Swimming at the World Aquatics Championships

Michael Phelps—pictured here (right) at the 2005 World Championships—won 26 World Championships gold medals – more than any other athlete.

The aquatics discipline of swimming has been the core component of every edition of the FINA World Aquatics Championships since its introduction in 1973. In 1991, open water swimming events were introduced to the program of the World Championships.

Championships

Year	Date	Edition	Location	Events (men/women/mixed)		Winner of the medal table	Second in the medal table	Third in the medal table
				Long course	Open water
1973	August 31 – September 9	I	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	East Germany	United States	Australia
1975	July 19 – 27	II	Cali, Colombia	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	United States	East Germany	Hungary
1978	August 20 – 28	III	West Berlin, West Germany	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	United States	Soviet Union	Australia
1982	July 29 – August 8	IV	Guayaquil, Ecuador	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	East Germany	United States	Soviet Union
1986	August 13 – 23	V	Madrid, Spain	16 / 16 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	East Germany	United States	West Germany
1991	January 3 – 13	VI	Perth, Australia	16 / 16 / 0	1 / 1 / 0	United States	Hungary	Germany
1994	September 1 – 11	VII	Rome, Italy	16 / 16 / 0	1 / 1 / 0	China	Australia	United States
1998	January 8 – 17	VIII	Perth, Australia	16 / 16 / 0	2 / 2 / 2	United States	Australia	China
2001	July 16 – 29	IX	Fukuoka, Japan	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	Australia	United States	Italy
2003	July 12 – 27	X	Barcelona, Spain	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Australia	Russia
2005	July 16 – 31	XI	Montreal, Canada	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Australia	Germany
2007	March 18 – April 1	XII	Melbourne, Australia	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Australia	Russia
2009	July 17 – August 2	XIII	Rome, Italy	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Germany	Australia
2011	July 16 – 31	XIV	Shanghai, China	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 1	United States	China	Brazil
2013	July 19 – August 4	XV	Barcelona, Spain	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 1	United States	China	France
2015	July 24 – August 9	XVI	Kazan, Russia	20 / 20 / 2	3 / 3 / 1	United States	Australia	China
2017	July 14 – 30	XVII	Budapest, Hungary	20 / 20 / 2	3 / 3 / 1	United States	France	Great Britain

Future championships

Year	Date	Edition	Location
2019	July 12–28	XVIII	Gwangju, South Korea[1][2][3]
2021	TBA	XIX	Fukuoka, Japan[4]
2023	TBA	XX	Doha, Qatar

Events

The number of events competed for at each edition of the championships has grown steadily through the years. In 1973, 29 events were swum: 15 for men and 14 for women, all in the pool. Since 2015, the combined number of events for men and women including pool and open water events has been 49, a drastic increase compared to the first edition. Historically, 50 different events have been held across the 17 editions of the championships.

Long course

Long course events have been competed since the inaugural edition of the championships in 1973. The youngest male swimmer to participate in the World Swimming Championships was Ahnt Khaung Htut^[5] from Myanmar, who was 12 years old in 2015. He took part at the 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke events. The youngest female swimmer to participate in the World Swimming Championships was 10-year-old Alzain Tareq^[6] from Bahrain in 2015. She participated at the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle events.

Men's events

Women's events

Mixed events

Open water

Open water swimming events have been competed since the sixth edition of the championships in 1991. From 2000 to 2010, FINA organized in even years specific championships for open water swimming events, the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships.

Events

Medalists

A select number of athletes have won medals at both long course and open water events, including Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia, Hayley Lewis from Australia and Sharon van Rouwendaal from the Netherlands. For a full list of medalists covering all editions of the championships see List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men) and List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women). For a complete list of medal winners in open water swimming see List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming.

