"Swimming World" predicts that Tang Qianting will break the women's 100-meter breaststroke world record this year.

Can Tang Qianting break the women's 100m breaststroke world record this year?

The authoritative U.S. magazine *Swimming World* kicked off the new year by making six predictions for the global swimming scene in 2025, with the second one highlighting Shanghai swimmer Tang Qianting as a strong contender to break the women’s 100-meter breaststroke world record—something that has remained untouched for over seven years.

For Tang Qianting, 2024 was truly a breakthrough year—she claimed gold and silver medals at both the World Championships and the Olympics, continuously breaking Asian records along the way. As a result, she was named Asia's Best Female Swimmer of 2024 by *Swimming World*.

Tang Qianting won her first World Championship gold medal last February.

Tang Qianting made history in February 2024 at the Doha World Championships, clinching her first-ever World Championship gold medal (in a standard pool) in the women’s 100m breaststroke—also earning a silver in the 50m breaststroke. At the Paris Olympics later that year, she secured a well-deserved silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke and added another silver and a bronze to her tally in the two relay events. At the end of the year, Tang once again dominated the Budapest Short Course World Championships, successfully defending her title in the women’s 100m breaststroke while also claiming silver in the 50m event. She teamed up with her relay teammates to capture the bronze medal in the women’s 4x100m medley relay, completing her collection of gold, silver, and bronze medals from the championships. Moreover, throughout the 2024 World Cup series held across three stops—Shanghai, Incheon, and Singapore—Tang remained undefeated in both the women’s 50m and 100m breaststroke events. Notably, in the 100m breaststroke alone, she extended her winning streak to four consecutive short-course titles, culminating in her crowning as the "Queen" of the short-course season—a feat symbolizing her historic "Grand Slam" achievement in this discipline.

Tang Qianting claims the "crown" at the Short Course World Championships.

Tang Qianting is currently Asia's undisputed queen of breaststroke, having broken her own Asian records in the women’s 50m and 100m breaststroke events—both in short-course and long-course pools—multiple times over the past year. Notably, last month at the Short Course World Championships, she clocked a stunning 1:02.37 in the women’s 100m breaststroke semifinal, coming within just 0.01 second of the world record for short-course events. Meanwhile, during the National Swimming Championships in Shenzhen this April, Tang once again made history by breaking the Asian record twice—in both the semifinal and final of the women’s 100m breaststroke. Her electrifying performance in the final saw her touch the wall in 1:04.39, which ranks as the fourth-fastest time ever recorded in this event (long-course pool).

The women's 100m breaststroke world record was set by American star Lilly King at the 2017 World Championships, clocking a time of 1:04.13. Tang Qianting was just 0.26 seconds off that mark—her performance this year stands as one of the closest yet to the world record in recent years. As the women’s 100m breaststroke is also an Olympic event, it continues to draw significant attention. Now, Tang Qianting’s biggest ambition is to claim the world record for herself—will she manage to achieve it this year?

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

Source: Xinmin Evening News

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"Swimming World" predicts that Tang Qianting will break the women's 100-meter breaststroke world record this year.

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