The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, 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. Dr. Hal Henning, FINA's president from 1972 through 1976, and their first American President, was highly instrumental in starting the first World Aquatics Championships, and in retaining the number of swimming events in the Olympics, which gave an advantage to nations with larger, more balanced swim teams.

The championships were first staged in 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, with competitions held in swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo. In 1991 open water swimming was added to the championships as a fifth discipline. In 2013 high diving was added to the championships as a sixth discipline. In 2017 the synchronised swimming discipline was renamed to artistic swimming.

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 held annually from 2022 to 2024 until back 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). At the recent 2025 championships athletes participated from 206 nations: 203 member federations, 1 Athlete Refugee Team and 2 Neutral Athletes teams.

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 September1Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Belgrade, Yugoslavia476863718 (M), 19 (W)United StatesEast GermanyItalyUnited States
197519–27 July2Colombia Cali, Colombia396823718 (M), 19 (W)United StatesEast GermanyHungaryUnited States
197820–28 August3West Germany West Berlin, West Germany498283718 (M), 19 (W)United States*Soviet UnionCanadaUnited States
198229 July – 8 August4Ecuador Guayaquil, Ecuador528483718 (M), 19 (W)United StatesEast GermanySoviet UnionUnited States
198613–23 August5Spain Madrid, Spain341,1194119 (M), 22 (W)East GermanyUnited StatesCanadaUnited States
19913–13 January6Australia Perth, Australia601,1424521 (M), 24 (W)United StatesChinaHungaryUnited States
19941–11 September7Italy Rome, Italy1021,4004521 (M), 24 (W)ChinaUnited StatesRussiaChina
19988–17 January8Australia Perth, Australia1211,3715324 (M), 27 (W), 2 (X)United StatesRussiaAustraliaUnited States
200116–29 July9Japan Fukuoka, Japan1341,4986129 (M), 32 (W)AustraliaChinaUnited StatesUnited States
200312–27 July10Spain Barcelona, Spain1572,0156229 (M), 33 (W)United StatesRussiaAustraliaUnited States
200516–31 July11Canada Montreal, Canada1441,7846229 (M), 33 (W)United StatesAustraliaChinaUnited States
200718 March – 1 April12Australia Melbourne, Australia1672,1586529 (M), 36 (W)United StatesRussiaAustraliaUnited States
200917 July – 2 August13Italy Rome, Italy1852,5566529 (M), 36 (W)United StatesChinaRussiaUnited States and China
201116–31 July14China Shanghai, China1812,2206629 (M), 36 (W), 1 (X)United StatesChinaRussiaChina
201319 July – 4 August15Spain Barcelona, Spain1812,2936830 (M), 37 (W), 1 (X)United StatesChinaRussiaUnited States
201524 July – 9 August16Russia Kazan, Russia1902,4007530 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)ChinaUnited StatesRussiaChina
201714–30 July17Hungary Budapest, Hungary1822,3607530 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)United StatesChinaRussiaUnited States
201912–28 July18South Korea Gwangju, South Korea1922,6237630 (M), 38 (W), 8 (X)ChinaUnited StatesRussiaUnited States
202218 June – 3 July19Hungary Budapest, Hungary1832,0347429 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)United StatesChinaItalyUnited States**
202314–30 July20Japan Fukuoka, Japan1952,3927531 (M), 33 (W), 11 (X)ChinaAustraliaUnited StatesUnited States
20242–18 February21Qatar Doha, Qatar1992,6037531 (M), 33 (W), 11 (X)China*United StatesAustraliaChina
202511 July – 3 August22Singapore Singapore2062,4347732 (M), 34 (W), 11 (X)ChinaAustraliaUnited StatesChina
202726 June – 18 July23Hungary Budapest, Hungary
202924China Beijing, China

* 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 2025 World Aquatics Championships.

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1United States312257201770
2China222136106464
3Australia13013498362
4Russia1057362240
5Italy Italy537381207
6East Germany514427122
7Germany486774189
8Hungary Hungary443736117
9Great Britain373967143
10France373839114
11Canada345775166
12Netherlands254236103
13Sweden Sweden21211860
14Japan205382155
15Spain184540103
16Brazil Brazil17151951
17Soviet Union16282872
18South Africa1491841
19Ukraine13203063
20West Germany871227
21Romania72918
22Poland6121230
23Neutral Athletes B68418
24Greece671023
25Tunisia63413
26Lithuania Lithuania63312
27Denmark Denmark49821
28Zimbabwe4509
29South Korea42612
30Serbia4217
31Mexico3182243
32Croatia33410
33Finland3227
34New Zealand26816
35Austria26614
36Belarus2136
Yugoslavia2136
38Portugal2114
39Ireland2002
40Switzerland18211
41North Korea1438
42Belgium1236
43Hong Kong1214
Norway1214
45Malaysia1168
46Bulgaria1146
47Colombia1124
Costa Rica1124
Serbia and Montenegro1124
50Kazakhstan1012
51Suriname1001
52Slovakia0325
53Czech Republic0303
54Neutral Athletes A0123
55Cuba0112
Czechoslovakia0112
Iceland0112
Jamaica0112
59Ecuador0101
Israel0101
Montenegro Montenegro0101
62Egypt0055
63Argentina0022
Neutral Independent Athletes0022
Singapore0022
66Bosnia and Herzegovina0011
Kyrgyzstan0011
Monaco0011
Puerto Rico0011
Trinidad and Tobago0011
Venezuela0011
Totals (71 entries)1,3111,3231,3073,941

Multiple gold medalists

Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count per type.

RankAthleteCountryGenderDisciplineFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1Michael PhelpsUnited StatesMSwimming20012011266133
2Katie LedeckyUnited StatesFSwimming20132025236130
3Svetlana RomashinaRussiaFArtistic swimming2005201921––21
4Natalia IshchenkoRussiaFArtistic swimming20052015192–21
5Ryan LochteUnited StatesMSwimming20052015185427
6Svetlana KolesnichenkoRussiaFArtistic swimming2011201916––16
7Caeleb DresselUnited StatesMSwimming20172022152–17
8Sarah SjöströmSwedenFSwimming20092024148325
9Alla ShishkinaRussiaFArtistic swimming2009201914––14
10Simone ManuelUnited StatesFSwimming20132025135220

Disciplines, events & medalists

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

Swimming (since 1973)

DistanceFreeBackBreastFlyI.M.Free relayMedley relayMixed free relayMixed medley relay
50 m●●●●
100 m●●●●
200 m●●●●●
400 m●●●●●●
800 m●●
1500 m●

Diving (since 1973)

Men's and women's events:

  • 1 m springboard
  • 3 m springboard
  • 10 m platform
  • synchronized 3 m springboard
  • synchronized 10 m platform

Mixed events:

  • synchronized 3 m springboard
  • synchronized 10 m platform
  • 3 m springboard / 10 m platform team

Artistic swimming (since 1973)

Except for Acrobatic routine, all events include technical and free routines, with medals awarded separately.

  • Solo, including men's solo since 2023
  • Duet, including mixed pair (male-female) since 2015
  • Team (since 2023 open event to men and women)
  • Acrobatic routine since 2023 (open event to men and women)

Water polo (since 1973)

  • Men's tournament
  • Women's tournament

Open water swimming (since 1991)

  • 3 km knockout sprints
  • 5 km
  • 10 km
  • Mixed relay

High diving (since 2013)

  • 27 m (men only)
  • 20 m (women only)

See also

Notes

External links

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Media related to World Aquatics Championships at Wikimedia Commons