Team USA Wraps 2025 World Championships with Multiple Top-10 Results

Team USA concluded the 2025 World Aquatic Championships with a series of high-level performances that showcased their resilience, rising talent, and ability to adapt under pressure. With near-podium finishes, lineup changes, and strategic difficulty increases, the team marked a major step forward on the world stage.

In the final event of the Championships, Team USA raised their declared difficulty in a bold attempt to challenge the world's best and aim for the podium against countries like Spain, Russia, and China. With an all-or-nothing mindset, the team delivered a high-stakes performance. Despite their effort, a base mark in finals resulted in a 9th-place finish.

Earlier in the preliminaries, the U.S. executed a clean swim of their Sorceresses routine, placing 4th. With no medals yet secured heading into finals, they embraced the risk—knowing the outcome could go either way.

Although they didn’t land where they hoped, the coaching staff and athletes remain proud of their effort and progress, especially considering the major organizational shifts since the Paris Olympic Games. This event was a turning point—one the team will use to fuel the next season.

Team USA’s Tech Team campaign took an unexpected turn during prelims when a last-minute roster change was made—veteran Daniella Ramirez was replaced by World Championship rookie Emma Moore. Despite the pressure of the moment, Moore stepped up with grace.

“Emma is one of the most brilliant athletes under pressure,” said Head Coach Tammy McGregor. “She is not just smart with counts, changes, and patterns; she also is able to control her emotions in challenging situations.”

Moore reflected, “There was a lot of uncertainty, but once the decision was made for me to swim, I knew I had to make a choice—and I chose the team. There was never any doubt about whether I could do it; I just had to trust in myself and in the team… Instead of focusing on the stadium or everything happening around me, I just locked in on where I needed to be.”

The prelim swim received two base marks and placed them 12th—just enough to qualify for finals.

In the Tech Team Final the following day, the roster remained unchanged. The team performed cleanly and improved their score by 35 points, finishing 6th overall. Their Acrobatic element ranked 3rd among all finalists.

“We were confident in Emma. We just needed a few practices to get her comfortable in the spot she was swimming for finals,” said McGregor. “We focused on the acro and the tricky patterns and connections to ensure she felt prepared.”

“Our goals remained the same even with the roster switch. We wanted to have an excellent acro and noticeably improved elements… While we had 24 hours to prepare for finals, it’s still incredible what was accomplished in that amount of time. Our acro scored 3rd overall which is super exciting. We had hoped to improve our synchro errors and performance, but unfortunately that did not happen in this swim.”

USA’s Free Team routine—a tribute to the human body as the most extreme machine in the world—kicked off the team competition. They placed 4th in the preliminary round with a declared difficulty of 68.2250, finishing just 13.6644 points behind top contenders Japan, Spain, and China.

For finals, the U.S. increased their difficulty to 69.9500 and delivered a high-energy, elevated performance that nearly moved them into podium position. However, a base mark left them in 4th place again.

Still, the performance represented the full potential of the team.

“For me, the finals swim brought the full package,” said McGregor. “The acros were sharper, the energy and performance elevated, and there was a real fire in their eyes. They took everything from their prelims swim and leveled it up—more precision, more passion, more purpose.”

High Performance Manager Lara Teixeira added, “Choosing to increase the difficulty from prelims to finals really underscored how much adapting and recalibrating strategy has become a key part of the sport today. We saw a real opportunity to contend for a medal, and that fueled our decision.”

Assistant Coach Marivi Escalona shared: “They rose to the occasion with confidence—no hesitation, no fear. Every athlete embraced the task head-on and delivered when it counted most. Watching them adapt in real time and use the near-podium result as fuel for the next event is nothing short of inspiring.”

Athletes echoed that energy and focus:

“It was a surreal experience. It was our first final event at my first World Championships, so I didn’t totally know what to expect, but I knew the energy would be different,” said Karen Xue. “The swim definitely pushed us mentally and physically, but we stayed connected, trusted each other, and gave a performance we could be proud of.”

“We saved our best for last and left it all in the pool,” added Daniella Ramirez.

The team has already begun reflecting on how they can grow from this experience. “In future final events, we will likely increase our difficulty more than we did. We will explore the use of more pattern changes. We will have an extensive backup plan for multiple scenarios,” said McGregor.

The competition began with the Tech Duet event, where Jaime Czarkowski and 16-year-old Junior World Champion Ghizal Akbar debuted their brand-new routine to Abracadabra by Lady Gaga. With a declared difficulty of 35.0, they entered a highly competitive field of top-ranked teams.

Their performance earned them a score of 265.7292 and 11th place in the preliminary round—securing a spot in the finals. In the Tech Duet Final, the pair improved their score and placed 10th overall, completing both routines with no base marks or major deductions.

Czarkowski and Akbar were proud of their results and the opportunity to debut on the world stage together.

Though Team USA did not walk away with a medal, the performances in Singapore marked a moment of transformation—where adversity was met with unity, and growth was prioritized over perfection. With several top-five and top-ten finishes and valuable experience gained, Team USA is poised to return even stronger in the next international season.