SwimSwam’s Top 100 For 2023: Full Men’s Rankings

With our Top 100 For 2023 series wrapping up, it’s time to revisit the rankings as we look ahead to a fast year of swimming.

We’ve already seen some jaw-dropping performances this year, namely from Leon Marchand and Kate Douglass in the NCAA, which should set the tone for some big-time swims throughout the year on the international stage.

It was a three-horse race for the top men’s spot with the European trio of Marchand, Kristof Milak and David Popovici all coming off phenomenal years.

Ultimately, it was Milak who moved to #1 after ranking fifth last year, while Marchand and Popovici both made significant leaps up to #2 and #3, respectively.

See the full lists:

SWIMSWAM’S TOP 100 MEN FOR 2023

Ranking Swimmer Country 2022 Ranking Change
1 Kristof Milak Hungary 5 ↑4
2 Leon Marchand France 48 ↑46
3 David Popovici Romania 20 ↑17
4 Thomas Ceccon Italy 31 ↑27
5 Ryan Murphy USA 9 ↑4
6 Kliment Kolesnikov Russia 8 ↑2
7 Caeleb Dressel USA 1 ↓6
8 Gregorio Paltrinieri Italy 23 ↑15
9 Kyle Chalmers Australia 10 ↑1
10 Carson Foster USA 19 ↑9
11 Zac Stubblety-Cook Australia 15 ↑4
12 Bobby Finke USA 4 ↓8
13 Nicolo Martinenghi Italy 22 ↑9
14 Adam Peaty Great Britain 2 ↓12
15 Shaine Casas USA 71 ↑56
16 Arno Kamminga Netherlands 13 ↓3
17 Nic Fink USA 43 ↑26
18 Duncan Scott Great Britain 7 ↓11
19 Florian Wellbrock Germany 11 ↓8
20 Hwang Sunwoo South Korea 25 ↑5
21 Hunter Armstrong USA 80 ↑59
22 Tom Dean Great Britain 14 ↓8
23 Michael Andrew USA 17 ↓6
24 Lukas Martens Germany NR +
25 Elijah Winnington Australia 28 ↑3
26 Daiya Seto Japan 6 ↓20
27 Maxime Grousset France 70 ↑53
28 Tomoru Honda Japan 36 ↑8
29 Ben Proud Great Britain 52 ↑23
30 Josh Liendo Canada 57 ↑27
31 Mykhailo Romanchuk Ukraine 21 ↓10
32 Noe Ponti Switzerland 26 ↓6
33 Felix Auboeck Austria 53 ↑20
34 Kieran Smith USA 24 ↓10
35 Ahmed Hafnaoui Tunisia 16 ↓19
36 Chase Kalisz USA 27 ↓9
37 Ksawery Masiuk Poland NR +
38 Andrei Minakov Russia 32 ↓6
39 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard France NR +
40 Matt Temple Australia 54 ↑14
41 Pieter Coetze South Africa NR +
42 Isaac Cooper Australia NR +
43 Lewis Burras Great Britain NR +
44 Lewis Clareburt New Zealand 61 ↑17
45 Matt Sates South Africa 44 ↓1
46 Chad Le Clos South Africa 45 ↓1
47 Apostolos Christou Greece NR +
48 Samuel Short Australia NR +
49 Alessandro Miressi Italy 41 ↓8
50 Lorenzo Galossi Italy NR +
51 Pan Zhanle China NR +
52 Antonio Djakovic Switzerland NR +
53 Daniel Wiffen Ireland NR +
54 Guilherme Costa Brazil NR +
55 Jordan Crooks Cayman Islands NR +
56 Ilya Borodin Russia 33 ↓23
57 Luke Greenbank Great Britain 37 ↓20
58 Dylan Carter Trinidad and Tobago NR +
59 James Wilby Great Britain 64 ↑5
60 Drew Kibler USA 98 ↑38
61 Gui Caribe Brazil NR +
62 Alberto Razzetti Italy 47 ↓15
63 Matt Richards Great Britain NR +
64 Ilya Kharun Canada NR +
65 Hubert Kos Hungary 65
66 Diogo Ribeiro Portugal NR +
67 Flynn Southam Australia NR +
68 Bruno Fratus Brazil 76 ↑8
69 Yan Zibei China NR +
70 Qin Haiyang China NR +
71 Brendon Smith Australia 34 ↓37
72 Trenton Julian USA 86 ↑14
73 Mewen Tomac France NR +
74 Fernando Scheffer Brazil 39 ↓35
75 Nandor Nemeth Hungary NR +
76 Matt Fallon USA NR +
77 Justin Ress USA NR +
78 Joshua Edwards-Smith Australia NR +
79 Yu Hanaguruma Japan NR +
80 Jacob Whittle Great Britain NR +
81 Jack Cartwright Australia NR +
82 Thomas Neill Australia 78 ↓4
83 Szebasztian Szabo Hungary 69 ↓14
84 Simone Cerasuolo Italy NR +
85 Katsuhiro Matsumoto Japan 68 ↓17
86 Wang Shun China 12 ↓74
87 Sven Schwarz Germany NR +
88 Damien Joly France NR +
89 Jakub Majerski Poland 55 ↓34
90 Lorenzo Mora Italy NR +
91 Gabriel Jett USA NR +
92 Finlay Knox Canada NR +
93 Javier Acevedo Canada NR +
94 Danas Rapsys Lithuania 46 ↓48
95 Kryzsztof Chmielewski Poland 84 ↓11
96 Henrik Christiansen Norway NR +
97 Marco de Tullio Italy NR +
98 Rafael Miroslaw Germany NR +
99 Luke Hobson USA NR +
100 Mack Horton Australia 63 ↓37

