You’re probably wondering why such a list is even needed. Do you already know the top 20 hottest female athletes?
Well, here’s why: when you are around them, you can’t help but bask in their beauty. Of course, watching a football game and rooting for one of these top 20 swimmers helps have some eye candy. That’s where this list comes in!
With that said, let’s get started with the list! Number 1 on our list is Missy Franklin from the United States. She won four gold medals at the 2012 Olympics and was crowned as one of America’s most successful Olympians by CNN and Fox News in 2013.
Table of Contents
- 1. Missy Franklin
- 2. Natalie Coughlin
- 3. Chloe Sutton
- 4. Katinka Hosszú
- 5. Hanna-Maria Seppälä
- 6. Federica Pellegrini
- 7. Amanda Beard
- 8. Joanne Jackson
- 9. Haley Cope
- 10. Zsuzsanna Jakabos
- 11. Simona Quadarella
- 12. Yui Ohashi
- 13. Kylie Masse
- 14. Regan Smith
- 15. Cate Campbell
- 16. Lilly King
- 17. Kaylee McKeown
- 18. Ariarne Titmus
- 19. Hali Flickinger
- 20. Stephanie Rice
- In Conclusion
1. Missy Franklin
Missy Franklin is one of the best swimmers in the world. She has a record of 5 Olympic medals, including four golds. In 2010, she was named “Female Athlete of the Year” by Sports Illustrated for her accomplishments as a junior athlete.
In 2012, at age thirteen and in her first Olympics, Missy became the youngest person ever to win an individual gold medal in Women’s 200m Freestyle and Women’s 400m Individual Medley events.
Missy started swimming competitively when she was four years old and continued even after being diagnosed with a rare form of childhood arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis.
2. Natalie Coughlin
Natalie Anne Coughlin is an American retired competitive swimmer specializing in backstroke and freestyle. She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion, and former world record holder in the 50-meter butterfly.
Coughlin has won 101 individual events in international competition, second only to Michael Phelps among U.S. female swimmers. Among her long list of accomplishments are three NCAA national championships for the University of California, Berkeley (1997–1999), three titles at the U.S.
3. Chloe Sutton
Natalie Coughlin is the gold medalist in the 100-meter backstroke swimming at the 2004 Olympics. The article will go through her early years, personal life, and how Chloe Sutton won gold.
She has been an international swimmer for more than twenty years, nine years old. She has represented the USA in three Olympics’ starting with the 2000 Sydney Olympics to the 2012 London Olympics. It’s interesting to see that Natalie was one of four US team members who had children while still competing at the Olympic level.
4. Katinka Hosszú
Katinka Hosszú is now undeniably the best swimmer of all time, with five Olympic gold medals to her name. She has set new world records in long-distance swimming since 15 years old. 2016 marked her fifth Olympics appearance, marking herself as an iconic swimmer. Hosszu (meaning “long” in Hungarian) began training for the Olympics when she stepped on a rower one day and thought instantly that she too could go where this machine went.
She is now undeniably the best swimmer of all time, with five Olympic gold medals to her name. In addition, she has set new world records in long-distance swimming since 15 years old.
5. Hanna-Maria Seppälä
Hanna-Maria Seppälä is a Finnish freestyle swimmer who won the world title in the 100-meter freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, in 2003.
Hanna-Maria began swimming at the age of five and had made the Finnish national junior squad by ten.
She earned bronze in the 50 m freestyle event at the European Junior Championships in 1999. She has broken 100 Finnish national records so far. Sportsline, a Finnish sports management agency, is Hanna-manager.
6. Federica Pellegrini
It is a sports story worth retelling. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a 17-year-old swimmer from Rome left Michael Phelps in her wake to become Italy’s first-ever Olympic champion in swimming. And then she did it again in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.
In 2002, Federica Pellegrini set a new world record, winning the 200m butterfly by more than two seconds – faster than any woman had ever swum. At an international meet four years later, Federica Pellegrini had shaved off another second from her time to obliterate Phelps’ world record of 59:06 with a 58:55 of her own.
7. Amanda Beard
Amanda Beard is an American swimmer and three-time Olympian.
Ms. Beard is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke in Athens, Greece, at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She also won a silver medal in the same event at the 2008 Summer Olympics and another bronze medal in a 4×100 meter medley with two other swimmers from the United States.
8. Joanne Jackson
Joanne Jackson (born March 18, 1987) is a British freestyle swimmer.
In 2004, she moved to the United States to train with the Santa Monica-based West LA Aquatic Club under head coach Josef Dvorak. In 2005 and 2006, she won two medals at the World Junior Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 2007 and 2008, she won four gold and bronze medals at the World University Games in Bangkok Thailand. She finished fifth in 2009 as part of Team Europe at the FINA Swimming World Cup meets in Rome, Italy, on her way to being European Athlete of the Month of July 2009.
9. Haley Cope
Haley Cope (born April 11, 1979), also known by her married name Haley Clark, is a former competitive swimmer, Olympic medalist, and world record holder from the United States. She was a world champion in the 50-meter backstroke and won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She also won eight world championship medals.
