By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
After the record-setting 12 months that was 2023, we’re gearing up for an additional thrilling 12 months over right here at SwimSwam, and a part of that’s releasing our fourth annual High 100 record—try final 12 months’s rankings right here.
Much like 2023, we’ve taken a statistically pushed method reliant primarily upon world rankings and World Championship medals. We’ve additionally taken under consideration issues resembling potential, Olympic medal alternatives, accidents, and flexibility. Lengthy course is weighted greater than brief course, although efficiency potential in each codecs is factored in.
We’ve additionally moved Russian and Belarusian swimmers means down this record due to their doubtless absence from the Olympics or both World Championship meet. Whereas that doesn’t preclude them from swimming quick at home meets (together with no matter Russia comes up with to exchange the Olympics), these swims simply gained’t imply fairly as a lot with out the worldwide highlight.
We’ll be breaking down the highest 100 into a number of installments, so hold a watch out as they’re launched.
These lists are, by nature, subjective. In the event you disagree, depart your ideas/ranks within the feedback.
Braden Keith, Sophie Kaufman, Anya Pelshaw and Mark Wild contributed to this report.
Males’s Rankings:
#100 – 91
#90 – 81
#80 – 71
#70 – 61
#60 – 51
#50 –41
#40 – 31
#30 – 21
#20 – 11
#10 – 1
#10: Tom Dean, Nice Britain – Dean has established himself as a constant drive among the many world’s elite within the 200 free, following up his gold medal efficiency from the Tokyo Olympics with back-to-back medals on the World Championships in Budapest (bronze) and Fukuoka (silver). His 1:44.32 for silver in 2023 was a tenth off his private finest from 2021 which is a optimistic signal as he seems to defend his title in Paris. It’s his closing velocity that makes him particularly harmful: whether or not he’s racing the 100 free, 200 free, or the 200 IM (the place he discovered new ranges of success final 12 months with a Worlds bronze) Dean’s confirmed that he can’t be counted out of a race. Ranked #2 on this planet within the 200 free, Dean’s 1:56.07 200 IM was good for fifth in 2023.
#9: Carson Foster, USA – There’s some debate about Foster’s placement within the prime 10 given he doesn’t have a transparent path to an Olympic gold medal this 12 months, however the American is in place to stroll away with at the very least three medals in Paris and maybe a fourth, to not point out he might grow to be a double world champion in Doha. Foster, who has carried out nicely on the previous two World Championships after lacking the U.S. Olympic staff in 2021, is the clear #2 on this planet within the 400 IM, and can be battling it out for a medal within the 200 IM, the place he owns a PB of 1:55.71 that ought to be sufficient to achieve the rostrum. The 22-year-old has additionally elevated his sport within the 200 fly, clocking 1:53.85 in final 12 months’s World semis to guide the sphere earlier than putting sixth within the closing. He’s additionally a constant 1:45 200 freestyler, making him a mainstay on the U.S. 800 free relay, and is a confirmed performer within the brief course pool come SC Worlds on the finish of the 12 months.
#8: Pan Zhanle, China – Pan’s rating is based partially on some untapped potential we’re projecting he has in his holster in just a few occasions. The 19-year-old Chinese language sprinter turned simply the fifth swimmer in historical past, and third in a textile swimsuit, to interrupt 47 seconds within the 100 free ultimately 12 months’s Asian Video games, clocking 46.97 in a swim he wasn’t even glad with. That got here after he took 4th on the World Championships in 47.43, .01 off the rostrum. His Asian Video games swim put him practically two-tenths away from anybody else on this planet in 2023, and within the 200 free, he ranked 4th in 1:44.65, although he missed the ultimate at Worlds. We’re banking on Pan being a constant 1:44 swimmer this 12 months, making him a medal contender in Paris, and he also needs to have extra within the tank within the 50 free (21.92) after he was 22.45 to the toes in his 46.9 efficiency. On prime of his Olympic possibilities, Pan can even be racing all three distances in Doha.
