The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 31 July to 1 August 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.

Background The event is expected to be one of the closest races of the meet, with Olympic champion Kate Douglass and world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova racing each other in the long course version of the event for the first time. Chikunova leads the world this year with a 2:20.36 and holds the world record at 2:17.55. Douglass is ranked second this season with a 2:20.78 and won Olympic gold last year in 2:19.24.

Great Britain’s Angharad Evans (2:21.86) and American Alex Walsh (2:22.45) are the next fastest this season. Behind them, over a dozen swimmers are packed tightly between 2:23 and 2:24, including returning Olympic finalists and national record holders, making the remaining finals spots highly competitive.

Qualification Each National Federation was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but they could do so only if both of them had attained the "A" standard qualification time. For this event, the "A" standard qualification time was 2:25.91 minutes. Federations could enter one athlete into the event if they met the "B" standard qualification time. For this event, the "B" standard qualification time was 2:31.02 minutes. Athletes could also enter the event if they had met an "A" or "B" standard in a different event and their Federation had not entered anyone else. Additional considerations applied to Federations who had few swimmers enter through the standard qualification times. Federations in this category could at least enter two men and two women to the competition, all of whom could enter into up to two events. +Top 10 fastest qualification timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionTatjana Smith2:19.012024 South African ChampionshipsKate Douglass2:19.242024 Summer OlympicsEvgeniia Chikunova2:20.362025 Russian ChampionshipsTes Schouten2:21.052024 Summer OlympicsAngharad Evans2:21.862025 Great British ChampionshipsLilly King2:21.932024 United States Olympic TrialsAlex Walsh2:22.382024 United States Olympic TrialsMona McSharry2:22.492024 Mel Zajac Jr. InternationalSatomi Suzuki2:22.542024 Summer OlympicsYe Shiwen2:22.552024 Chinese Championships

Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

The following new records were set during this competition. Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 1 August Final Kate Douglass 2:18.50 CR

Heats The heats took place on 31 July at 10:53.

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 3 4 Evgeniia Chikunova    Neutral Athletes B 2:22.30 Q 2 4 4 Kate Douglass 2:23.28 Q 3 2 3 Alina Zmushka    Neutral Athletes A 2:24.24 Q 4 2 4 Angharad Evans 2:24.82 Q 5 3 8 Lyu Qinyao 2:24.93 Q 6 4 7 Clara Rybak-Andersen 2:24.98 Q 7 3 3 Kaylene Corbett 2:25.10 Q 8 2 7 Ellie McCartney 2:25.22 Q 9 2 5 Satomi Suzuki 2:25.26 Q 10 2 6 Anna Elendt 2:25.43 Q 11 3 6 Kotryna Teterevkova 2:25.58 Q 12 4 3 Ella Ramsay 2:25.95 Q 13 4 2 Kristýna Horská 2:26.29 Q 14 4 5 Alex Walsh 2:26.56 Q 15 2 8 Park Si-eun 2:26.74 Q 16 2 0 Macarena Ceballos 2:26.82 Q 17 4 6 Mary-Sophie Harvey 2:26.95 18 3 1 Lisa Angiolini 2:26.98 19 2 2 Francesca Fangio 2:27.01 20 2 1 Sophie Angus 2:27.51 21 4 8 Emma Carrasco 2:27.80 22 4 0 Letitia Sim 2:27.91 22 4 1 Kotomi Kato 2:27.91 24 3 2 Rebecca Meder 2:28.40 25 3 7 Tara Kinder 2:29.32 26 2 9 Lanihei Connolly 2:29.87 NR 27 3 9 Emily Santos 2:30.95 28 4 9 Maria Romanjuk 2:32.56 29 1 4 Jialian Candice Gao 2:34.03 30 1 6 Maria Erokhina 2:34.62 31 1 5 Nàdia Tudó 2:36.84 32 1 3 Stephanie Iannaccone 2:37.06 3 0 Lisa Mamié 3 5 Mona McSharry

Semifinals The semifinals took place on 31 July at 19:45.

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 1 2 4 Evgeniia Chikunova    Neutral Athletes B 2:20.65 Q 2 1 4 Kate Douglass 2:20.96 Q 3 2 7 Kotryna Teterevkova 2:22.98 Q 4 1 5 Angharad Evans 2:23.32 Q 5 2 5 Alina Zmushka    Neutral Athletes A 2:23.33 Q 6 1 6 Ellie McCartney 2:23.79 Q 7 2 6 Kaylene Corbett 2:23.81 Q 8 1 3 Clara Rybak-Andersen 2:24.10 Q 9 1 7 Ella Ramsay 2:24.24 10 2 3 Lyu Qinyao 2:24.33 11 1 2 Anna Elendt 2:24.39 12 1 1 Alex Walsh 2:25.16 13 2 1 Kristýna Horská 2:25.95 14 2 2 Satomi Suzuki 2:26.44 15 1 8 Macarena Ceballos 2:28.30 16 2 8 Park Si-eun 2:29.67

Final The final took place on 1 August at 20:08. RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes 5 Kate Douglass 2:18.50 CR, AM 4 Evgeniia Chikunova    Neutral Athletes B 2:19.96 1 Kaylene Corbett 2:23.52 2 Alina Zmushka    Neutral Athletes A 2:23.52 5 6 Angharad Evans 2:24.21 6 3 Kotryna Teterevkova 2:24.25 7 7 Ellie McCartney 2:25.22 8 8 Clara Rybak-Andersen 2:25.36

References