These are the results (medal winners) of the swimming competition at the 1986 World Aquatics Championships.[1]
| 50 m freestyle | 22.49 | 22.80 | 22.85 | |
| 100 m freestyle | 48.94 | 49.73 | 49.79 | |
| 200 m freestyle | 1:47.92 | 1:49.12 | 1:49.43 | |
| 400 m freestyle | 3:50.05 | 3:51.26 | 3:51.33 | |
| 1500 m freestyle | 15:05.31 | 15:14.80 | 15:16.23 | |
| 100 m backstroke | 55.58 | 56.49 | 56.57 | |
| 200 m backstroke | 1:58.78 | 2:01.11 | 2:02.42 | |
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:02.71 | 1:03.00 | 1:03.30 | |
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:14.27 | 2:14.93 | 2:16.51 | |
| 100 m butterfly | 53.54 | 53.67 | 53.81 | |
| 200 m butterfly | 1:56.53 | 1:58.36 | 1:59.09 | |
| 200 m individual medley | 2:01.57 | 2:02.34 | 2:02.61 | |
| 400 m individual medley | 4:18.98 | 4:22.03 | 4:22.58 | |
| 4×100 m freestyle relay | Tom Jager Mike Heath Paul Wallace Matt Biondi 3:19.89 | Gennadiy Prigoda Nikolay Yevseyev Sergey Smiriyagin Aleksey Markovsky 3:21.14 | Dirk Richter Jörg Woithe Sven Lodziewski Steffen Zesner 3:21.47 | |
| 4×200 m freestyle relay | Lars Hinneburg Thomas Flemming Dirk Richter Sven Lodziewski 7:15.91 | Rainer Henkel Michael Gross Alexander Schowtka Thomas Fahrner 7:15.96 | Eric Boyer Mike Heath Dan Jorgensen Matt Biondi 7:18.29 | |
| 4×100 m medley relay | Dan Veatch David Lundberg Pablo Morales Matt Biondi 3:41.25 | Frank Hoffmeister Bert Göbel Michael Gross André Schadt 3:42.26 | Igor Polyansky Dmitry Volkov Aleksey Markovsky Nikolay Yevseyev 3:42.63 |
| 50 m freestyle | 25.28 | 25.50 | 25.93 | |
| 100 m freestyle | 55.05 | 55.70 | 55.79 | |
| 200 m freestyle | 1:58.26 | 1:58.90 | 2:00.14 | |
| 400 m freestyle | 4:07.45 | 4:09.16 | 4:09.85 | |
| 800 m freestyle | 8:28.24 | 8:28.44 | 8:34.04 | |
| 100 m backstroke | 1:01.74 | 1:02.17 | 1:02.25 | |
| 200 m backstroke | 2:11.37 | 2:11.39 | 2:11.45 | |
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:08.11 | 1:08.41 | 1:08.52 | |
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:27.40 | 2:27.66 | 2:31.34 | |
| 100 m butterfly | 59.51 | 59.66 | 59.98 | |
| 200 m butterfly | 2:08.41 | 2:10.66 | 2:10.68 | |
| 200 m individual medley | 2:15.56 | 2:15.84 | 2:16.05 | |
| 400 m individual medley | 4:43.75 | 4:44.07 | 4:45.44 | |
| 4×100 m freestyle relay | Kristin Otto Manuela Stellmach Sabine Schulze Heike Friedrich 3:40.57 | Jenna Johnson Dara Torres Mary T. Meagher Betsy Mitchell 3:44.04 | Conny van Bentum Laura Leideritz Karin Brienesse Annemarie Verstappen 3:46.89 | |
| 4×200 m freestyle relay | Manuela Stellmach Astrid Strauß Nadja Bergknecht Heike Friedrich 7:59.33 | Betsy Mitchell Mary T. Meagher Kim Brown Mary Wayte 8:02.12 | Annemarie Verstappen Jolande van der Meer Marianne Muis Conny van Bentum 8:09.59 | |
| 4×100 m medley relay | Kathrin Zimmermann Sylvia Gerasch Kornelia Greßler Kristin Otto 4:04.82 | Betsy Mitchell Jenny Hau Mary T. Meagher Jenna Johnson 4:07.75 | Jolanda de Rover Petra van Staveren Conny van Bentum Annemarie Verstappen 4:10.70 |