The aquatics discipline of swimming is considered the flagship event at every edition of the World Aquatics Championships since its introduction in 1973. While open water swimming events were added to the program in 1991, it is considered a separate discipline to swimming.
Jessica Tatiana Long is a Russian-American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. She has held many world records and competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals. She has won over 50 world championship medals.
Yuliya Andreyevna Yefimova is a Russian competitive swimmer. She is the Russian record holder in the 200 metre individual medley, 50 metre breaststroke, 100 metre breaststroke, and 200 metre breaststroke. After making her Olympic debut in 2008, she went on to win the bronze medal in the 200 metre breaststroke in 2012, and silver medals in the 100 metre and 200 metre breaststroke in 2016. She is a six-time World Champion, winning the 50 metre breaststroke in 2009 and 2013, the 100 metre breaststroke in 2015, and the 200 metre breaststroke in 2013, 2017, and 2019. In 2019, she became the first woman to win the 200 metre breaststroke at a FINA World Aquatics Championships three times. She is a former world record holder in the long course 50 metre breaststroke. She has won 109 medals, including 48 gold medals, at Swimming World Cups.
Doli Akhter, born 15 January 1986, is an Olympic swimmer from Bangladesh.
Sally Hunter, née Sally Foster, is an Australian breaststroke swimmer. She won the silver medal in the 200-metre breaststroke event at the 2008 FINA Short Course World Championships. Hunter is an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. She competed in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, reaching the final in 2012. She won the silver medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and was a member of Australia's gold-medal-winning 4×100-metre medley relay team.
Alia Shanee Atkinson, СD is a Jamaican five-time Olympian and a former competitive swimmer whose international competition career spanned 19 years, 2003 to 2021 inclusive, at the senior level. At short course World Swimming Championships, she is a ten-time medalist in individual events, including four gold medals, four silver medals, and two bronze medals. She won a total of 124 medals, of which 74 were gold medals, at Swimming World Cup circuits over the course of her career. She won 14 total medals in individual events, 11 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze, from her first three Central American and Caribbean Games, in 2006, 2010, and 2018.
Kenneth King-him To was a Hong Kong Australian swimmer who practised individual medley, freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke. He won 6 medals at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, was the male overall winner of the 2012 FINA Swimming World Cup and was a World Championships silver medallist. He was the holder of 16 Hong Kong national swimming records.
Farida Hisham Osman is an Egyptian competitive swimmer who specializes in butterfly and freestyle events. She is an All-Africa Games gold medalist and Egyptian national champion and record-holder. Osman is the fastest female swimmer in Egypt and Africa, she is currently coached by Teri McKeever. Osman holds the senior national records for all the butterfly, freestyle and backstroke events, as well as African records in the 50m and 100m butterfly.
Prue Watt, is a Paralympic swimming gold medalist from Australia. She has represented Australia at the four Paralympics from 2004 to 2016.
Rikke Møller Pedersen is a Danish competitive swimmer specialising in breaststroke and from 2013 to 2021 world record holder in the 200 m breaststroke (2:19.11).
Anna Sztankovics is a Hungarian swimmer, who specializes in the breaststroke events. She is the current holder of the Hungarian record in the 50m breaststroke event both in long course and in short course.
Nicolas Fink is an American competitive swimmer. He is a five-time world champion in breaststroke events and a 2024 Olympic Silver Medalist in the 100 meter breaststroke. He is a world record holder in the short course 4×100 meter medley relay and 4×50 meter mixed medley relay. He is the Americas record holder in the short course 50 meter breaststroke, 100 meter breaststroke, and 200 meter breaststroke as well as the American record holder in the long course 50 meter breaststroke. In the 50 meter breaststroke, he won the World Short Course titles in 2021 and 2022 and World Long Course title in 2022. In the 100 meter breaststroke, he is the 2022 World Short Course gold medalist. In the 200 meter breaststroke, he is the 2021 World Short Course gold medalist.
Fiona Doyle is an Irish swimmer. She represented Ireland in the 2016 Rio Olympics swimming in the 100M and 200M Breaststroke. In 2013, she competed in the 100m event at the World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona where she finished eleventh overall. She won a silver medal in the 100 m breaststroke at the 2013 Summer Universiade. In recognition of her achievements she was awarded Swim Alberta Female International Swimmer of the Year 2012/2013, University of Calgary female Athlete of the Year 2013 and SwimIreland High Performance Athlete of the Year 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Lianna Catherine Swan, OLY is a British-Pakistani swimmer who holds seven Pakistani national records. She specialises in breaststroke. In July/August 2014, she represented Pakistan at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, UK. Lianna also represented Pakistan in 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati, India. Lianna represented Pakistan at the Rio Olympics 2016 and Tokyo Olympics 2020 in Women's 50m freestyle.
Emma Jennifer McKeon, is an Australian competitive swimmer. She is an eight-time world record holder, three current and five former, in relays. Her total career haul of 14 Olympic medals following the 2024 Olympic Games made her Australia's most decorated Olympian and included one gold medal from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, four gold medals from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and one gold medal from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. With four gold and three bronze medals she was the most decorated athlete across all sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and tied for the most medals won by a woman in a single Olympic Games. She also won 20 medals, including five gold medals, at the World Aquatics Championships; and a record 20 medals, including 14 gold, at the Commonwealth Games.
Adam George Peaty is an English competitive swimmer who specialises in the breaststroke. He won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first by a male British swimmer in 24 years, and retained the title at the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021, the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title.
Brandon Schuster is a Samoan swimmer who represented Samoa at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He holds multiple Samoan records in swimming.
Kaylee Rochelle McKeown is an Australian swimmer and quintuple Olympic gold medalist. She is the reigning Olympic champion in the 100 and 200 metres backstroke. She is the world record holder in the long course 50 metre backstroke and both the long course and short course 200 metre backstroke. She won gold in both the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics. In 2023, she was named as the "Best Female Swimmer of the Year" by World Aquatics, after sweeping gold in all three events of backstroke at all three World Cup legs, held in Berlin, Athens and Budapest in October, 2023.
Anastasia "Nastiya" Gorbenko is an Israeli competitive swimmer. She competes in the backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and medley. She has won 8 World and European championships gold medals, competed at 2 Olympic finals, broken most of the Israeli national records for women and mixed relays, and is considered to be Israel's greatest swimmer of all time. In February 2024, Gorbenko won a silver medal at the Doha World Championships in the women's 400 meters individual medley. Gorbenko represented Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics in swimming in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 4x200m freestyle relay, and mixed 4x100m medley relay.
Kirill Strelnikov is a Russian competitive swimmer. He won a gold medal in the 4×50 metre medley relay at the 2021 World Short Course Championships and the 4×100 metre medley relay at the 2013 World University Games, swimming the breaststroke leg of both relays in the final. At the 2021 European Short Course Championships he won a bronze medal in the 4×50 metre mixed medley relay, swimming the breaststroke leg of the relay in the preliminaries.
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