Janet Beth Evans is an American former competition swimmer who swam from 1989 to 1992 for Stanford University and specialized in distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and world record-holder, and won a total of four gold medals in the 400 and 800-meter freestyle events at the 1988 and the 1992 Olympics. In the late 1980s Evans was the first woman to hold three world records simultaneously in the 400, 800, and 1500-meter freestyle and was the first American woman to win four individual Olympic gold medals in swimming.
Kieren John Perkins is an Australian former freestyle swimmer. He specialised in the 1500-metre freestyle and won successive Olympic gold medals in this event in the 1990s. He won his first at the 1992 Olympics which he won in world record time and then at the 1996 Olympics when he defended his title. In total he won four Olympic medals.
Ryk Neethling OIS is a South African businessman who rose to prominence as the three-times World Champion and four-times World Record Breaking Olympic swimming champion.
Roland Mark Schoeman OIS is a South African American swimmer and was a member of the South African swimming team at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. In May 2022, he officially became a citizen of the United States.
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
Oussama "Ous" Mellouli is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Trojans team based at the University of Southern California, where he studied as a computer science undergraduate and swam collegiately.
Bradford Paul Cooper is an Australian former freestyle and backstroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In that race he originally finished second by the smallest margin ever to decide an Olympic swimming final, but was later awarded the gold medal after the victor, American Rick DeMont, an asthmatic, was disqualified after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax.
Michelle Jan Ford is an Australian former long-distance freestyle and butterfly swimmer of the 1970s and 1980s, who won a gold medal in the 800-metre freestyle, bronze in the 200-metre butterfly, and 4th in the 400-metres freestyle at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She was the only non-Soviet bloc female swimmer to win an individual gold medal at the 1980 games. She also set two world records in her career, and was the first Australian woman to win individual Olympic medals in two distinct specialised strokes.
Thomas Carlton Bruner is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance freestyle events.
Zhang Lin is a retired Chinese competitive male swimmer. He is an Olympic silver medalist, world champion, and the current world-record holder in the 800 metre freestyle.
Ryan Andrew Cochrane is a retired Canadian competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle distance events. Cochrane is an Olympic silver and bronze medallist as well as a triple gold medallist from the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He is also a four-time Commonwealth Games champion in the 400-metre and 1,500-metre having won both medals in 2010 and 2014. He holds six world championship medals from the 800-metre and 1500-metre, this also makes Cochrane Canada's all-time leading medallist for a swimmer at the World Aquatics Championships. Cochrane also won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500 m freestyle at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, as well as a bronze in the 4 x 200 m freestyle at the 2015 Games. From the year 2008 - 2015, Cochrane was named the Canadian male swimmer of the year - winning the award 8 times in a row.
John Cary Mykkanen is an American former competition swimmer who swam for the Irvine Novaquatics and the University of California at Berkeley and won the silver medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. He later worked as a chiropractor in Orange County, California.
Pál Joensen is a Faroese elite swimmer. He was born in Vágur, Suðuroy, Faroe Islands. He has won World and European Championship medals. His bronze medal in the men's 1500 metre freestyle at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships in Istanbul was the first medal won by a Faroese swimmer at the World Aquatic Championships.
Kimberly Ann Linehan is an American former competition swimmer for the University of Texas, a 1982 World Aquatics champion, a 1984 Olympic competitor in the 400-meter freestyle, and a former world record-holder in the 400 and 1500-meter freestyle events. For a period in the late 1970's she was considered by many to be the top distance freestyler in the world.
Djan Garrido Madruga is a former international freestyle swimmer and former South American record-holder from Brazil. His younger brother Roger Madruga, was also a professional swimmer.
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer. She has won nine Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. With 14 medals and 9 gold medals, she is also the most decorated American woman, most decorated female swimmer, the woman with the most gold medals and fifth-most decorated athlete in Olympic history. She has won a record 16 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships. Ledecky's 10 individual medals at the Olympics and 26 overall medals at the World Aquatics Championships are records in women's swimming. Ledecky is the world record holder in the women's 800- and 1500-meter freestyle, as well as the former world record holder in the women's 400-meter freestyle. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. She is widely regarded as the greatest female swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Mackenzie James Horton is an Australian retired freestyle swimmer. He is an Olympic gold medallist, World Championships gold medallist, and 4-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he took the gold in the 400m freestyle, and became the first male swimmer from the state of Victoria to win an Olympic swimming gold in the Games' history.
Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui is a Tunisian swimmer. He is the African record holder in the long course 400-metre and 1500-metre freestyle, and the short course 800-metre and 1500-metre freestyle events. He competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he won a gold medal in the men's 400-metre freestyle. He ranked No. 16 in the world and was the slowest qualifier for the final race but won Olympic gold with a time of 3:43.36. Hafnaoui was the only Tunisian to win Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020. Olympic and World Champion Tunisian swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui has accepted a voluntary provisional suspension after an assertion of an anti-doping rules violation from the International Testing Agency (ITA).
Daniel Wiffen is an Irish swimmer. He is an Olympic champion and bronze medalist, two-time world champion and three-time European short course champion. In December 2024, he was named BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year.
Lani Pallister is an Australian competitive swimmer. She is a world record holder in two sports, with a world record in swimming, the short course 4×200-metre freestyle relay, and world records in life saving for the youth age group in the 100-metre rescue medley and 200-metre super lifesaver. She holds the Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian records in the short course 1500-metre freestyle and the Australian record in the short course 800-metre freestyle. She is the first female World Short Course champion in the 1500-metre freestyle, winning the inaugural event for women at the 2022 edition. Over the course of the 2022 World Short Course Championships, she won the gold medal in each of the four events she contested.
