7 Canadian swimmers to watch at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships
McIntosh headlines a strong group, but Oleksiak misses out.
The World Aquatics Championships are underway in Singapore, with water polo, artistic swimming and open water swimming events first up.
Swimming takes centre stage from July 27 to August 3, with Canadians expected once again to be podium threats in several events. Seven-time Olympic medallist Penny Oleksiak withdrew from Team Canada as she deals with a whereabouts case with regards to anti-doping testing, but a very strong group of athletes remains.
Here are seven Canadian swimmers to keep an eye on, with a mixture of some of the nation’s established stars and rising talents.
Summer McIntosh
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. Summer McIntosh has been the star of this team for a while, and will be for years to come.
The three-time Olympic champion has a strong track record at the World Championships, winning two gold medals and two bronzes at the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan in addition to two golds, a silver and a bronze in 2022 in Budapest.
She comes into this competition in red-hot form as well, after setting three world records at the Canadian swimming trials in June — in the 400m freestyle and both the 200m and 400m individual medley.
McIntosh will compete in five events in Singapore, including an 800m freestyle showdown against legendary American racer Katie Ledecky. It will be the first time McIntosh races this event on the international stage since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and comes after she posted the third-fastest time in history at this year’s Canadian trials.
Finlay Knox
After winning his first long course world championships medal last year in Doha, Qatar, Finlay Knox heads into this year’s edition with a target on his back. Many of Canada’s top swimmers didn’t go to Doha with the Olympics approaching, but Knox did and came away with the gold medal in the 200m individual medley, climbing from third to first in the final length of the pool to reach the top step of the podium.
That made him the first Canadian man to win a World Aquatics gold in in 17 years — since Brent Hayden did so in the 100m freestyle back in 2007. He is also the reigning 200m IM champion at the Pan American Games, and finished eighth in the event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Mary-Sophie Harvey
At the Olympics last summer, Mary-Sophie Harvey was always the bridesmaid and never the bride, finishing fourth in all four of her events.
At short course world championships at the end of the year, though, Harvey came away with four medals — a silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze medals in the 400m freestyle, women’s 4x100m relay and the mixed 4x100m medley relay
She was named World Aquatics’ Female Breakout Athlete of the Year at the end of 2024, and will look to keep building on that success in Singapore with long course metres. She will be a key member of Canada’s relays once again, and has the potential to pick up some hardware individually as well.
Harvey has found humour in her near-misses with the Olympic podium:
Ilya Kharun
Still just 20 years old, Ilya Kharun is one of the top butterfliers in the world and brings a strong resume into his second world championship appearance. Kharun won bronze medals in the 100m and 200m butterfly events at the Olympics last summer, becoming the first Canadian man to win a swimming medal at the Olympics since London 2012 in the process.
He finished fourth in the 200m butterfly at the 2023 world championships, his first time racing at long course worlds, and will feel as though he can improve on that performance. He also won gold medal at the short course worlds last December in that event — one of five medals he picked up in Budapest.
Kharun will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m fly events in Singapore — and the Canadian 200m record holder has spoken recently about his desire to improve his times on the world stage.
Madison Kryger
Madison Kryger was one of the breakout stars of Canadian trials this year, and is heading to her first senior world championships as one of the country’s rising talents. The 16-year-old won the 200m backstroke final at trials to book her ticket to Singapore and was emotional (check out the video below) when she touched the wall and saw that she had won.
Kryger won eight medals at Canadian trials, with many of them coming in the junior events, and she is one of three Canadians also going to the junior world championships from August 19-24 in Otopeni, Romania.
This will be her first trip to the senior worlds, though, and a chance to compete against the world’s best as she looks to boost her own young career.
Ruslan Gaziev
After serving a suspension from December 2024 to May 2025 for whereabouts failures (missing doping tests — the same thing Penny Oleksiak is currently being investigated for), Ruslan Gaziev is back on Team Canada after a strong showing at Canadian trials in June.
The now-25-year-old Gaziev was a rising talent in Canadian swimming prior to his suspension, with his breakout coming in 2022 at the Commonwealth Games and World Championships, at both of which he was an important part of Canada’s relay teams.
He will be Canada’s lone competitor in the men’s 100m freestyle event, and will likely be important in the relays as well as he looks to get his international career back on track.
Kylie Masse
Now in her tenth year on the Canadian national team, Kylie Masse is hoping to keep an impressive streak going in Singapore — winning a medal at each of her trips to worlds.
The backstroke specialist competed for Canada at the 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 editions of the competition and has nine medals to show for it — three golds, one silver and five bronze. In 2023 she was part of the Canadian team that finished third in the 4x100m medley relay, while her greatest successes have come in the 100m backstroke — striking gold in 2017 and 2019 and picking up the silver in 2022.
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