See main article: 1982 World Aquatics Championships. The Swimming portion of the 4th FINA World Aquatics Championships swam late July-early August 1982 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The competition featured 19 long course (50m) events:
| 100 m freestyle | 50.18 | 50.21 | 50.25 | |
| 200 m freestyle | 1:49.84 | 1:49.92 | 1:50.71 | |
| 400 m freestyle | 3:51.30 | 3:51.43 | 3:51.84 | |
| 1500 m freestyle | 15:01.77 | 15:05.54 | 15:10.20 | |
| 100 m backstroke | 55.95 CR | 56.04 | 56.42 | |
| 200 m backstroke | 2:00.82 | 2:01.31 | 2:01.51 | |
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:02.75 | 1:02.82 | 1:03.13 | |
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:14.77 | 2:16.68 | 2:18.54 | |
| 100 m butterfly | 53.88 | 54.26 | 54.47 | |
| 200 m butterfly | 1:58.85 | 1:59.91 | 2:00.08 | |
| 200 m individual medley | 2:03.30 | 2:03.49 | 2:04.65 | |
| 400 m individual medley | 4:19.78 | 4:23.02 | 4:23.29 | |
| 4×100 m freestyle relay | Chris Cavanaugh Robin Leamy David McCagg Rowdy Gaines 3:19.26 | Sergey Krasyuk Aleksey Filonov Sergey Smiriyagin Aleksey Markovsky 3:21.78 | Per Johansson Bengt Baron Pelle Holmertz Pelle Wikström 3:22.15 | |
| 4×200 m freestyle relay | Richard Saeger Jeff Float Kyle Miller Rowdy Gaines 7:21.09 | Vladimir Shemetov Ivar Stukolkin Vladimir Salnikov Aleksey Filonov 7:24.91 | Andreas Schmidt Dirk Korthals Rainer Henkel Michael Groß 7:25.46 | |
| 4×100 m medley relay | Rick Carey Steve Lundquist Matt Gribble Rowdy Gaines 3:40.84 | Vladimir Shemetov Yuriy Kis Aleksey Markovsky Sergey Smiriyagin 3:42.86 | Stefan Peter Gerald Mörken Michael Groß Andreas Schmidt 3:44.78 |
| 100 m freestyle | 55.79 | 55.87 | 56.27 | |
| 200 m freestyle | 1:59.53 | 2:00.67 | 2:00.84 | |
| 400 m freestyle | 4:08.98 | 4:10.08 | 4:11.85 | |
| 800 m freestyle | 8:27.48 | 8:32.61 | 8:33.67 | |
| 100 m backstroke | 1:01.30 | 1:01.47 | 1:02.86 | |
| 200 m backstroke | 2:09.91 | 2:14.98 | 2:15.40 | |
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:09.14 | 1:11.03 | - | |
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:28.82 | 2:29.71 | 2:33.05 | |
| 100 m butterfly | 59.41 | 1:00.36 | 1:00.40 | |
| 200 m butterfly | 2:08.66 | 2:09.76 | 2:10.29 | |
| 200 m individual medley | 2:11.79 | 2:13.38 | 2:15.91 | |
| 400 m individual medley | 4:36.10 | 4:43.51 | 4:44.64 | |
| 4×100 m freestyle relay | Birgit Meineke Susanne Link Kristin Otto Caren Metschuck 3:43.97 | Susan Habernigg Kathy Treible Beth Washut Jill Sterkel 3:45.76 | Annemarie Verstappen Annelies Maas Wilma van Velsen Conny van Bentum 3:45.96 | |
| 4×100 m medley relay | Kristin Otto Ute Geweniger Ines Geißler Birgit Meineke 4:05.88 | Susan Walsh Kim Rhodenbaugh Mary T. Meagher Jill Sterkel 4:08.12 | Larisa Gorchakova Svetlana Varganova Natalya Pokas Irina Gerasimova 4:12.36 |