2025 World Swimming Championships from Singapore with the Aussie Dolphins Swim Team 

So there you have it, Aussie Dolphins may not be able to beat Team USA for the top swimming medal tally even though it’s just a gold medal short at a total of eight compared to nine. However, that doesn’t mean they were short of brilliant where we still able to witness some stunning gold medal moments plus more individual personal bests that reflects big intent.

Especially with Ariarne Titmus still on her time off the pool who also enjoyed her pundit/commentary duties for Nine back in the Sydney studios last week but she is sure ready to return ahead of next year.

Part 1

Aussie Dolphins still sitting first on the world swimming championships tally after halfway at the 2025 edition in Singapore with two opening day team relay golds while Kaylee (100m backstroke) and Mollie O (200m freestyle) were still absolutely killing it over the past two nights.

Now these golds so far may not be exactly world record but we’ll still gonna take it.

Both opening night freestyle relay races rounded off to a sensational finish like Olivia Wunsch in the last 100m shift and so does the more experienced Kyle Chalmers also in the same length race but for the men’s side of competition.

Same with Kaylee over Team USA’s Regan Smith and also Mollie O v Claire Weinstein although Bingje Lee finished 2nd ahead of Weinstein at the end of the wall.

Would’ve loved to see a bit more gold by others but not bad swims though.

Sam Short was oh so close too at the same opening night in that same mens 400m freestyle race he won two years ago in Fukuoka, Japan. 

It’s a bummer that food poisoning he ate hours before his big test at the event seems to be the one big issue there.

Gotta feel sorry for him but at least he still got the silver and staff better keep food cleaning practices tidy next time.

Maybe no Arnie but at least we weren’t bad after all 

Meanwhile, since there’s no Ariarne Titmus at the moment other than commentating the evening session for Nine back in Sydney, Lani Pallister finished 3rd in the women’s 1500m freestyle race.

Let’s say this was something she could do to bring home a medal as Lani may not be like Arnie, she will at least be fired up when Arnie comes back to the pool soon.

Then our butterfly performances were also not bad despite the fact our chances for gold would be some years away especially when we look at the golden home Olympic Games in Brisbane for 2032.

The hint is that we can point out to our open water swimming group where Moesha Johnson actually went one better (both 5 & 10km races) 1-2 weeks ago following her silver place finish at the recent Summer Olympics last year in Paris & yet she’s still playing a supportive role to Lani with the 800m race to come soon.

So there’s hope that things will come our way but it’s just going to take time including our breastrokers where 1-2 teenagers made a name for themselves at the national swim trials a few weeks ago.

Hats off to Alexandra Perkins and Harrison Turner who both did well with a bronze on their own. They should be proud of their individual best efforts that takes a lot of work to accomplish when being tested from nationwide to worlds level.

Lots to be proud so far by the Aussies with still more work to do on the way towards the final night Sunday.

Part 2

While the Dolphins would love nothing more than another world swimming championship overall win by just the one gold medal difference on eight, there were still oh so many incredible moments.

There was the 4 x 200m freestyle relay cor a start with thanks to Britt Castelluzzo during the 3rd shift before Mollie O’Callaghan was able to secure her 11th world championship gold medal tied with Ian Thorpe on what has been a stunning team effort alongside Lani Pallister, Britt and Jamie Perkins back from night five.

What’s even better that we witnessed back-to-back Aussie golds on night 7 Saturday by both Cam McEvoy (one-lap freestyle) and Kaylee McKeown (200m backstroke) before Meg Harris got her individual gold medal breakthrough last night in the one-lap freestyle final.

How good! Especially when Meg fell short in the same one-lap race at the Paris Olympics exactly last year & now like Moesha Johnson, she’s now an individual world champion swimmer for the first time.

If that wasn’t enough, amazing to hear also from Lani Pallister with her personal best 800m freestyle silver during night seven – even though she was half a minute short off the legendary Katie Ledecky. 

She sure stepped up big time where this may not exactly be like the 2022 world short course championships back home in Melbourne but we for one would love to see Lani win an individual world championship or even Olympics gold other than just team relay gold next time.

Post-Notes

It goes to show that even without Arnie, Dolphins are still making waves who made the best out of these amazing opportunities – and yet we walked away with something we can be proud of that is going to etch the memories forever of our current and also future swimmers as well.

On that note, to Team USA, well played as till we meet again come the Pan Pacific championships in Los Angeles next year.

And last but not least, thank you Singapore on being such a great host – even if it means having to stage one at a temporary arena in front of a car park.

Sure they will come up with the works to start a new indoor arena to replace the old one soon. But still, the quality of swimming we’ve got against the world was still top shelf. Don’t forget we also finished 2nd overall when it comes to the other water sport events like diving & as said open water swim with Moesha Johnson in it.