Windermere’s Rylee Erisman dominates World Junior Swimming Championship

Windermere High and Windermere Lakers Aquatics Club swimmer Rylee Erisman had a dominant showing at the 2025 World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Otopeni, Romania, as a member of Team USA, bringing home eight total medals — the most of any swimmer at the competition. 

The 16-year-old high school junior won five individual and relay events and finished second in three more at the six-day-long international juniors competition. 

“I am just so happy to be here and to represent the USA,” she said following her win in the 100-meter freestyle. “I’m really happy to win this medal for my team, and it’s my first world junior individual medal. Honestly, I feel kind of speechless right now but I’m just so over the moon and so excited. … I want to give a shout out to my parents who are here and to my brother and my family back at home. Also, to my coach, Kyle Goller, of the Windermere Lakers Aquatics Club. I have been with him since I was little, and he’s here at the meet. Thanks to all of you for your support.”

Erisman, a freestyle specialist, began the competition by helping the U.S. earn a silver in the women’s 4x200 meter freestyle relay. On Day 2 of the competition, the Wolverines' state champion swimmer nailed down her second silver medal as part of the mixed 4x100 meter medley relay. Erisman competed in three more relay events for the Americans — the mixed 4x100 meter freestyle relay, women’s 4x100 meter freestyle relay and women’s 4x100 meter medley relay — winning the gold in each.

“It’s the best feeling, and I wouldn’t want to do this with any other group of people,” Erisman said following winning the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. “Relays are honestly my favorite to swim (in) at international meets and to do it with (this) team is just so much greater.”

Along with winning the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay event, Erisman, along with teammates Liberty Clark, Julie Mishler, and Lily King, set a world junior record with a time of 3:35.53, breaking the previous record set by Canada in 2017. 

“It was a great race,” Erisman said after the record-breaking win. “We broke the World Junior Record and we won gold, so I’m super proud of us. It was something we really wanted. Honestly, we just didn’t want to put too much pressure on it and just go out there and have fun.”

Erisman saw similar success in the three individual events she competed in — the 50 meter, 100 meter and 200 meter freestyle — winning gold in the two shorter formats and silver in the longest. Beyond just bringing home those additional three medals Erisman’s performance in the 100 meter freestyle proved to be spectacular. 

Not only did she blow out the competition by setting a championship record time of 52.79 — the sixth-fastest time ever by an American female — and finishing 1.4 seconds ahead of second place, but also her performance in the event earned her a spot on Team USA at next year’s Pan Pacific Championships. To put Erisman’s time in perspective, if she had competed in this year’s World Championships in Singapore, the performance would have earned her a bronze medal and was merely .09 seconds slower than Penny Oleksiak’s gold-medal winning time at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

“When you hear your name or ‘Go Team USA’ when you get on the block, it just means so much,” she said about representing Team USA at the World Junior Championships. “Everything goes out of your head, and you know that you have the biggest team and the biggest cheerleaders standing behind you. … (It was) definitely a lot of hard work, and just staying driven and staying dedicated, but, honestly, I just (had) fun with it because you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t have fun.”