Storylines To Watch As The World Para Swimming Championships Kick Off In Singapore

Just a little more than a year after the Paralympic Games lit up Paris, the best in the world are ready to dive back in. 

This time, the setting is Singapore for the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships kicking off on Sept. 21. Team USA is sending 20 athletes — 13  women and seven men — to cap off the first year of the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic quad against the world’s finest. 

From legends looking to add to their legacies to the world championships debuts of some of the country’s top up-and-coming swimmers, there is no shortage of storylines to follow in Singapore.  

Here are just a few: 

Jessica Long is already one of the most decorated Para swimmers of all time. There isn’t another athlete competing in Singapore who comes close to matching her 29 Paralympic and 54 world championships medals, but does that mean she’s ready to coast? No chance. Long made her world championships debut in 2006 in Durban, South Africa, and this will be her ninth appearance at the meet. She added her 36th and 37th gold medals at the 2023 world championships, winning the 100-meter butterfly S8 and the 200-meter IM SM8, and the 33-year-old Long could add to her already historic medal haul in Singapore. 

After winning an astounding seven gold medals at the 2022 world championships, Smith was sidelined by serious health setbacks. She fought her way back to a bronze at the world championships in 2023 in the 200-meter freestyle S3, then stormed Paris with four Paralympic medals, including two golds. A new training routine now has her swimming even faster than she did in Paris, and Singapore had better be ready. At April’s World Series stop in Indianapolis, which served as the lone qualifying event for the U.S. team earlier, Smith set three class S3 world records.

Two of the most successful performances by U.S. athletes at the 2023 world championships came from first-timers Noah Jaffe and Olivia Chambers. Making his world championships and major international debut, Jaffe earned his first world title by coming from fourth place at the halfway point to win the 100-meter freestyle S8. He added a silver and two bronze medals in Manchester, England, and now enters his second world championships as a Paralympic silver and bronze medalist. Chambers, meanwhile, was also still new to the international scene when she medaled in all six events in which she competed in 2023. She enters this year’s world championships as a Paralympic champion who won gold in her signature event, the 400-meter freestyle S13, and is hoping to add her first world title to her resume. 

Just as Jaffe and Chambers were first-timers to watch two years ago, this year all eyes will be on Koehn Boyd and Katie Kubiak. Ever since Boyd made his national championships debut less than a year ago, the 16-year-old has continued to prove himself a rising star of U.S. Para swimming. He’s now a two-time world record holder (400-meter IM SM10 and 200-meter butterfly S10) and is hoping to add world titles to his blooming resume. Kubiak, meanwhile, captured attention when she won five titles and set five American records at her Para national championships debut last December. She broke two more records at the World Series meet in April, then broke four more at this year’s nationals in June. Needless to say, she’s a serious favorite to capture some serious hardware in the S4 classification. 

Christie Raleigh Crossley was another newcomer to the world championships slate in 2023, earning a title in the women’s 100-meter backstroke S9 by beating Spain’s Nuria Marques Soto by .24 seconds with a push in the final meters. This was a precursor to what happened in Paris, when the swimmer known as “CRC” took home two gold (100-meter backstroke S9, 100-meter butterfly S9) medals along with a pair of silvers and a bronze medal, matching Elizabeth Marks as the most decorated U.S. athletes at the Games. Earlier this year, Raleigh Crossley shared the news of a cancer battle, but the pursuit of competing in Singapore remains undeterred.

In addition to Boyd and Kubiak, six other U.S. swimmers are making their world championships debut. If they’re new to you too, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered. You can read about each of their stories on USParaSwimming.org: Keegan Knott, Grace Nuhfer, Aiden Stivers, Evan Wilkerson, and Adin Williams.