Olympic swimmers to watch: These 9 could give Team USA run for the money

While Team USA has a stacked roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics there are, of course, other competing nations fans will want to keep an eye on. 

As usual, many of the big-time swimmers to watch are Australians, whose rivalry with the U.S. seems to be strong as ever. But there is an abundance of others to follow during the Games. Here are nine swimmers from outside the United States you need to know ahead of swimming at the 2024 Paris Games. 

1. Léon Marchand, France

Poised to be a huge star for Team France, the 22-year-old is definitely one swimmer to keep an eye on. He didn’t medal in his Olympic debut in Tokyo, but since, he’s been on the podium in multiple world championship events and compiled ten NCAA titles. Most notably, Marchand lowered Michael Phelps’ 15-year-old last-standing individual world record to 4:02.50 when he won the 400-meter IM at world championships in 2023. He also won a world title last summer in the 200-meter IM, setting a European record (1:54.82). 

After the Tokyo Games, Marchand swam for Arizona State for three seasons and is a three-time, Pac-12 Men’s Swimmer of the Year. He turned pro several months ago and now trains with Bob Bowman, Phelps’ longtime coach who recently left the Sun Devils for Texas.

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2. Ariarne Titmus, Australia 

You may remember four-time Olympic medalist Titmus from the 2021 Tokyo Games when she won gold in the 200 free and 400 free — topping Katie Ledecky in the latter — and silver behind Ledecky in the 800 free. As the 400 free world record holder, the 23-year-old and Ledecky own nine of the 10 fastest times ever (Canada’s Summer McIntosh has the remaining one). Titmus broke the 200 free world record at Australia's Olympic trials in June, swimming 1:52.23 and out-touching former world-record holder Mollie O’Callaghan by just .25 seconds. Expect Titmus to swim the 800 freestyle in Paris as well, adding more layers to her rivalry with Ledecky. 

3. Summer McIntosh, Canada

Back for her second Olympics, 17-year-old McIntosh heads to Paris with one of the newest world records. The two-time world champion first captured the 400 IM world record in 2023, breaking the 7-year-old mark from Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú. At the Canadian trials in May, she lowered it again to 4:24.38. One of the most versatile swimmers in the world, McIntosh qualified in five individual events for Paris — 200 IM, 400 IM, 400 freestyle and 200 butterfly — but she dropped the 200 free. 

She has eight world championship medals, four of them gold, and she has the potential to medal in all four individual events at the Olympics. She’ll face Katie Ledecky and world-record holder Titmus in the 400 freestyle — McIntosh topped Ledecky in the event last year — and as the two-time world champ in the 200 fly, she’ll likely have to beat Team USA’s Regan Smith to claim gold.

4. Kaylee McKeown, Australia 

Another Australian swimmer with an American rival, the 23-year-old surely wants her 100 backstroke world record back from Regan Smith, who broke McKeown’s mark at the U.S. trials. Since 2019, both swimmers have broken the 100 back world record twice with McKeown setting it in 2021 and lowering it in 2023. They’ve also each had the 200 world record in that time, but McKeown is the current holder. A four-time Olympic medalist, McKeown was the 100 and 200 backstroke champion at the 2021 Tokyo Games, and she and Smith make both backstroke races must-watch events at the Paris Olympics. 

McKeown is also expected to swim the 200 IM in Paris. McKeown, American Kate Douglass and McIntosh each have two of the top-6 fastest times this year in the event, and they’re all within .53 seconds of each other, making this another hyped-up Olympic event.

5. Zhang Yufei, China

Now a three-time Olympian at age 26, Zhang is expected to compete in the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly in Paris. After not medaling at the 2016 Rio Games, Zhang was the 200 butterfly Olympic champion and 100 butterfly silver medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Games, along with winning gold and silver medals in relays. The 100 butterfly world champ in 2023, she has two of the ten fastest times ever in the event, along with the third-fastest in history in the 200. 

But she’s also one of 11 Chinese swimmers involved in a doping scandal from 2021 going to Paris. Publicly unknown until this year, the controversy involved 23 Chinese swimmers testing positive for banned heart drug trimetazidine, but the World Anti-Doping Agency cleared them of any wrongdoing, allowing them to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

6. David Popovici, Romania

The 19-year-old sprinter has the potential to shock the swimming world in Paris, despite not having his best performances in 2023. Popovici is the 2022 100 and 200 freestyle world champion and claimed the 100 free world record in 2022 before China’s Zhanle Pan broke it in February. Popovici is looking for his first Olympic medal at his second Games, and it seems like he’s trending in the right direction. In June, he posted the third-fastest 100 free time in history at 46.88 — just .08 shy of tying Zhanle’s world record. In the 200, he also swam a 1:43.13, which is the fastest time in 2024 and the fifth-fastest ever. So with some solid Olympic prep, Popovici could be a medal contender in two events.

7. Zhanle Pan, China

If anyone was wondering who’s the swimmer to beat in the men’s 100 freestyle, it’s 19-year-old Zhanle Pan, who lowered the world record to 46.80 in February to make him the world’s fastest swimmer going into the Olympics. A rising star with five world championship medals — four of them gold in the 100 free and three relays — Pan will likely contend for his first Olympic medals. Expect him to compete in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events in Paris, along with surely a couple relays. While medaling in the 50 and 200 is probably a stretch — he’s ranked outside the top 25 in both this year — he owns two of the three fastest 100 free times this year. His world record is about half a second faster than Americans Jack Alexy’s and Chris Guiliano’s best times from U.S. trials.

8. Sarah Sjöström, Sweden

A swimming legend, the 30-year-old has nothing to prove to anyone, especially with 25 world championship medals. But she’s back for her fifth Games and looking to add to her four Olympic medals. She was the 2016 Olympic champ in the 100 butterfly and won silver and bronze in the 200 free and 100 free, respectively. Until American Gretchen Walsh’s 100 butterfly at U.S. trials in June, Sjöström’s world record had stood since 2016. She also won silver in the 50 free at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Sjöström is entered in the 50 free and 100 free as the world record holder in the latter. In the 50, she has the top-5 fastest times ever — including her 23.61 world record from 2023 and a 23.69 swim in February — and eight of the 10 best times this year.

9. Kristóf Milák, Hungary

An all-star butterflier, 24-year-old Milák is the current 200 butterfly world record holder with seven of the 10 fastest times in history. The other three belong to Michael Phelps. But all of Milák’s top times were notched during or before 2022. At the Tokyo Olympics, he was the 200 butterfly gold medalist and 100 butterfly silver medalist behind American Caeleb Dressel. For Paris, Milák hit the qualifying standard in both butterfly events, along with the 50 freestyle, and won gold in the 100 and 200 butterfly at European championships in June. But he’ll likely have to drop some time all around to medal in Paris.