Israel at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships

The 2025 World Aquatics Championships opened in Singapore on 11 July 2025, with open-water events followed by artistic swimming and then pool swimming, which ran from 27 July to 3 August.[1][7] Israel's professional director Yaakov Tomarkin set pre-championship targets of one to three individual finals and five to seven semifinals, citing promising form across the squad, including Miron Heruti's ranking of sixth in the world in the 50-meter freestyle.[1]

Preparations were significantly disrupted by Israel's security situation. Israeli Swimming Association chairwoman Adi Bichman said pools across Israel had been closed during the war with Iran, preventing regular training in the lead-up to the championships.[1] Gorbenko described training at a friend's home pool, adapting her sessions to Home Front Command instructions, and enduring sleepless nights caused by sirens and the absence of a stable daily routine.[1] The artistic swimming team also missed an important training camp in Greece, while its Israeli Championships were interrupted by missile fire from Iran at the start of Operation Rising Lion.[6]

The open-water races took place in challenging conditions: water temperatures reached nearly 31°C, described as the upper limit for holding such events, and the races were delayed by two days after water-quality test results exceeded the permitted norm. Twelve men and 15 women did not finish their respective 10-kilometer races.[8]

Yonatan Achdut, 21, of Hapoel Jerusalem placed 29th in the men's 10 km race in 2:07:28, his best World Championships placement in his second appearance after Fukuoka in 2023.[8] He described it as “the best race of mine to date,” adding that there were 81 swimmers in the water “in crazy conditions.”[8] Matan Roditi withdrew on the final lap after experiencing muscle spasms and feeling unwell from around the midpoint of the race; venue staff provided treatment.[8]

Nineteen-year-old Ofek Adir of Hapoel Bat Yam placed 32nd in the women's 10 km race in 2:20:44.50 in her World Championships debut. She finished in a photo finish with Hungary's Janka Juhász, who recorded 2:20:44.20, after moving up from 44th position during the race.[8]

Israel's artistic swimming team was largely young, with most members making their first World Championships appearance.[6] Coaches Valeria Aprillova and Alina Khelamsky had set a goal of reaching at least one final across Israel's four events.[5]

In the team technical event, Israel scored 241.8292 points in the preliminary round to place 11th among 26 countries. The team secured qualification when Australia's subsequent performance left Israel among the 12 finalists, prompting celebratory cheers from the Israeli athletes and coaching staff.[5] In the final, Israel scored 245.2975 points and finished 12th; China won with 307.8001 points.[5]

Israel finished 13th in both the team free routine and the team acrobatic event, the latter with 176.9417 points among 25 countries.[6] In the mixed technical duet, Aya Mazor and Yogev Dagan, the team's sole male artistic swimmer, placed ninth after improving their score by nearly 10 points compared with the European Championships the previous month.[6]

Ariel Nassi, who had also competed at the Paris Olympics, was identified as a standout on the Israeli team.[5] Aprillova said the team was pleased with its performance because it was the group's first World Championships and most members were new to that level.[6]

Anastasia Gorbenko, a four-time European champion and former world silver medalist in the 400-meter individual medley, was Israel's leading individual finalist in pool swimming.[9] She reached the women's 200-meter individual medley final after placing 11th in the heats in 2:11.54 and fourth overall in the semifinals.[10] In the final, she clocked 2:10.26 and finished seventh after contending near the leading positions early in the race before fading over its latter stages. Canada's Summer McIntosh won in 2:06.69, followed by American Alex Walsh in 2:08.58 and Canadian Marie-Sophie Harvey in 2:09.15.[9]

Gorbenko also reached the women's 50-meter breaststroke final, setting an Israeli record of 30.30 seconds in the semifinal before placing seventh in the final in 30.45 seconds.[4] In the 50-meter backstroke, she advanced from the heats in 27.95 seconds and swam 27.65 in the semifinal, finishing tenth and missing the eight-woman final.[11] She placed 24th in the 100-meter breaststroke heats in 1:07.34 and did not advance.[9]

Miron Heruti tied another semifinalist at 21.77 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle, requiring a swim-off for the last final berth. Heruti lost the additional race and did not advance.[3][12]

Alexey Glivinski placed 23rd in the 200-meter freestyle in 1:47.54, described as the second-fastest time of his career.[10] He then qualified for the 200-meter individual medley semifinal from 15th place in 1:59.00 before finishing 14th in 1:59.41.[13] Inbar Danziger cut 0.80 seconds from his personal best in the men's 200-meter backstroke, finishing 23rd among 40 competitors in 1:57.82.[14]

Daniel Krichevsky set a personal best of 48.88 seconds in the men's 100-meter freestyle for 30th place, and Leah Polonsky placed 17th in the women's 200-meter butterfly heats in 2:11.65, one position short of semifinal qualification.[11] Polonsky also placed 23rd in the women's 200-meter freestyle in 1:59.11 and 35th in the 100-meter freestyle in 56.10 seconds.[15][14] Chris Fitzhugh placed 22nd in the men's 50-meter breaststroke in 27.30 seconds, missing a semifinal by one tenth of a second.[15]

Israel's most significant relay result came in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle. Denis Loktev, Yoav Romano, Alexey Glivinski, and Daniel Krichevsky qualified for the final in seventh place with a national record of 7:06.29, improving the record set at the Paris Olympics by more than two seconds. In the final, Israel placed eighth in 7:06.76.[3]

In the men's 4×100-meter freestyle, Israel set another national record of 3:13.39 but placed 12th and missed the final.[16] On the final day of pool competition, Israel set national records in both 4×100-meter medley relays. The men's quartet of Inbar Danziger, Yonatan Yitzhaki, Gal Cohen Groumi, and Daniel Krichevsky placed 14th among 26 teams in 3:34.91, improving the previous record of 3:36.23.[4] The women's team of Aviv Barzilai, Gorbenko, Ariel Hayon, and Leah Polonsky placed 14th among 20 teams in 4:02.43, lowering the previous record of 4:03.28.[4] Israel's mixed 4×100-meter medley relay was disqualified.[11]

Israel ended the pool program with two individual finals for Gorbenko and an eighth-place finish in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay.[3][4] The pool squad also established national records in the men's 4×100-meter freestyle and both the men's and women's 4×100-meter medley relays.[4][16] In artistic swimming, qualification for the team technical final fulfilled the coaches' stated pre-event objective, while the young team also finished one place outside the final in two other events.[5][6]