After graduating from Berkeley, Cope maintained her swimming career, capturing her second short course world title at the 2002 Short Course World Swimming Championships in Moscow. In addition, she earned gold in the 100-meter backstroke, two silvers in the 50-meter backstroke, and a bronze in the 4100-meter medley relay, in which she swam the backstroke leg. In 2003, she competed in her second long course World Championships, winning silver in the 4100-meter medley relay in Barcelona.
10. Zsuzsanna Jakabos
Zsuzsanna “Zsu” Jakabos is a Hungarian swimmer born on April 3, 1989. She participated in seven events at the 2004 Olympics, 2008 Olympics, 2012 Olympics, and 2016 Olympics, with her best finish of sixth place in the 4200 m freestyle relay in 2008 and 2016.
In 2019, Jakabos competed for Team Iron in the 2019 International Swimming League.
Iván Petrov, her swimming instructor, is her husband.
11. Simona Quadarella
Simona Quadarella is an Italian swimmer born on December 18, 1998. She excels at long-distance freestyle competitions. She earned a bronze medal in the Women’s 800-meter freestyle at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and she won gold in the 1500-meter freestyle and silver in the 800-meter freestyle at the 2019 World Championships Gwangju.
12. Yui Ohashi
Yui Ohashi (born October 18, 1995) is a Japanese swimmer who specializes in medley events. At the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, she became the first Japanese woman to break the 2:08 barrier in the 200-meter individual medley event, finishing with a silver medal and a national record of 2:07.91.
Ohashi has qualified to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics for Japan.
She earned Japan’s second gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley. She also won the Women’s 200m Individual Medley gold medal.
13. Kylie Masse
Kylie Jacqueline Masse (born January 18, 1996) is a backstroke specialist in Canadian competition swimming. She is a four-time Olympic medalist, having tied for bronze in the 100 m backstrokes at the 2016 Summer Olympics and then winning silver medals in the 100 m and 200 m backstrokes and a bronze medal in the 4×100 m medley at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Masse is the current world champion in the 100-meter backstroke, having set a new world record that she held for eight years until July 2018. In addition, she made history by being the first Canadian woman to win a world championship in a swimming event at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest.
14. Regan Smith
Regan Smith (born February 9, 2002) is a competitive swimmer from the United States. She is the current long-course world record holder in the women’s 200-meter backstroke and a previous 100-meter backstroke world record holder. Smith represented the United States in three events at the 2020 Summer Olympics, winning bronze in the 100-meter backstroke, silver in the 200-meter butterfly, and silver in the 4100-meter medley relay.
15. Cate Campbell
Cate Natalie Campbell, OAM (born 20 May 1992) is an Australian competitive swimmer who won two bronze medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics, a gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics, a gold and a silver medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics, and a gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics. She holds the world records in the long course four × 100 m freestyle relay and the short course 100 m freestyle with Team Australia. Along with basketball star Patty Mills, Campbell was Australia’s flagbearer at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
At the Commercial Swimming Club, she is coached by Simon Cusack.
16. Lilly King
Lillia Camille King (born February 10, 1997) is an American swimmer specializing in breaststroke. She is presently a member of the Cali Condors, which competes in the International Swimming League. She earned a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, in which she swam the breaststroke leg. For her performance in the prelims, King earned a silver medal in the 4×100 meter medley relay, a silver medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, and a bronze medal in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is also the world record holder in the 100-meter breaststroke long course.
17. Kaylee McKeown
Kaylee Rochelle McKeown (born July 12, 2001) is an Australian swimmer who has won three Olympic gold medals: the 100-meter and 200-meter backstrokes and the 4×100-meter medley relay in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She holds the world record in the women’s 100-meter backstroke (long course). Before the Olympics, she was the quickest swimmer in the 200 m individual medley, but she withdrew to focus on the backstroke. At the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, she participated in the women’s 200-meter backstroke event. She achieved a new Olympic record of 57.47 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
18. Ariarne Titmus
Ariarne Titmus (born September 7, 2000) is an Australian swimmer who is the reigning Olympic champion in the women’s 200m and 400m freestyle events. She is presently a member of the International Swimming League’s Cali Condors. Titmus and her family, including her father, Steve Titmus, relocated from Tasmania to Queensland in 2015 to search for better training possibilities.
19. Hali Flickinger
Hali Flickinger is an American professional swimmer specializing in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. She was born on July 7, 1994. She is a member of the International Swimming League’s Cali Condors.
In the 200-meter butterfly, Flickinger qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics and finished eighth in the finals. After that, Flickinger qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in the 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley, winning bronze medals in both events.
20. Stephanie Rice
Stephanie Louise Rice, OAM (born June 17, 1988), is an ex-competitive swimmer from Australia. She was given the Medal of the Order of Australia on January 26, 2009, after winning three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In Conclusion
That is the top 20 female swimmers, and this article is created to summarize, besides us, Then, there are many female athletes that we have not found yet. This post is not for ranking purposes, for listing purposes only.