Dropping out of the Top 100 (2022 ranking):

  • #3 Evgeny Rylov
  • #18 Ilya Shyamnovich
  • #29 Shoma Sato
  • #30 Gabriele Detti
  • #5 Jack McLoughlin (retired)
  • #38 Federico Burdisso
  • #40 Jay Litherland
  • #42 Martin Malyutin
  • #49 Luca Urlando
  • #50 Zach Apple
  • #51 Xu Jiayu
  • #56 Josif Miladinov
  • #58 Vladimir Morozov
  • #59 Mitch Larkin
  • #60 Robert Glinta (retired)
  • #62 Jeremy Desplanches
  • #66 Hugo Gonzalez
  • #67 Eddie WANG
  • #72 Max Litchfield
  • #73 Bryce Mefford
  • #74 Zach Harting
  • #75 Blake Pieroni (retired)
  • #77 Florent Manaudou
  • #79 Tamas Kenderesi
  • #81 Radoslaw Kawecki
  • #82 Coleman Stewart
  • #83 Emre Sakci
  • #85 Thom de Boer
  • #87 Ippei Watanabe
  • #88 Tom Shields
  • #89 Tomoe Hvas (retired)
  • #90 Ryan Held
  • #91 Vladislav Grinev
  • #92 James Guy
  • #93 Takeshi Kawamoto
  • #94 Mehdy Metella
  • #95 Nicholas Santos (retired)
  • #96 Andrii Govorov
  • #97 Matti Mattsson
  • #99 Michele Lamberti
  • #100 Christian Diener

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Geroge
1 year ago

Slightly confused why James guy ain’t in the top 100 and people like Mack Horton are?

6 commonwealth medals 1 gold
2 bronze at worlds????

Jimmyswim
Reply to  Geroge
1 year ago

My guess is that Mack is above Guy because Mack was 6th in the 400 free this year, while Guy’s best result is 13th in the 200 Fly.

But I agree that I would have put Guy in the top 100.

