The swimming competition at the 1979 Summer Universiade took place in Mexico City, Mexico in September 1979.[1]
| 100 m freestyle | 51.88 | 51.91 | 52.32 | ||||
| 200 m freestyle | 1:54.00 | 1:54.55 | 1:54.62 | ||||
| 400 m freestyle | 4:02.26 | 4:05.23 | 4:05.32 | ||||
| 1500 m freestyle | 16:01.87 | 16:09.22 | 16:13.88 | ||||
| 100 m backstroke | 57.05 | 58.10 | 58.55 | ||||
| 200 m backstroke | 2:07.30 | 2:07.70 | 2:07.81 | ||||
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:05.45 | 1:06.15 | 1:06.44 | ||||
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:21.13 | 2:21.31 | 2:25.53 | ||||
| 100 m butterfly | 55.37 | 56.15 | 56.53 | ||||
| 200 m butterfly | 2:04.50 | 2:06.25 | 2:06.41 | ||||
| 400 m individual medley | 4:37.34 | 4:38.19 | 4:38.57 | ||||
| 4 × 200 m freestyle relay | 7:36.03 | 7:40.40 | 7:49.20 | ||||
| 4 × 100 m medley relay | 3:51.29 | 3:52.05 | 3:55.40 | ||||
| 100 m freestyle | 58.26 | 58.67 | 58.71 | ||||
| 200 m freestyle | 2:04.87 | 2:07.24 | 2:08.84 | ||||
| 400 m freestyle | 4:22.88 | 4:25.92 | 4:28.03 | ||||
| 800 m freestyle | 9:04.32 | 9:13.62 | 9:18.28 | ||||
| 100 m backstroke | 1:03.35 | 1:05.63 | 1:05.75 | ||||
| 200 m backstroke | 2:16.20 | 2:23.08 | 2:25.86 | ||||
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:14.57 | 1:14.74 | 1:14.94 | ||||
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:41.00 | 2:41.88 | 2:42.81 | ||||
| 100 m butterfly | 1:04.04 | 1:04.88 | 1:05.28 | ||||
| 200 m butterfly | 2:19.11 | 2:19.57 | 2:20.38 | ||||
| 400 m individual medley | 5:06.6 | 5:08.1 | 5:12.8 | ||||
| 4 × 100 m freestyle relay | 3:56.75 | 3:59.16 | 4:01.15 | ||||
| 4 × 100 m medley relay | 4:22.8 | 4:27.4 | 4:29.1 | ||||