There are less than 90 days until the start of the 2024 Olympic Games. There are still plenty of big meets between now and then, including U.S. and Australian Olympic Trials in mid-June. From the season opening World Cup circuit, the 2024 World Championships, and meets like the Australian Open and Pro Swim Series, swimmers have been putting up fast times all season.
And as the spring rolls on and many countries have already held Olympic Trials or closed their qualification period, it’s beginning to become clearer who is going to be a medal threat in Paris and the times that it may take to get into the final, much less onto the podium.
Heading into the next round of senior level international and domestic meets, here is the state of affairs for the women’s events-the top five so far this season.
WOMEN’S 50m FREESTYLE
The 2024 World Championships held in Doha last February inevitably influenced the seasonal world rankings. In the spritn freestyle, the top three positions reflect the Doha podium, where Sarah Sjostrom took gold in 23.69, Kate Douglass silver by setting the American record in 23.91, and Poland’s Kasia Wasick bronze in 23.95.
2023-2024 LCM Women 50 Free
SJOSTROM
23.69
2 | Kate DOUGLASS | USA | 23.91 | 02/18 |
3 | Kasia Wasick | POL | 23.95 | 02/18 |
4 | Shayna JACK | AUS | 24.09 | 12/12 |
5 | Cate CAMPBELL | AUS | 24.10 | 10/06 |
WOMEN’S 100M FREESTYLE
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey during day 3 of the first stop of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, last October, ripped a winning time of 52.02. The result represent the fastest 100m freestyle of her career rendering her the #3 performer in history and 1st in the world in this season. Behind her is the reigning world champion, Dutch Marrit Steenbergen, who took gold at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, with a time of 52.26.
The Australian Mollie O’Callaghan and Meg Harris, looking forward to the Olympic Trials next June, warmed up at the National Championships in the Gold Coast, running the third and fourth fastest times in the world.
2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Free
HAUGHEY
52.02
2 | Marrit STEENBERGEN | NED | 52.26 | 02/16 |
3 | Mollie O'CALLAGHAN | AUS | 52.27 | 04/17 |
4 | Meg HARRIS | AUS | 52.60 | 04/17 |
5 | Junxuan YANG | CHN | 52.68 | 04/23 |
WOMEN’S 200M FREESTYLE
The top 5 in the world in the women’s 200-meter freestyle could be the stars of the Olympic final event in Paris. World Record holder, Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan achieved a time of 1:53.57 at the Australian Open Championships, the only one in the world so far to have swum under 1:54. Chasing her already at this point in the season are two candidates for the Olympic podium: Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey with 1:54.08 and talented Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh with 1:54.21. The top 5 in the world are also the only ones who have currently achieved a time under 1:55.
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Free
O'Callaghan
1:53.57
2 | Siobhan HAUGHEY | HKG | 1:54.08 | 10/21 |
3 | Summer MCINTOSH | CAN | 1:54.21 | 04/10 |
4 | Junxuan Yang | CHN | 1:54.37 | 04/21 |
5 | Katie LEDECKY | USA | 1:54.97 | 04/12 |
WOMEN’S 400M FREESTYLE
Three months before the Olympics, three women have dropped below 4:00 in the women’s 400m free. Ariarne Titmus, who holds the World Record with 3:55.38, clocked 3:59.13 at the Australian Open Championships. Canadian Summer McIntosh, recorded a 3:59.42 last November at the Greensboro leg of the Pro Swim Series. Both have yet to face their respective Olympic Trials. The other swimmer to have already broken the 4-minute mark is kiwi Erika Fairweather with her gold medal-worthy time at the Doha 2024 World Championships, 3:59.44
2023-2024 LCM Women 400 Free
Titmus
3:59.13
2 | Summer McINTOSH | CAN | 3:59.42 | 11/30 |
3 | Erika FAIRWEATHER | NZL | 3:59.44 | 02/11 |
4 | Katie LEDECKY | USA | 4:01.41 | 04/11 |
5 | Bingjie LI | CHN | 4:01.62 | 02/11 |
WOMEN’S 800M FREESTYLE
Katie Ledecky, Ariarne Titmus and Italy’s Simona Quadarella took gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 800m freestyle, respectively. We find them again at this point in the season among the top 5 performers in the world, ranked second, fifth and fourth. Ahead of them all at the moment is Summer McIntosh with an 8:11.39 achieved at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championship last February. Katie Ledecky won the Olympic title in the women’s 800m free three consecutive times. Her Tokyo Olympic gold medal was also her 6th gold, making her the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history (most gold medals).
