| World Aquatics Championships | |
| Status: | Active |
| Genre: | Global Sporting Event |
| Date: | Two Weeks (usually mid-year) |
| Frequency: | Usually Biennial |
| Location: | Various Host Cities |
| Years Active: | 50 years |
| Last: | Doha 2024 |
| Prev: | Fukuoka 2023 |
| Next: | Singapore 2025 |
| Activity: | Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming, Open Water Swimming, High Diving |
| Organised: | World Aquatics |
| Free Label: | Editions |
| Free Text: | 21 (including 2024) |
| Current: | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
The World Aquatics Championships (known as the FINA World Championships until 2022) are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. The championships are staged by World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA (Fédération internationale de natation), the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competitions in water sports. The championships are World Aquatics' largest and main event traditionally held biennially every odd year, with all six of the aquatic disciplines contested every championships.
The championships were first staged in 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, with competitions held in swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo.[1] In 1991 open water swimming was added to the championships as a fifth discipline.[2] In 2013 high diving was added to the championships as a sixth discipline.[3] In 2017 the synchronised swimming discipline was renamed to artistic swimming.[4]
Prior to the 9th World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka in 2001, the championships had been staged at various intervals of two to four years. From 2001 to 2019 the championships were held biennially in odd years. Due to interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions, host venues withdrawing from hosting championships and World Aquatics' withdrawing the rights to host championships, the championships will be staged in every year from 2022 to 2025 until resuming to biennial from 2025 onwards.
The World Open Water Swimming Championships (also known as 'Open Water Worlds') is part of the World Aquatics Championships. Additional standalone editions of the Open Water Championships were also held in the even years from 2000 to 2010. The World Masters Championships (also known as 'Masters Worlds) is open to athletes 25 years and above (30+ years in water polo) in each aquatics discipline excluding high diving and has been held as part of the World Aquatics Championships since 2015. Prior to this, the Masters Championship was held separately, biennially in even years.
Athletes from all current 208 World Aquatics member federations are eligible to compete at the championships, along with athletes considered 'Neutral Independent Athletes' under the rules of World Aquatics and athletes from the 'World Aquatics Refugee Team'. The 2019 championships set the record for the most athletes participating (2,623).[5] At the recent 2024 championships participated athletes from record 199 nations: 197 member federations, 1 suspended member federation and Athlete Refugee Team.
Member federations referred to as winners, second, and third, in the table below, are the top three nation's listed on the medal tally based on the standard method of ranking (being total gold medals, followed by total silver medals, and then total bronze medals).
| Year | Dates | Edition | Location | Nations | Athletes | Events | Events Details | Winner | Second | Third | Most Medals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 31 August – 9 September | 1 | Belgrade, Yugoslavia | 47 | 686 | 37 | 18 (M), 19 (W) | ||||||
| 1975 | 19–27 July | 2 |  Cali, Colombia | 39 | 682 | 37 | 18 (M), 19 (W) | ||||||
| 1978 | 20–28 August | 3 | West Berlin, West Germany | 49 | 828 | 37 | 18 (M), 19 (W) | ||||||
| 1982 | 29 July – 8 August | 4 |  Guayaquil, Ecuador | 52 | 848 | 37 | 18 (M), 19 (W) | ||||||
| 1986 | 13–23 August | 5 |  Madrid, Spain | 34 | 1,119 | 41 | 19 (M), 22 (W) | ||||||
| 1991 | 3–13 January | 6 |  Perth, Australia | 60 | 1,142 | 45 | 21 (M), 24 (W) | ||||||
| 1994 | 1–11 September | 7 |  Rome, Italy | 102 | 1,400 | 45 | 21 (M), 24 (W) | ||||||
