The swimming competition at the 1961 Summer Universiade took place in Sofia, Bulgaria.[1]
| 100 m freestyle | 57.4 | 57.6 | 57.9 | ||||
| 400 m freestyle | 4:30.9 | 4:32.3 | 4:35.1 | ||||
| 1500 m freestyle | 18:19.8 | 18:21.6 | 18:23.1 | ||||
| 100 m backstroke | 1:05.3 | 1:05.8 | 1:05.9 | ||||
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:41.4 | 2:41.5 | 2:43.2 | ||||
| 200 m butterfly | 2:20.2 | 2:25.5 | 2:28.8 | ||||
| 4 × 100 m freestyle relay | Keigo Shimizu(57.9) Kiyoshi Fukui(57.9) Haruo Yoshimuta(56.2) Tatsuo Fujimoto(56.7) | 3:48.7 | 3:57.2 | 3:58.1 | |||
| 4 × 100 m medley relay | Shigeo Fukushima(1:04.4) Yoshiaki Shikiishi(1:13.9) Haruo Yoshimuta(1:11.9) Tatsuo Fujimoto (56.9) | 4:17.1 | 4:18.5 | 4:21.4 |
| 100 m freestyle | 1:07.6 | 1:07.7 | 1:08.1 | ||||
| 400 m freestyle | 5:14.4 | 5:38.0 | 5:45.1 | ||||
| 100 m backstroke | 1:13.6 | 1:16.1 | 1:16.7 | ||||
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:59.6 | 3:00.8 | 3:01.2 | ||||
| 100 m butterfly | 1:13.8 | 1:16.0 | |||||
| 4 × 100 m freestyle relay | 4:39.5 | 4:41.2 | 4:52.2 | ||||
| 4 × 100 m medley relay | 5:04.5 | 5:12.2 | 5:15.7 |