2Fat4Speed
1 year ago

I love the up/down arrows to reflect on how some people exceeded expectations last year or had surprisingly bad year. Good reflection.

commonwombat
1 year ago

By nation: USA -16; AUS -12; ITA/GBR – 9; FRA – 5; HUN/GER/JAP/CAN/CHN/BRA – 4; RUS/POL/RSA – 3; SUI – 2; ROM/NED/KOR//UKR/AUT/TUN/NZL/GRE/IRE/CAY/TRI/POR/LIT/NOR – 1

By continent: Europe – 48; Nth America – 22; Oceania – 13; Asia – 9; Sth America – 4; Africa – 4

The Europe > USA ratio is surprisingly high although it is clearly evident that we are seeing niche strengths becoming very powerful and internationally successful in a number of European countries and in some cases seeing new generations following through. The fact, however, that no European country hit double figures is indicative that these are tending to be niche strengths but not as yet truly “cross the board”.

AUS at 12 ? Cannot help… Read more »

Jimmyswim
Reply to  commonwombat
1 year ago

I think the total of 12 seems bigger than it is. Half of Australia’s 12 are in the bottom third of swimmers, and I think most of the bottom third are unlikely to win an individual medal this year.

commonwombat
Reply to  Jimmyswim
1 year ago

Very true. Hence the reference to being “flattered” rather than an indication that AUS are necessarily the 2nd strongest men’s team ……. they are NOT; more like 4th/5th.

Maybe also a degree of inflation due to 2/3 AUS men’s relays being “medal competitive.

Swimmka
Reply to  commonwombat
1 year ago

Maybe you should check population figures before writing such statements: US is 32x times bigger than Hungary or more than 5x bigger than Italy but they have only 4x or closely 2x more swimmer than these two countries…I would rather calculated on a weighted average number. In this case Hungary is clearly the biggest powerhouse of swimming…

Troyy
Reply to  Swimmka
1 year ago

I’ve no idea how you managed to be offended by that post.

anon
Reply to  commonwombat
1 year ago

I’m curious to see if the US is lagging in post-COVID LCM jumps, especially with younger swimmers. We’ve seen a post-COVID latent jump in non-US LCM performances and in US short course too. It’s only expected that the “jump” will be realized later for a format with less opportunity.

I also think some of the legacy US swimmers are being overestimated so it’s an aggregate wash.

Stephanie
1 year ago

Interesting. Thanks!

Carson fan
1 year ago

Carson Foster is ranked too low

Sub13
Reply to  Carson fan
1 year ago

He’s pretty high for someone who’s never won an individual gold at a senior meet

boi
Reply to  Carson fan
1 year ago

i honestly cant tell if this is a joke or not

Keep Swimming
1 year ago

Elijah Winnington at #25 is unfair

KeithM
Reply to  Keep Swimming
1 year ago

Curious as to why Martens (especially) would be placed ahead of him.

Davide
Reply to  KeithM
1 year ago

I mean, Martens can realistically medal in a second race (800), plus he can easily final in 2 others, Winnington has at most a final in the 200 in him.

They’re both too low in my opinion, I’d have them ranked around 15, but it’s not ludicrous for Martens to be ahead (he’s like 1.5 years younger too)

Last edited 1 year ago by Davide
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON
1 year ago

Isn’t Bryce Mefford retired?

Chad
1 year ago

What’s the rationale for keeping Kolesnikov on the list (and in good ranking) but not including Rylov at all? I thought his suspension is almost complete.

Admin
Reply to  Chad
1 year ago

Kolesnikov broke a WR last year. Rylov ranked 6th in the world in his best event and 14th in the world in his next-best event.

He had a great SC swim at the end of the year, but as has been pointed out, these lists are heavily (though not exclusively) LC ranked because there’s no big SC meets this year.

Frankly, Rylov’s results are headed in the wrong direction, and I wonder how his motivation is holding up. He’s lost many of his sponsors. His times already went in the wrong direction in LCM last year.

I don’t have a particularly-strong degree of confidence in FINA’s desire to keep suspensions in place any longer than they absolutely have to. But… Read more »

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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