2023-2024 LCM Women 800 Free
MCINTOSH
8:11.39
2 | Katie LEDECKY | USA | 8:12.95 | 04/13 |
3 | Lani PALLISTER | AUS | 8:15.11 | 10/22 |
4 | Simona QUADARELLA | ITA | 8:17.44 | 02/17 |
5 | Ariarne TITMUS | AUS | 8:17.80 | 04/17 |
WOMEN’S 1500M FREESTYLE
American Katie Ledecky became the first woman to win the Olympic title in the women’s 1500m freestyle (which made its debut in Tokyo 2020). She is currently first in the world with a time of 15:38.81 achieved in Knoxville during the Pro Swim Series last January. The question at this point in the season will be the same one we will be asking ourselves just hours before the event at the 2024 Paris Olympics: is there anyone on planet Earth who can fight Katie Ledecky‘s dominance in the event?
2023-2024 LCM Women 1500 Free
LEDECKY
15:38.81
2 | Simona QUADARELLA | ITA | 15:46.99 | 02/13 |
3 | Lani PALLISTER | AUS | 15:49.94 | 12/13 |
4 | Bingjie LI | CHN | 15:51.18 | 09/24 |
5 | Katie GRIMES | USA | 15:57.31 | 04/11 |
WOMEN’S 100M BACKSTROKE
Australia’s Kaylee McKeown dominate backstroke events. As we pointed out, Multi-Olympic medalist McKeown ended the 2024 Australian Open Championships two weeks ago with a successful 4 out of 4 gold medals.
The 22-year-old starred in all of her events, taking the podium in the 50m/200m backstroke and the 200m/400m IM.
As it stands right now, McKeown is the #1 swimmer across each of the aforementioned events, giving credence to the opinions that voice she is the best overall swimmer on the planet at the moment.
Solidifying McKeon’s power in the 100m back was the World Record of 57.33 set during the World Aquatics World Cup last October, lowering her own world record set in 2021 in 57.45 at the Australian Olympic Trials.
2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Back
McKEOWN
57.33 WR
2 | Regan SMITH | USA | 57.64 | 03/08 |
3 | Mollie O'CALLAGHAN | AUS | 58.09 | 04/18 |
4 | Claire CURZAN | USA | 58.29 | 02/13 |
5 | Katharine BERKOFF | USA | 58.61 | 12/01 |
WOMEN’S 200M BACKSTROKE
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Back
McKEOWN
2:03.84
2 | Regan SMITH | USA | 2:03.99 | 03/09 |
3 | Claire CURZAN | USA | 2:05.77 | 02/17 |
4 | Summer McINTOSH | CAN | 2:06.81 | 12/02 |
5 | Jaclyn BARCLAY | AUS | 2:07.03 | 02/17 |
WOMEN’S 200M IM
At the Australian Open Championships two weeks ago, Kaylee McKeown achieved the world’s only sub-2:07 result, sending a clear signal to her challengers. Positions #2 through #5 achieved times under 2:08 with Americans Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh and Canadian Summer McIntosh still facing their respective Olympic Trials, where they could surprise with outstanding performances
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 IM
McKEOWN
2:06.99
2 | Kate DOUGLASS | USA | 2:07.05 | 02/12 |
3 | Summer MCINTOSH | CAN | 2:07.16 | 01/13 |
4 | Alex WALSH | USA | 2:07.63 | 01/13 |
5 | Yiting YU | CHN | 2:07.75 | 09/25 |
WOMEN’S 400M IM
Kaylee McKeown has her sights set on the 100m/200m back, 200m IM, women’s 4x200m free relay, women’s 4x100m medley relay and the mixed medley relay at the 2024 Paris Olympic. Despite McKeown’s leading world result of 4:28.22 from Australian Open Championship coming within striking distance of Canadian Summer McIntosh‘s world record, the Aussie said after her race, that she is ‘one and done’ and will not be taking on this event at June’s Olympic Trials.
