World Aquatics Championships Explained

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.

Championships

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).

YearDatesEditionLocationNationsAthletesEventsEvents DetailsWinnerSecondThirdMost Medals
197331 August – 9 September1 Belgrade, Yugoslavia476863718 (M), 19 (W)
197519–27 July2 Cali, Colombia396823718 (M), 19 (W)
197820–28 August3 West Berlin, West Germany498283718 (M), 19 (W)
198229 July – 8 August4 Guayaquil, Ecuador528483718 (M), 19 (W)
198613–23 August5 Madrid, Spain341,1194119 (M), 22 (W)
19913–13 January6 Perth, Australia601,1424521 (M), 24 (W)
19941–11 September7 Rome, Italy1021,4004521 (M), 24 (W)
19988–17 January8 Perth, Australia1211,3715324 (M), 27 (W), 2 (X)
200116–29 July9 Fukuoka, Japan1341,4986129 (M), 32 (W)
200312–27 July10 Barcelona, Spain1572,0156229 (M), 33 (W)
200516–31 July11 Montreal, Canada1441,7846229 (M), 33 (W)
200718 March – 1 April12 Melbourne, Australia1672,1586529 (M), 36 (W)
200917 July – 2 August13 Rome, Italy1852,5566529 (M), 36 (W)
and
201116–31 July14 Shanghai, China1812,2206629 (M), 36 (W), 1 (X)
201319 July – 4 August15 Barcelona, Spain1812,2936830 (M), 37 (W), 1 (X)
201524 July – 9 August16 Kazan, Russia1902,4007530 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)
201714–30 July17 Budapest, Hungary1822,3607530 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)
201912–28 July18 Gwangju, South Korea1922,6237630 (M), 38 (W), 8 (X)
202218 June – 3 July19 Budapest, Hungary1832,0347429 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)
202314–30 July20 Fukuoka, Japan1952,3927531 (M), 33 (W), 11 (X)
20242–18 February21 Doha, Qatar1992,6037531 (M), 33 (W), 11 (X)
202511 July – 3 August22 Singapore[6] 75
2027<--23-->23 Budapest, Hungary
2029<--24-->24 Beijing, China[7]
* Record by number of gold medals – United States (23 gold medals, 1978) and China (23 gold medals, 2024)
** Record by number of total medals – United States (49 medals in total, 2022)

All-time medal table

Updated after the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

Multiple gold medalists

Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count per type.

RankAthleteCountryGenderDisciplineFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal
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 IshchenkoF 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

Disciplines, events & medalists

Except where specified below, there are male and female categories for each event.

Swimming (since 1973)

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

Diving (since 1973)

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:

Artistic swimming (since 1973)

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.

Water polo (since 1973)

See main article: Water polo at the World Aquatics Championships.

See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo.

Open water swimming (since 1991)

See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming.

High diving (since 2013)

See main article: List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in high diving.

See also

External links

See main article: world championships.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Overview . 2023-09-17 . World Aquatics . en.
  2. Web site: Overview . 2023-09-17 . World Aquatics . en.
  3. Web site: Overview . 2023-09-17 . World Aquatics . en.
  4. Web site: Overview . 2023-09-17 . World Aquatics . en.
  5. Web site: 18th FINA World Championships: Entry List by Event. Omega Timing. 17 November 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190718225252/https://www.omegatiming.com/File/0001130107FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF20.pdf. 18 July 2019. live.
  6. Web site: World Aquatics Championships 2025 awarded to Singapore. 9 February 2023. 9 February 2023. World Aquatics.
  7. Web site: Beijing announced as World Aquatics Championships 2029 host. 11 February 2024. 11 February 2024. World Aquatics.