Swimming at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 30 to 31 July 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.

Background France’s Léon Marchand was the favorite after winning the 2024 Olympic gold in 1:54.06, which was 0.06 off Ryan Lochte’s world record from 2011. Marchand withdrew from the 200 butterfly and 200 breaststroke events about a week before the Championships, with one of his coaches stating that he wanted to focus mainly on the 200 medley, and SwimSwam opined that he could break the world record.

Great Britain’s Duncan Scott, the Olympic silver medalist, and China’s Wang Shun, the bronze medalist, had the second and third fastest times of 1:55.31 and 1:54.62, respectively. The United States’ Carson Foster and Shaine Casas were entering as challengers, with Casas leading the 2025 world rankings with 1:55.73. Canada’s Finlay Knox, Italy’s Alberto Razzetti, and Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita were also in contention.

Qualification Each National Federation was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but they could do so only if both of them had attained the "A" standard qualification time in approved qualifying events. For this event, the "A" standard qualification time was 1:59.05. Federations could enter one athlete into the event if they met the "B" standard qualification time. For this event, the "B" standard qualification time was 2:03.22. Athletes could also enter the event if they had met an "A" or "B" standard in a different event and their Federation had not entered anyone else. Additional considerations applied to Federations who had few swimmers enter through the standard qualification times. Federations in this category could at least enter two men and two women to the competition, all of whom could enter into up to two events. +Top 10 fastest qualification timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionLéon Marchand1:54.062024 Summer OlympicsDuncan Scott1:55.312024 Summer OlympicsWang Shun1:55.352024 Chinese ChampionshipsCarson Foster1:55.652024 United States Olympic TrialsShaine Casas1:55.732025 United States ChampionshipsFinlay Knox1:56.072024 Canadian Olympic TrialsTomoyuki Matsushita1:56.352025 Japanese ChampionshipsHubert Kós1:56.402024 Hungarian ChampionshipsTom Dean1:56.442024 Great British ChampionshipsHugo González1:56.482024 Spanish Olympic Trials

Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

The following record was established during the competition: Date Event Swimmer Nation Time Record 30 July Semifinals Léon Marchand 1:52.69

Heats The heats took place on 30 July at 11:00.

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 5 4 Léon Marchand 1:57.63 Q 2 5 6 Kosuke Makino 1:57.74 Q 3 5 5 Shaine Casas 1:57.76 Q 4 5 3 Hubert Kós 1:57.93 Q 5 4 4 Duncan Scott 1:58.00 Q 6 4 7 Ilia Borodin   Neutral Athletes B 1:58.01 Q 7 4 6 Alberto Razzetti 1:58.14 Q 8 3 4 Carson Foster 1:58.17 Q 9 3 6 Lewis Clareburt 1:58.19 Q 10 3 5 Tomoyuki Matsushita 1:58.28 Q 11 3 3 Wang Shun 1:58.43 Q 12 3 2 Tristan Jankovics 1:58.61 Q 13 5 2 William Petric 1:58.63 Q 14 5 0 Lucas Henveaux 1:58.92 Q 15 4 1 Alexey Glivinksiy 1:59.00 Q 16 5 7 David Schlicht 1:59.50 Q 17 4 2 Gábor Zombori 1:59.51 18 4 5 Finlay Knox 1:59.64 19 3 9 Thomas Jansen 2:00.04 20 3 0 Gian-Luca Gartmann 2:00.26 21 3 1 Apostolos Papastamos 2:00.38 22 3 7 Massimiliano Matteazzi 2:00.51 23 4 3 Tom Dean 2:00.76 24 4 8 Jaouad Syoud 2:00.99 25 2 4 Munzer Kabbara 2:01.38 NR 26 5 9 Kim Min-suk 2:01.61 27 3 8 Nils Cadevall Micolau 2:01.70 28 5 1 Matthew Sates 2:01.80 29 5 8 Wang Hsing-hao 2:01.90 30 4 0 Jakub Bursa 2:01.93 31 2 2 Denys Kesil 2:02.86 32 2 5 Erick Gordillo 2:03.10 33 2 6 Zackery Tay 2:03.55 34 2 7 Mohamed Mahmoud 2:03.72 35 2 3 František Jablčník 2:04.41 36 4 9 Patrick Groters 2:04.71 37 2 8 Gian Santos 2:05.07 38 2 1 Shoan Ganguly 2:05.40 39 1 1 Héctor Ruvalcaba 2:06.16 40 2 0 Tan Khai Xin 2:07.07 41 2 9 Isak Brisenfeldt 2:08.44 42 1 4 Kaio Faftine 2:10.48 NR 43 1 2 Pedro Pinotes 2:13.28 44 1 5 Kaeden Gleason 2:13.89 45 1 6 David Akopyan 2:16.21 46 1 3 José Canjulo 2:19.56 47 1 7 Ocean Campus 2:24.35

Semifinals The semifinals took place on 30 July at 20:34. RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 2 4 Léon Marchand 1:52.69 Q, 2 2 5 Shaine Casas 1:55.13 Q 3 2 3 Duncan Scott 1:55.51 Q 4 1 2 Tomoyuki Matsushita 1:57.11 Q 5 1 5 Hubert Kós 1:57.22 Q 6 2 2 Lewis Clareburt 1:57.29 Q 7 2 7 Wang Shun 1:57.48 Q 8 1 6 Carson Foster 1:57.49 WD 9 1 4 Kosuke Makino 1:57.51 R 10 2 6 Alberto Razzetti 1:57.53 11 1 3 Ilia Borodin   Neutral Athletes B 1:57.67 12 2 1 William Petric 1:58.21 13 1 7 Tristan Jankovics 1:59.13 14 2 8 Alexey Glivinksiy 1:59.41 15 1 8 David Schlicht 1:59.81 16 1 1 Lucas Henveaux 2:00.18

Final The final took place on 31 July at 19:23.

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Léon Marchand 1:53.68 5 Shaine Casas 1:54.30 2 Hubert Kós 1:55.34 4 3 Duncan Scott 1:56.32 5 7 Lewis Clareburt 1:57.06 NR 6 6 Tomoyuki Matsushita 1:57.52 7 1 Wang Shun 1:57.92 8 8 Kosuke Makino 1:59.25

References