2023-2024 LCM Women 400 IM
MCKEOWN
4:28.22
2 | Summer McINTOSH | CAN | 4:29.96 | 12/01 |
3 | Katie GRIMES | USA | 4:32.45 | 04/13 |
4 | Freya Colbert | GBR | 4:34.01 | 04/04 |
5 | Vivien JACKL | HUN | 4:34.96 | 04/11 |
WOMEN’S 100M BREAST
2024 saw the rise on the international scene of 20-year-old Chinese Tang Qianting. After winning the gold at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, Tang Qianting twice lowered the Asian Record during the Chinese National Championships, which ended just a few days ago. With the time set in Shenzhen of 1:04.39, she ranked #1 in the world and could attack Lilly King‘s World Record of 1:04.13.
2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Breast
TANG
1:04.39
2 | Evgeniia CHIKUNOVA | RUS | 1:05.11 | 04/17 |
3 | Tatjana SCHOENMAKER | RSA | 1:05.41 | 04/12 |
4 | Lilly KING | USA | 1:05.67 | 01/11 |
5 | Lydia JACOBY | USA | 1:05.74 | 04/11 |
WOMEN’S 200M BREAST
Four women have already dropped below 2:20 in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke this season. South African Tatjana Smith (born Schoenmaker) is currently the fastest in the world with a time of 2:19.01 achieved at the South African National Championships. Smith is the reigning Olympic champion having won gold in Tokyo with a time of 2:18.95.
Noted that the current World Record holder, Russia’s Evgeniia Chikunova will skip Paris 2024 Olympics and will not seek neutral status for the Paris Olympics this summer because of the International Olympic Committee’s restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes.
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Breast
SCHOENMAKER
2:19.01
2 | Kate DOUGLASS | USA | 2:19.30 | 01/13 |
3 | Evgeniia CHIKUNOVA | RUS | 2:19.74 | 04/19 |
4 | Tes SCHOUTEN | NED | 2:19.81 | 02/16 |
5 | Shiwen YE | CHN | 2:22.55 | 04/24 |
WOMEN’S 100M FLY
3 of the 5 fastest athletes in the world right now are American, which gives an idea of the battle we will see next June for the two spots available for Paris. Torri Huske at the San Antonio leg of 2024 Tyr Pro Swim Series scared off her personal best and U.S. Open Record by swimming 55. 68. It seems Huske is ready to take on Paris, and she has the fastest time in the world over Yufei Zhang of China’s 55.86, the only other swimmer this season to break 56 seconds so far in this event. Gretchen Walsh is No. 4 in the world and takes over No. 2 American this season.
2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Fly
HUSKE
55.68
2 | Yufei ZHANG | CHN | 55.86 | 09/27 |
3 | Angelina KOHLER | GER | 56.11 | 02/11 |
4 | Gretchen WALSH | USA | 56.14 | 04/12 |
5 | Regan SMITH | USA | 56.33 | 03/07 |
WOMEN’S 200M FLY
Another major player in the seasonal world rankings is American Regan Smith. We talk about her here in the women’s 200-meter fly, where she’s #1 with a time of 2:04.80, the only one in the world to go under 2:05. However, Smith will have epic battles with Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, with whom she will most likely have to fight for the Olympic title in the 100 and 200-meter backstroke. Regan Smith is currently second in the world in both the women’s 100 and 200-meter backstroke.
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Fly
SMITH
2:04.80
2 | Elizabeth Ann Dekkers | AUS | 2:05.20 | 04/18 |
3 | Yufei Zhang | CHN | 2:05.57 | 09/24 |
4 | Summer MCINTOSH | CAN | 2:05.73 | 01/11 |
5 | AIRI MITSUI | JPN | 2:06.54 | 03/22 |
Question: do people think McKeown has a better shot in the 200 or the 400 IM (leaving aside the fact that she has said she will not swim the 400).
It seems to me that she has more chance of gold in the 200 but more chance of at least silver in the 400.
If she swim 400 IM, she’s guaranteed silver. But she doesn’t like it and she won’t swim it, so this is pointless.
Note: You might want to update and edit the author’s SS bio; it is riddled with errors.
Interesting that on the 200 Free top 30 list there are only 3 Americans listed (while Australia and China have 7 women each): 5. Ledecky, 24. Peplowski, 30. Manuel.
Ofc I won’t be reading too much into that as it relates to the 4×200 relay. I’m sure there will be more American names on that list by the end of US Trials. Just a bit surprised that at this stage there is only one American listed in the top 23.