#7: Ryan Murphy, USA – Murphy has been a mainstay atop the boys’s backstroking worldwide scene for the higher a part of the final decade, and stays a risk to win double gold till confirmed in any other case. After incomes the triple crown in Rio, sweeping the boys’s backstroke occasions whereas additionally setting the 100 again world file on the lead-off leg of the victorious U.S. medley relay, Murphy was shut out of particular person gold in Tokyo as he took silver within the 200 and bronze within the 100. The 2 swimmers who topped him there, Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov, gained’t be in Paris barring one thing unexpected, however Thomas Ceccon and Hubert Kos, who each earned head-to-head wins over Murphy on the final two World Championships, can be. Murphy has been constant in delivering top-end swims, however will should be at his finest to reclaim his Olympic titles. The likes of Ceccon, Kos, Hunter Armstrong and Xu Jiayu have the power to swim related occasions to Murphy, however haven’t finished in order regularly, giving the U.S. veteran the sting in these rankings. In 2023, the 29-year-old ranked #3 on this planet within the 100 again (52.02) and #2 within the 200 again (1:54.83).
#6: Maxime Grousset, France – In 2022, Grousset didn’t race the 100 fly in lengthy course. He truly hadn’t finished the occasion since 2018 till final 12 months, when he shocked everybody by changing into the world champion in a time of fifty.14, launching himself as much as #5 all-time. On prime of that, he cut up a blistering 49.27 swimming fly on France’s medley relay, the second-fastest ever behind solely world file holder Caeleb Dressel. Grousset was additionally within the hunt for particular person titles within the 100 free and 50 fly in Fukuoka, claiming a pair of bronzes with a lifetime better of 47.42 within the 100 free closing and blasting a 22.72 PB within the 50 fly semis. The 24-year-old, who will flip 25 earlier than Paris, can be an elite 50 freestyler, having gained bronze on the 2022 Worlds in 21.57. He opted out of the occasion in Fukuoka, however with no 50 fly on the Olympics, we’ll doubtless see him within the 50 free in Paris. Coming a little bit bit out of nowhere to grow to be world champion within the 100 fly final 12 months offers us an concept that Grousset is somebody who has the potential of extra enchancment within the subsequent few years, making him a transparent medal contender throughout three occasions and the favourite within the 100 fly.
#5: Bobby Finke, USA – After he was the shock distance double Olympic champion in 2021, utilizing beautiful closing velocity to take out the daunting European trio of Gregorio Paltrinieri, Florian Wellbrock and Mykhailo Romanchuk, Finke not flies underneath the radar on the worldwide stage. Regardless of being a marked man, he managed to win the 800 free world title in 2022, and in addition stood on the rostrum within the 1500 free (silver) and once more in each occasions in Fukuoka. Within the 1500 free in 2023, he completed .05 again of world champion Ahmed Hafnaoui in a time of 14:31.59, simply over half a second shy of the world file that’s been on the books for practically 12 years. Finke, now 24, has gotten quicker annually within the 800 and 1500, and if that continues to be the case in 2024, he’ll be onerous to disclaim at the very least one if not two gold medals. The one factor standing in his means is the subsequent crop of distance freestylers, Ahmed Hafnaoui and Sam Brief, who emerged with some traditionally quick occasions final 12 months. It’s additionally doable we see Finke deal with the 400 IM internationally this 12 months after he ranked seventh on this planet and third amongst People (4:09.55) in 2023.
#4: Sam Brief, Australia – Brief took a seismic leap ahead in 2023, evolving from a 3:44/7:48/14:48 distance freestyler in 2022 right into a 3:40/7:37/14:37 swimmer who walked away with three medals in Fukuoka together with a world title within the 400 free. After he didn’t even make the Australian staff within the occasion in Budapest, Brief gained a razor-thin race with reigning Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui in Fukuoka in a time of three:40.68, rating him #4 all-time and inside six-tenths of the world file. Three nights later, Hafnaoui evened the rating within the 800 free, although Brief had one other highly-ranked swim to take silver in 7:37.76, once more transferring into #4 all-time. On the finish of the World Championships, Brief led the 1500 closing early earlier than falling off the tempo of Hafnaoui and Bobby Finke, profitable bronze in one other massive PB of 14:37.28. Brief, now 20, continues to be so younger that extra enchancment is probably going coming, however merely holding his type from final 12 months makes him an actual three-event medal risk in Paris, and definitely a co-favorite within the 400 and 800 alongside Hafnaoui.
