2025 Review: McIntosh's Best Of 4 Pioneering Swims Is Top Women's Performance Of Year
Summer McIntosh's 4:23.65 400IM tops a list of six global pioneering swims by women in 2025 and she has three others entries in a top 6 alongside Americans Gretchen Walsh and Katie Ledecky. McIntosh's swim also has a small lead on Léon Marchand's 200IM for overall performance of the year
Competition for a place in the best 6 women's performances of 2025 saw fierce: the list includes the Five World records set by female swimmers this year, and one World textile best.
Canadian Summer McIntosh tops the women's list with 400m medley World record of 4:23.65 from national trials in June.
Given that all the women's swims below set a pioneering global pace, the 'ranking' is based on the gap between the news standard and the best of the closest 'other' athlete to it. McIntosh's 400m medley marked an advantage of 0.677sec per 100m over the all-time No2 swim, the World record holder before McIntosh's reign began, Katinka Hosszu, of Hungary.
In terms of an overall performance of the year, McIntosh's 4:23 has a slight edge on the male performance of the year, Leon Marchand's 1:52.69 200IM World mark, for overall performance of the year based on the same criteria, namely the gap between No 1 and No2 all-time performer: McIntosh = 0.677sec per 100m; Marchand = 0.655sec per 100m.
