Brazil's swimming team is slowly revamping its squad and challenging for a podium finish at the World Championships after tears in Paris

It's been some time since Brazil had a leading swimmer . Besides finishing the Paris Olympics without a medal in the sport and with its worst performance since 1988, the country has gone two World Aquatics Championships without a podium finish. The 2022 edition was the last time it had medalists. One of them was Guilherme Costa , "Cachorrão" (Big Dog), who won bronze in the 400-meter freestyle, and will compete in the coming days at the World Championships in Singapore, where swimming events begin this Saturday.

The other medal at the 2022 championship, held in Budapest, was won in the 50-meter butterfly by Nicholas Santos , a specialist in this type of competition, who retired that year at the age of 42. In May 2025, when participating in the Brazilian Masters Championship, he ran 23.26 seconds in the same event, below the qualifying time for the World Championships.

The only Brazilian swimmer who qualified to compete in the 50m butterfly, included in the Olympic program for Los Angeles-2028, was Guilherme Caribé, 22 years old.

"Here in Brazil, there's no renewal. I say this because if I were still swimming today, I'd be on the national team competing. And, hey, I'm 45 years old, there's no renewal," Nicholas Santos told Estadão . "So, Caribé is swimming 22.09 seconds now. He's a young swimmer, but there's no second-place swimmer in a single event, you know? In the United States, there are four, five, six competing."

Brazil's best chance for a podium finish at the World Championships lies with Caribé, in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle, though he's not the favorite. In the 50-meter freestyle, he has a year-best time of 21.46, set during the Maria Lenk Trophy, 16 seconds behind the world-leading Australian Cameron McEvoy. Also competing for the podium are American Jack Alexy, Russian Egor Kornev, and British Ben Proud.

In the 100m, the 22-year-old from Bahia has the third-fastest time of the year, at 47.10, but he'll be competing against some of the world's top names. "I have to get it into my head that I'm in the mix. It's not out of the question to think about a medal," he said in an interview with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) official website.

The main star of the event is China's Zhanle Pan, 20, who shocked the swimming world by breaking the world record during the Tokyo Olympics. The then 19-year-old swimmer completed the race in 46.40 seconds, almost a second ahead of second-place finisher Kyle Chalmers, Australia's Kyle Chalmers. Brett Hawke, an Australian who once coached Cesar Cielo, even accused the Chinese swimmer of doping.

"I'm angry for several reasons. I've worked with great swimmers, the fastest in history—Antony Irwin, Alexander Popov, Gary Hall Jr.—and known them intimately for over 30 years, and I know it's humanly impossible to finish the 100-meter race with a one-length advantage. I've studied this sport, I've studied speed. I understand it; I'm an expert. I'm not criticizing any particular person or nation, but don't sell me on the idea that you can beat Kyle Chalmers by a one-length advantage. That's not realistic," he said at the time.

Brazil faces challenges to be consistent

China won 12 medals at the Paris Games, double the number it won at the Tokyo Games, and doping has been a recurring topic in recent years. This is because, in 2021, 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication. During the last Olympic cycle, the IOC increased the frequency of testing Chinese athletes because of this incident.

At the Singapore World Championships, many eyes will be on China. Besides Zhanle Pan, the story of Yu Zidi stands out. At just 12 years old, he achieved times among the world's best in three events throughout 2025. These times are very close to those that earned medals at last year's Olympics.

While economic powers like China and the United States are renewing their talent in swimming and other sports with greater ease, Brazil continues its history of being a seesaw in various Olympic sports, despite the talk of legacy. In the case of swimming, Brazil's best athletes are forged in the United States, where they have access to excellent infrastructure through universities. For Nicholas Santos, there's a detail in the mindset of American swimmers that Brazilians could emulate.

"I saw that in the United States, when I was training, a swimmer who didn't have much potential would say: 'Ah, my goal for the season is to beat Michael Phelps.' I would say: 'The guy won't beat Michael Phelps.' But he was a Pan American champion, he joined an American team. You saw that he was more aggressive in that part of the mentality, right? I think our swimmers lack that a bit."

The main issue with this lack of consistency, however, is structural and linked to problems that affect many other sports. Currently, swimmers rely on a club system that can't always meet all the demands of a high-performance professional.

"This model we have here in Brazil is often not the ideal model for advancing an Olympic project, I think," comments Nicholas. "I think there could be greater incentives at the grassroots level, especially to enable development and renewal so we can develop swimming. We could hold training camps abroad, bring coaches in or out to exchange training models. I think this is important for the coaches' development as well."

"High-performance sports in Brazil are governed by two pillars: the COB, which provides this high-performance environment, and the clubs, which are overburdened," explained Bruno Fratus, bronze medalist in the 50m freestyle at the Tokyo Games, in an interview with Estadão in 2024. "They take care of training, high performance, and the Olympic level, and it's shared with the social aspect, the member who is using it for family and leisure. Two bodies can't occupy the same space, which ends up squeezing professionals out of the country. At the same time, the Committee has political and bureaucratic limitations, something understandable for an institution that is largely funded by public funds," he says.

Brazil's World Cup fights after tears in Paris

Apart from Caribé, the only Brazilian athlete arriving at the World Aquatics Championships with a better chance of competing for medals is Guilherme Costa, known as Cachorrão, who wants to bury the frustrations he experienced at the 2024 Olympics. He arrived in Paris certain that he would return to Brazil with at least one medal, in the 400-meter freestyle, his specialty, in which he was 0.26 seconds away from the podium.

Cachorrão's tears after leaving the pool in fifth place were the most memorable image of Brazil's participation in those Olympic Games. The photo of the moment is pinned to the top of the athlete's Instagram page.

"I fixed it so I could remember that. Because whenever I remember that situation after the race, it makes me want to train more, to prepare, because I think it had a big impact on me. I felt very ready," he told the IOC.

A bronze medalist at the 2022 World Championships, Guilherme will compete with the likes of Germany's Lukas Martens, the world record holder, Australia's Samuel Short and Elijah Winnington, and South Korea's Kim Woo-min. He must improve on the 3:42.76 he achieved at the Olympics.

"I think that thing that got stuck in Paris... if he can get it out of his system at that moment, stay calm, make the adjustments that he may have made this season to get it right and swim 3:41, 3:42, he's capable of fighting for a medal too," says Nicholas Santos, who doesn't see any more medal chances for Brazil other than those cultivated by Caribé and Cachorrão.

Seeing more Brazilian representatives in the finals, however, is a hope. Stephanie Balduccini could appear among the finalists in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle. Nicholas also points to "huge" expectations regarding the performance of Mafê Costa, who has begun training with Australian Dean Boxall, known for working with Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus.

"He coaches two swimmers who swim under 4 minutes, Molly O'Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus. So, with Mafê training with him, I imagine she can swim very close to 4 minutes, who knows, maybe even break that barrier. It would be amazing for us," comments Nicholas. There's also the expectation of seeing Victor Alcará reach at least the semifinals in the 50-meter freestyle, which is also true for Guilherme Basseto in the 50-meter backstroke.

See who are Brazil's swimmers at the World Aquatics Championships: Women