#3: Ahmed Hafnaoui, Tunisia – Hafnaoui is a little bit of an enigma. He hasn’t raced at loads of main meets since his beautiful Olympic gold medal victory within the 400 free in Tokyo, however when he has, he’s carried out. He unloaded considered one of historical past’s quickest swims on the 2021 SC World Championships within the 1500, after which after he was absent on the 2022 LC Worlds in Budapest, he had one of many biggest World Championship campaigns we’ve seen from a distance freestyler in Fukuoka. The Tunisian native scared the world file within the 1500 free (14:31.54) after transferring to #3 all-time together with his first world title within the 800 free (7:37.00) and putting a detailed 2nd to Sam Brief within the 400 free by two one-hundredths (3:40.70). Hafnaoui, who turned 21 in December, might win three Olympic titles this 12 months and he would possibly obtain the identical feat subsequent week in Doha. That’s assuming he reveals up in prime type, which some is perhaps questioning given his abrupt departure from Indiana, however there’s little doubt he’s able to it.
#2: Qin Haiyang, China – Swimming’s largest revelation of 2023 was the re-emergence of Qin, who reset a number of World Junior Information in 2017 however went fairly quiet after his preliminary breakout. That was till final 12 months, when he established himself because the undisputed finest breaststroker on this planet, changing into the primary swimmer to brush the 50, 100 and 200 of any stroke on the LC World Championships (Kaylee McKeown achieved the identical feat in ladies’s backstroke one evening later). Qin has the pure velocity within the 50 breast (26.20) and the power to reel off quite a few 57-point swims within the 100 breast (his quickest coming at 57.69, finished twice). As soon as he had established that earlier within the 12 months, and within the prelims and semis in Fukuoka, we weren’t shocked to see him win world titles within the 50 and 100 breast finals. The largest shock got here within the 200 breast, the place he dominated Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook dinner en path to breaking the Australian’s world file in a time of two:05.48, opening up a giant lead via the 150 after which practically matching Stubblety-Cook dinner’s closing cut up to win gold by nearly a full second. Heading in direction of Paris, Qin, 24, has confirmed his consistency within the 100 breast. He went sub-58 six occasions final 12 months. Within the 200 breast, he’s solely been sub-2:07 as soon as in that world file swim, so there is perhaps a query of whether or not or not he can replicate what he did in Fukuoka. However on the identical time, he logged quite a few 2:07s and did what he wanted to do to get wins on the Asian Video games (2:07.03), WUGs (2:08.09) and the World Cup circuit (2:07.45/2:08.05/2:07.32). He’s the favourite in each breaststroke occasions and will grow to be the primary swimmer since Kosuke Kitajima—who did it consecutively in 2004 and 2008—to brush the boys’s breast occasions on the Olympics.
#1: Leon Marchand, France – 1:52 within the 200 fly. 1:54 within the 200 IM. 4:02 within the 400 IM. That was the trifecta of swims we noticed from Marchand on the 2023 World Championships, reaching a Phelpsian degree of dominance throughout the three occasions, and going nicely above and past the GOAT’s longstanding world file within the 400 IM in 4:02.50. In Fukuoka, Marchand shattered Michael Phelps‘ 2008 file of 4:03.84 within the 400 IM to defend his title, took benefit of a Milak-less discipline within the 200 fly en path to his first world title within the occasion in a giant better of 1:52.43, after which the next evening, joined Phelps and world file holder Ryan Lochte within the sub-1:55 membership with one other profitable title protection within the 200 IM (1:54.82). The scary factor about Marchand is that, since arriving at Arizona State, he simply retains getting quicker, to not point out the ridiculous quantity of potential he has in different occasions given what we’ve seen him do within the NCAA. Heading to Paris, Marchand is the slam-dunk favourite for gold within the 400 IM, however past that, nothing is a lock. Defending Olympic champion Wang Shun joined the sub-1:55 membership within the 200 IM on the Asian Video games, after which the 200 fly falls throughout the identical session of the 200 breast in Paris. Marchand has expressed his curiosity in racing the latter on the worldwide stage, having gone a blistering 2:06.59 final June earlier than dropping the occasion at Worlds because of a scheduling battle with the 200 IM. It’ll be fascinating to see which occasion the 21-year-old chooses for the Video games—the finals are back-to-back on Day 5, so each gained’t be an choice—which could come all the way down to which has gold extra ripe for the taking, and loads of that comes all the way down to the standing of Kristof Milak. However zooming out, Marchand has the perfect probability of all male swimmers to win three gold medals, touchdown him the highest spot after he was #2 to Milak final 12 months.
Learn the complete story on SwimSwam: SwimSwam’s High 100 For 2024: Males’s #10-1