I think Bella Sims and Claire Weinstein will likely get into top 30.
Erin Gemmel and Alex Shackell has outside chance to get into top 30 before Paris.
Yeah I was expecting to see some of those names in the current Top 30. I guess they’ve been mainly swimming 200 yards rather than 200 metres up until recently.
Ok I did the medal tally for those waiting:
AUS – 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉🥉🥉🥉
USA – 🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉🥉
CAN – 🥇🥈🥈🥉🥉🥉
CHN – 🥇🥈🥉
HKG/RSA – 🥇🥈
SWE – 🥇
NED – 🥈🥉
ITA – 🥈
GER/POL/NZL – 🥉
I am curious about the two silver medals you think the Italians will win 🙂
It’s one silver and it’s Quadarella in the 1500, based on the fact that she’s ranked second at the moment.
It’s “fewer.” 🙃
Kaylee is so underrated on SwimSwam
lol we projected her as the #2 female swimmer in the world for 2024. CRAZY UNDERRATING.
Well, she should be #1.
They put her as the face of this article while wearing a crown…
I am already immune to fake outrage on the internet, and when I see them, I just downvote and move on.
Paris Gold Medal Favorites in my view
50 Free: Sjostrom
100 Free: O’Callaghan (Reasonable upset potential for the other AUS swimmer, Haughey, or Steenbergen)
200 Free: O’Callaghan
400 Free: Titmus narrowly favored over McIntosh
800 Free: Ledecky
1500 Free: Ledecky
100 Back: McKeown
200 Back: McKeown
100 Breast: Tang
200 Breast: Smith (Schoenmaker), favored but Douglass or Schouten have reasonable upset potential
100 Fly: Huske or Zhang (can’t count out MacNeil or Kohler)
200 Fly: McIntosh
200 IM: McIntosh + McKeown + Douglass (Three-way Tossup)
400 IM: McIntosh
4×100 Free Relay: Australia
4×200 Free Relay: Australia
4×100 Medley Relay: USA
Australia will choke in the 4×2 again imo
I would laugh my ass off if Australia ended up with 8 bronze medals, yet again.
There is a chance, but with O’Callaghan & Titmus are giving Australia 3-4 seconds lead, not sure the other teams can make that up.
No , Leah Neale certainly will not be replacing MOC this time.
Wrong Team
Wrong Order
Slowest swimmer (Neal) replaced the Faster swimmer from the heats (MOC)
It was an absolute stuff up
and proven since Australia continues to demolish the WR.
Seven golds would be lovely
That would actually be less than Tokyo despite having (IMO) a much stronger team.
Exact same events except lose the 50 free and swap the Medley relay for the 200 relay
It’s only the women’s. If we’re to match or exceed the gold medal tally from Tokyo it will include more gold from the men imo.
Yeah but the women won 8 gold in Tokyo, so the women’s team alone would technically be worse
So what are you expecting then?
I don’t know what I’m expecting. I was just commenting that despite having a superior team it looks like they’ll win less golds.
In Tokyo the women really won every possible gold except 100 fly and 200 relay. We have arguably more chances at gold this year but less likely to convert at least 8
Downvoters should say what they disagree with (I think it all sounds reasonable).
Walsh for a Four-way tossup in the 200IM
I really don’t get the downvotes on this. It’s always been a 4 girl race. Alex Walsh is literally a tenth or two away from all 3 of Summer, KD, and McKeown. She’s a fantastic racer and even when she had a rough season last summer she was 2:07.9 in the 200 and 4:34 in the 400 IM. If her recent SCY success is anything to go off of, she’ll be right in that race.
I agree with this. It’ll be interesting to see how many of these gold medal favorites actually get the gold medal.
I like this. All we have to go on (until we actually get to Paris and the races are swum) is recent form. Anything can happen once we get there but at the moment, this is what the numbers say.
Hard to argue with that list; either with it’s calls or nominees.
Having said that, there are comparitively few events where you can say that you could describe as “locks”. Maybe only 1500, 400IM and probably 50 amongst the individual events.
Why does everyone discount Alex Walsh in the 200 IM, she’s always shown up when it mattered and is just one tenth away from Douglass and McKeown
“Titmus narrowly favored over McIntosh”
This has to be a joke
Because you think McIntosh is actually the favorite?
Alex Walsh says dont forget me
Excuse me, Gretchen in 1fly not Alex 😄