was made even more impressive by the fact that he has never competed at any senior World-level meet, and the fact that he came into the season at 22.46, marking over a seven tenth drop in a single year in the 50 freestyle, a race that is typically decided by hundredths.
Sheremet will be joining the University of Louisville for the 2025-26 NCAA season as a World Junior Record holder.
1. Jan Malte Grafe (GER) 26.95 50 Breaststroke (prelims) — World Junior Record
Germany’s Jan Malte Grafe set a new World Junior Record in the prelims of the men’s 50 breaststroke, touching in 26.95. This time was two hundredths under the former World Junior Record time of 26.97 set by Italian Olympic Champion Nicolo Martinenghi.
The boys 50 breaststroke field was one of the deepest fields at the meet with four of the top junior breaststrokers in history competing, and it was so deep that Grafe did not go on to win the gold medal in the event, finishing 2nd to Turkey’s Nusrat Allahverdi, who came in at 26.98. Grafe finished with the silver in 26.99.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Top 10 Swims From the 2025 World Junior Championships
