Qin Haiyang Honored as Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year After World Championships Double
For the second time in three years, Qin Haiyang is Swimming World’s selection as Pacific Rim Male Swimmer of the Year. The 26-year-old from China is again the world’s top breaststroker after he won two gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the World Championships in Singapore.
Qin previously received this honor in 2023. He is the fourth Chinese man to be named the top swimmer in the Pacific Rim, with other winners including Zhang Lin (2009), Sun Yang (2011-2013, 2017-2018) and Pan Zhanle (2024).
Qin arrived in Singapore aiming to reclaim his titles following disappointing individual results at the Paris Olympics. Before those Games, he was the slight favorite to win gold medals in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and any podium projection included Qin, even with defending champions Adam Peaty (100) and Zac Stubblety-Cook (200) plus challengers Nicolo Martinenghi (100) and Leon Marchand (200) challenging him.
However, Qin ended up seventh in the 100-meter race and locked out of the 200 breast final entirely. He rebounded to swim well on China’s medley relays, earning silver in the mixed event and gold in the men’s, but the results were far from his 2023 peak in which Qin became the first man to sweep the 50, 100 and 200-meter races of a single stroke at the World Championships.
In 2025, Qin returned to his world-beating form, still not approaching his best times but doing enough to capture a pair of world titles. Qin faced off against Martinenghi, the Olympic champion in the 100-meter final. The Italian had a slight lead at the halfway point, but Qin stayed close enough to roar home with a 31.16 split. He finished in 58.23 to claim gold, beating Martinenghi by 0.35.
Qin immediately turned his attention to the 50 breast, and he ended up with a bronze medal behind Italy’s Simone Cerasuolo and neutral athlete Kirill Prigoda. Finally, Qin survived another close call in the 200 breast; seven swimmers broke 2:09 in the semifinal round while Qin touched in 2:09.32, but that was enough to earn him lane eight for the following night. He took advantage of the opportunity, swimming in the middle of the pack for most of the race before blasting a 33.35 split coming home to secure gold by less than three tenths with a time of 2:07.41.
In relay action, Qin propelled China to silver in the mixed 400 medley relay. However, a subpar performance in the prelims of the men’s medley relay prevented China from reaching the final. Following the World Championships, Qin did not compete internationally during the fall, but he did earn gold medals in the 100 and 200 breast at the Chinese National Games.
For the year, Qin finished as the top-ranked swimmer in the world in the 100 breast (58.23) while posting times ranked third in the 200 breast (2:07.41) and fifth in the 50 breast (26.52). Several young competitors have positioned themselves to challenge veterans like Qin for supremacy in the breaststroke events, particularly in the 200 with the likes of Shin Ohashi and Filip Nowacki, but Qin remains a serious gold-medal threat in any breaststroke race he enters as 2026’s competition schedule dawns.