Lani Pallister (AUS) – Another Aussie to keep an eye on in Singapore is 23-year-old Lani Pallister.
Pallister was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning 4x200m freestyle relay team at Paris 2024, but 2025 feels like her time, individually.
At the Australian world trials, she swam a 15:39.14 in the 1500m, making her the third-fastest woman of all time behind only American Katie Ledecky and Denmark’s Lotte Friis.
A superlative she had been targeting.
“I was looking at the rankings and Lotte is one that stood for a long time, obviously only behind Katie,” said Pallister, according to Swimming World Magazine. “But that’s 10 seconds faster than my best time from three years ago; it’s nice getting a little bit of progress. It’s one of those events where you can plateau for so long, but it’s nice to have the big drop.”
She is also third-fastest in the 800m behind Ledecky and fellow swimming superstar Summer McIntosh of Canada, setting up an exciting battle at the global event.
Sara Curtis (ITA) – Italy’s Sara Curtis is another Paris 2024 Olympian looking to make a big splash in Singapore.
In her debut Games, she finished 14th in the women’s 50m freestyle, a finish that’s motivating the 18-year-old, who in April committed to swim for the University of Virginia.
“Paris was a dream for me, and not being able to reach the final, I was disappointed,” she said in an interview with SwimSwam.
Heading into the World Championships, she’s buoyed by a 24.43 swim in the 50m free that set the Italian record in April.
“Knowing that this time would have made it to the final is really nice,” said Curtis. “It means I’m working well.”