All-time medal table 1973-2017

Swimming

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	208	159	112	479
2	Australia	74	73	53	200
3	East Germany	50	40	26	116
4	China	46	23	40	109
5	Hungary	28	19	27	74
6	Germany	20	33	34	87
7	Great Britain	19	17	34	70
8	Russia	17	29	22	68
9	France	16	18	20	54
10	Italy	15	17	21	53
11	Sweden	13	15	14	42
12	Netherlands	11	24	25	60
13	Soviet Union	11	20	21	52
14	South Africa	10	5	12	27
15	Brazil	9	8	7	24
16	Japan	8	23	33	64
17	West Germany	8	7	11	26
18	Ukraine	7	5	6	18
19	Canada	6	18	27	51
20	Poland	6	9	8	23
21	Denmark	4	8	8	20
22	Spain	4	6	6	16
23	Zimbabwe	3	5	0	8
24	Finland	3	2	1	6
25	Romania	2	1	7	10
26	Belarus	2	1	1	4
27	Serbia	2	1	0	3
28	South Korea	2	0	1	3
29	Tunisia	1	2	3	6
30	Lithuania	1	2	2	5
31	Costa Rica	1	1	2	4
32	Norway	1	1	1	3
33	Belgium	1	0	2	3
34	Greece	1	0	0	1
	Suriname	1	0	0	1
36	New Zealand	0	5	5	10
37	Switzerland	0	4	1	5
38	Austria	0	3	3	6
39	Slovakia	0	3	2	5
40	Croatia	0	2	0	2
41	Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
	Iceland	0	1	1	2
	Jamaica	0	1	1	2
	SFR Yugoslavia	0	1	1	2
45	Czech Republic	0	1	0	1
46	Singapore	0	0	2	2
47	Argentina	0	0	1	1
	Egypt	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1
	Venezuela	0	0	1	1
Total		611	614	609	1834

Open water swimming

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	12	10	9	31
2	Germany	11	14	10	35
3	United States	10	8	5	23
4	Italy	9	6	14	29
5	France	5	3	2	10
6	Netherlands	4	6	4	14
7	Brazil	4	3	6	13
8	Australia	3	6	5	14
9	Greece	2	4	3	9
10	Great Britain	2	1	1	4
11	Spain	1	2	1	4
12	Canada	1	1	0	2
13	Bulgaria	1	0	3	4
14	South Africa	1	0	1	2
	Tunisia	1	0	1	2
16	Switzerland	1	0	0	1
17	Hungary	0	2	1	3
18	Belgium	0	1	0	1
	Czech Republic	0	1	0	1
	Ecuador	0	1	0	1
21	Argentina	0	0	1	1
	Egypt	0	0	1	1
Total		68	69	68	205

Multiple medalists in swimming

Boldface denotes active swimmers and highest medal count among all swimmers (including these who not included in these tables) per type.

All events

Rank	Swimmer	Country	Gender	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Michael Phelps	United States	M	2001	2011	** 26 **	6	1	** 33 **
2	Ryan Lochte	United States	M	2005	2015	* 18 *	5	* 4 *	** 27 **
3	Katie Ledecky	United States	F	2013	2017	14	1	-	15
4	Missy Franklin	United States	F	2011	2015	11	2	3	16
5	Ian Thorpe	Australia	M	1998	2003	11	1	1	13
6	Grant Hackett	Australia	M	1998	2015	10	6	* 3 *	* 19 *
7	Aaron Peirsol	United States	M	2001	2009	10	2	-	12
8	Sun Yang	China	M	2009	2017	9	2	3	14
9	Natalie Coughlin	United States	F	2001	2013	# 8 #	7	5	# 20 #
10	Libby Trickett (Lenton)	Australia	F	2005	2009	8	3	4	15

* including one medal in the relay event in which he participated in the heats only
** including two medals in the relay events in which he participated in the heats only
# At the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in the Women's 4×200 m freestyle relay, the Australian team finished first but was disqualified for jumping into the pool in celebration before all teams finished the race. The US team finished second, but was disqualified for improper changeover. This was later blamed on the faulty touchpad. In accordance with the decision of the FINA Bureau (2001, Bangkok): “To avoid any reasonable doubt regarding the result of the Women’s relay 4x200m Freestyle Final of the 9th FINA World Championships in Fukuoka but without unfairly changing the official results of the race, the Bureau decided to grant a second set of gold medals to the USA team." Natalie Coughlin was one of four members of the USA team.

Individual events

Rank	Swimmer	Country	Gender	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Michael Phelps	United States	M	2001	2011	15	5	-	20
2	Ryan Lochte	United States	M	2005	2015	10	3	3	16
3	Katie Ledecky	United States	F	2013	2017	10	1	-	11
4	Sun Yang	China	M	2009	2017	9	2	1	12
5	Grant Hackett	Australia	M	1998	2007	7	6	1	14
6	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden	F	2009	2017	7	3	1	11
7	Katinka Hosszú	Hungary	F	2009	2017	7	1	5	13
8	Aaron Peirsol	United States	M	2001	2009	7	1	-	8
9	Ian Thorpe	Australia	M	1998	2003	6	1	1	8
10	César Cielo	Brazil	M	2009	2013	6	-	-	6

World records

The World Championships have often been the occasion at which elite swimmers reach the peak of their season, and hence numerous world records are often broken.

Participation

See also

• List of World Championships records in swimming
• Major achievements in swimming by nation
• Swimming at the Summer Olympics

References

External links

• FINA Official Championship Results History – Swimming (men)
• FINA Official Championship Results History – Swimming (women)