| 1998 | 8–17 January | 8 | Perth, Australia | 121 | 1,371 | 53 | 24 (M), 27 (W), 2 (X) | ||||||
| 2001 | 16–29 July | 9 |  Fukuoka, Japan | 134 | 1,498 | 61 | 29 (M), 32 (W) | ||||||
| 2003 | 12–27 July | 10 | Barcelona, Spain | 157 | 2,015 | 62 | 29 (M), 33 (W) | ||||||
| 2005 | 16–31 July | 11 |  Montreal, Canada | 144 | 1,784 | 62 | 29 (M), 33 (W) | ||||||
| 2007 | 18 March – 1 April | 12 | Melbourne, Australia | 167 | 2,158 | 65 | 29 (M), 36 (W) | ||||||
| 2009 | 17 July – 2 August | 13 | Rome, Italy | 185 | 2,556 | 65 | 29 (M), 36 (W) | and | |||||
| 2011 | 16–31 July | 14 |  Shanghai, China | 181 | 2,220 | 66 | 29 (M), 36 (W), 1 (X) | ||||||
| 2013 | 19 July – 4 August | 15 | Barcelona, Spain | 181 | 2,293 | 68 | 30 (M), 37 (W), 1 (X) | ||||||
| 2015 | 24 July – 9 August | 16 | Kazan, Russia | 190 | 2,400 | 75 | 30 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X) | ||||||
| 2017 | 14–30 July | 17 |  Budapest, Hungary | 182 | 2,360 | 75 | 30 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X) | ||||||
| 2019 | 12–28 July | 18 | Gwangju, South Korea | 192 | 2,623 | 76 | 30 (M), 38 (W), 8 (X) | ||||||
| 2022 | 18 June – 3 July | 19 | Budapest, Hungary | 183 | 2,034 | 74 | 29 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X) | ||||||
| 2023 | 14–30 July | 20 | Fukuoka, Japan | 195 | 2,392 | 75 | 31 (M), 33 (W), 11 (X) | ||||||
| 2024 | 2–18 February | 21 |  Doha, Qatar | 199 | 2,603 | 75 | 31 (M), 33 (W), 11 (X) | ||||||
| 2025 | 11 July – 3 August | 22 |  Singapore[6] | 75 | |||||||||
| 2027 | < | --23-->23 | Budapest, Hungary | ||||||||||
| 2029 | < | --24-->24 | Beijing, China[7] |
United States (23 gold medals, 1978) and China (23 gold medals, 2024) United States (49 medals in total, 2022)Updated after the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.
Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count per type.
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Gender | Discipline | From | To | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M | Swimming | 2001 | 2011 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 33 | |||
| 2 | Katie Ledecky | F | Swimming | 2013 | 2023 | 21 | 5 | – | 26 | ||
| 3 | F | Artistic swimming | 2005 | 2019 | 21 | – | – | 21 | |||
| 4 | Natalia Ishchenko | F | Artistic swimming | 2005 | 2015 | 19 | 2 | – | 21 | ||
| 5 | M | Swimming | 2005 | 2015 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 27 | |||
| 6 | Svetlana Kolesnichenko | F | Artistic swimming | 2011 | 2019 | 16 | – | – | 16 | ||
| 7 | Caeleb Dressel | M | Swimming | 2017 | 2022 | 15 | 2 | – | 17 | ||
| 8 | Sarah Sjöström | F | Swimming | 2009 | 2024 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 25 | ||
| 9 | F | Artistic swimming | 2009 | 2019 | 14 | – | – | 14 | |||
| 10 | F | Artistic swimming | 2001 | 2011 | 13 | 1 | – | 14 |
Except where specified below, there are male and female categories for each event.
See main article: Swimming at the World Aquatics Championships.
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men).
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women).
| Distance | Free | Back | Breast | Fly | I.M. | Free relay | Medley relay | Mixed free relay | Mixed medley relay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50m | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||||
| 100m | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||||
| 200m | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||
| 400m | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||
| 800m | ● | ● | ||||||||
| 1500m | ● |
See main article: World Diving Championships.
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in diving.
Men's and women's events:
Mixed events:
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in synchronised swimming. Except for Acrobatic routine, all events include technical and free routines, with medals awarded separately.
See main article: Water polo at the World Aquatics Championships.
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo.
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming.
See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in high diving.
See main article: world championships.