2025 may not have been a vintage year in terms of medals on the board at the world championships, but that doesn’t mean that Britain’s swimmers didn’t produce some outstanding swimming over the course of the season. It was a year that took us from a rapid British Championships in April, via success at the European U23 and junior swimming championships, to drama at world seniors and juniors in Singapore and Otopeni. Add in a successful year-ending European Short Course Championships and all in all the year can be said to be better than just the headline world championship numbers.
With all that in mind, and the year at a close, for the 26th time of asking, it’s time to reveal the pullbuoy swimmers of the year for 2025.
Female Swimmer of the Year: Freya Colbert
2025 was the year that Freya Colbert established herself in the upper echelons of women’s freestyle swimming. Her 4th place in the 200m freestyle equalled the best ever finish by a British woman and was just half a second away from breaking Britain’s’ medal duck in this event. It was also a swim that broke one of the oldest records in the book – more of that shortly.
At the end of the year, the Loughborough swimmer also showed a good turn of speed in the small pool, picking up two European Short Course bronzes over 200m and 400m freestyle and dropping big swathes of time from her lifetime bests. All of which bodes well for the forthcoming long course season.
A couple of honourable mentions here, firstly for Angharad Evans, last year’s winner, who set a big British Record over 100m breaststroke at trials and picked up her first senior individual medal in the 200m breaststroke at the European Short Course Championships. Lauren Cox, the 2023 winner, was also a strong contender with British Records long and short course over 50m backstroke and the European SC title in the 100 back.
Male Swimmer of the Year: Filip Nowacki
This was a difficult category to call. At one stage the leading contender was Ben proud, who had set a British Record in the 50 fly and won Britain’s only individual medal at the world championships with silver in the 50m freestyle, only for him to remove himself from contention by opting to continue his swimming in the Enhanced Games.
Of the other contenders then, the finely balanced call went to a swimmer who has made waves in 2025, securing European Junior and World Junior doubles in the 100 and 200m breaststroke and impressing on his senior international debut at the European Short Course championships. If Filip Nowacki’s medals were not impressive enough, he also moved up to second all time GB performer in the 200m breaststroke with a swim of 2:07.32 that fell just 0.02 shy of Ross Murdoch’s mark and which would have won the senior world title. This from a swimmer who entered 2025 with a best time of 2:12.74 and who had dropped that only to 2:11.09 at trials.
Then the question became how he would fare in senior waters. As it turned out it was a seamless transition as the Millfield swimmer set a brace of European Junior records and narrowly missed the podium in the 200m breaststroke. 20216 will bring a new challenge with expectations now sky high and the potential to become Jersey’s first ever Commonwealth swimming champion, but for now he can look back on 2025 with some satisfaction.
An honourable mention to Ollie Morgan here; he set a highly impressive British record of 52.12 in the 100m backstroke at trials and set three more short course backstroke records in December. He loses out here by the finest of margins. Jack McMillan was also a contender – he was key to the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay, stepping up into the top four, and took his maiden international title with gold in the 400 freestyle at Euro SC.
Performance of the Year: Freya Colbert 200m Freestyle
“It’s coming.” That was the message after the British Championships in April when Freya Colbert stood in the mixed zone and told everyone that the record in the 200m freestyle was on her mind.
“It’s been on the books for 16 years, so it is about time it went” she continued, “it’s such a historic record, it was done in the super suits by Jo Jackson, so it’s definitely going to be a very challenging one to get but I’ve got my eye on it.
“It’s coming, hopefully, fingers crossed”.
Come the Singapore World Championships and Colbert delivered on her intentions with a well paced swim of 1:55.06 for that 4th place in the 200m freestyle final. It didn’t just break the British Record but smashed it, taking 0.48s off what had been the third oldest women’s record on the books. The plan now must be to take it into 1:54 territory and challenge for the medals as well.
Breakthrough Swimmer of the Year: Jacob Mills
There were a few to choose from here. Filip Nowacki could easily have been a winner in this category, but instead a swimmer with a similarly upward trajectory takes the nod. Jacob Mills entered 2025 maybe thinking about European and World juniors having broken 50s over 100 free for the first time in Rotterdam at the end of 2024 and dropped his PB to 49.33 at the Edinburgh International meet in March 2025. Could he force his way into the relay conversation? He did that and more, stunning everyone with a 48.11 blast in the heats at British Champs and a runners up spot in the final to Matt Richards in 48.03.
He ended the year 3rd all time on the British 100 free rankings, with his 47.74 at World Juniors, and seemingly a fixture in the men’s 4×100 freestyle team, having been part of the quartet that broke the British Record while finishing 4th in Singapore. There would seem to be plenty more to come in 2026 and beyond.
Race of the Year: Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay, World Champs
From a British perspective, what else could it be? This was the year that the rest of the world would catch up. The season where Britain would relinquish the top of the podium. As Duncan Scott put it after a rip-snorting 200 free final at British Champs “There’s going to be so many teams looking at us and saying ‘we can beat that’. As good as we think our team is, there will be plenty of other teams out there thinking they’re better.”
He did though add a veiled warning to those looking to take the crown: “I think we’ve got a really strong team, but we’ve individually got to work on our own things and make sure we’re good in the summer.”
It was a narrative that grew legs after a rapid US trials, but on the day the GB quartet was not to be denied. Buoyed by Jack McMillan posting a lifetime best leading off the heats and producing a mature leg in the engine room in the final, James Guy and Matt Richards set up Scott himself to deliver the customary coup de grace with his second fastest ever split of 1:43.82 to secure the gold once again in another sub-7 minute performance. The team had delivered once more.
Junior Swimmer of the Year: Amalie Smith
It was quite a year for Amalie Smith as she collected medals pretty much every time she swam and carved huge chunks off her lifetime bests in the process. First up was a 200 and 400IM double gold at the European Juniors, with a 4.68s lifetime best in the longer event that lifted her to 6th all time GB performer. She followed that up with another brace of podium finishes at World Juniors, producing a scorching breaststroke leg in the 400IM to drop yet more time taking silver in 4:35.49. That jumped her up to 4th all time GB performer, before she added a second silver in the 200IM with another lifetime best. 2026 may well be the year we see her on the senior stage, with the Commonwealth Games a realistic target for her, but for now she should feel hugely satisfied with her 2025 haul.
Banner image: Patrick B Kraemer/European Aquatics