The World Aquatics Swimming World Cup (formerly known as the FINA Swimming World Cup) is an international series of swimming meets organized by World Aquatics (the international governing body formerly known as FINA). Launched in 1988, the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup is staged between August and November every year and attracts a high level of athletes due to the considerable prize money on offer. The event is traditionally held in short course (25m pool) format, with a switch to long course (50m pool) format in pre-Olympics years.
Prior to the COVID hiatus in 2020 the event was being held in three clusters, totaling seven three day meets across seven different locations with prize money reaching US$2.5 million.[1] The event resumed in 2021 as four meets each of three days duration, and the 2023 edition will be staged as three meets each of three days duration.
The event is popular with prominent swimmers due to the prize money on offer. In 2022 a total of US$1.2 million was awarded. For each meet the top 20 male and female athletes shared US$224,000 prize money ($112,000 per gender). At the end of the meet series an additional US$262,000 per gender was awarded to the top eight men and women athletes based on their overall ranking using a point score incorporating placings and performance.[2]
The 2023 event is notable for a number of reasons including a switch to long course (50m) format as a pre-Olympics year event, the event acting as a qualifying meet for both the forthcoming World Aquatics Championships in 2024 and Olympic Games in 2024, and the introduction of an “open” category in 50m and 100m events to allow swimmers to compete in events regardless of their gender assigned at birth.[3]
Events
Traditionally the events are the same for all meets but the competition order may vary, although this has varied from the 2021 resumption of the meet. All events are swum prelims/finals, with the exception of the 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle which are swum as timed finals (fastest heat in the finals session). The meets are held over two or three days, with preliminary heats in the morning and finals in the evening. A noted exception to this style are the meets held in Brazil, where prelims have been in the evening with finals the following morning.
On most years, the races are held in short course pools; the exception recently being the season leading up to an Olympic year where events are swum in long course venues.
Current 2023 series events (to be swum in 50m pools):
- Freestyle: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1500
- Backstroke: 50, 100 and 200
- Breaststroke: 50, 100 and 200
- Butterfly: 50, 100 and 200
- Individual Medley: 200, and 400
- Relays: 4 × 100 m freestyle (men and women), 4 x 200m freestyle (men and women) , 4 × 100 m medley (men, women and mixed) [4][5][6]
An 'Open' category was created in 2023 after World Aquatics announced that trans women were banned from competing in the womens category if they had “experienced any part of male puberty beyond tanner stage two, or before [the] age [of] 12, whichever is later". The category was cancelled after no one entered under that category.[7]
Winners
Most wins
- As of 21 November 2022[12]
- Active swimmers*
- r = relays
| No. | Men | Country | Wins | Women | Country | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chad le Clos |  South Africa |
151* | Katinka Hosszú |  Hungary |
305 + 3(r)*[13] |
| 2 | Vladimir Morozov |  Russia |
109 + 14(r)* | Martina Moravcová |  Slovakia |
105 |
| 3 | Roland Schoeman | South Africa |
64 | Therese Alshammar |  Sweden |
93 |
| 4 | Cameron van der Burgh | South Africa |
59 | Alia Atkinson |  Jamaica |
73 |
| 5 | Daiya Seto |  Japan |
55* | Sarah Sjöström | Sweden |
72* |
| 6 | Randall Bal |  United States |
54 | Yana Klochkova |  Ukraine |
60 |
| 7 | Mark Foster |  United Kingdom |
53 | Mette Jacobsen |  Denmark |
52 |
| 8 | Christian Keller |  Germany |
53 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany |
52 |
| 9 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa |
43 | Sandra Voelker | Germany |
45 |
| 10 | Alexander Popov | Russia |
42 | Franziska Van Almsick | Germany |
42 |
Medals table (1988-2016)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Australia (AUS) | 809 | 861 | 912 | 2582 |
| 2 | Germany (GER) | 744 | 604 | 502 | 1850 |
| 3 | United States (USA) | 680 | 657 | 527 | 1864 |
| 4 |  China (CHN) | 558 | 486 | 485 | 1529 |
| 5 | Russia (RUS) | 469 | 434 | 414 | 1317 |
| 6 | South Africa (RSA) | 443 | 310 | 244 | 997 |
| 7 | Great Britain (GBR) | 355 | 330 | 382 | 1067 |
| 8 | Sweden (SWE) | 342 | 305 | 301 | 948 |
| 9 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Canada (CAN) | 332 | 325 | 366 | 1023 |
| 10 | Hungary (HUN) | 323 | 194 | 134 | 651 |
| 11 | Japan (JPN) | 309 | 355 | 360 | 1024 |
| 12 | Ukraine (UKR) | 199 | 116 | 105 | 420 |
| 13 |  Brazil (BRA) | 180 | 244 | 318 | 742 |
| 14 |  Netherlands (NED) | 166 | 120 | 83 | 369 |
| 15 | Denmark (DEN) | 166 | 119 | 118 | 403 |
| 16 |  Italy (ITA) | 147 | 173 | 212 | 532 |
| 17 |  France (FRA) | 133 | 162 | 189 | 484 |
| 18 |  New Zealand (NZL) | 107 | 82 | 86 | 275 |
| 19 | Slovakia (SVK) | 102 | 34 | 25 | 161 |
| 20 |  East Germany (GDR) | 91 | 30 | 23 | 144 |
| 21 |  Poland (POL) | 84 | 101 | 110 | 295 |
| 22 |  Soviet Union (URS) | 68 | 47 | 43 | 158 |
| 23 |  Finland (FIN) | 61 | 46 | 46 | 153 |
| 24 |  Romania (ROU) | 58 | 67 | 67 | 192 |
| 25 |  Spain (ESP) | 54 | 75 | 63 | 192 |
| 26 | Jamaica (JAM) | 52 | 23 | 26 | 101 |
| 27 |  South Korea (KOR) | 38 | 56 | 65 | 159 |
| 28 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Belgium (BEL) | 38 | 27 | 28 | 93 |
| 29 |  Croatia (CRO) | 37 | 44 | 39 | 120 |
| 30 |  Norway (NOR) | 35 | 23 | 32 | 90 |
| 31 |  Costa Rica (CRC) | 31 | 25 | 8 | 64 |
| 32 |  CIS (CIS) | 31 | 13 | 17 | 61 |
| 33 |  Tunisia (TUN) | 30 | 11 | 9 | 50 |
| 34 |  Belarus (BLR) | 22 | 47 | 47 | 116 |
| 35 | West Germany (FRG) | 22 | 9 | 16 | 47 |
| 36 |  Austria (AUT) | 20 | 32 | 34 | 86 |
| 37 |  Czech Republic (CZE) | 19 | 33 | 30 | 82 |
| 38 |  Lithuania (LTU) | 19 | 21 | 25 | 65 |
| 39 |  Slovenia (SLO) | 17 | 50 | 44 | 111 |
| 40 |  Argentina (ARG) | 14 | 21 | 22 | 57 |
| 41 |  Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) | 13 | 20 | 8 | 41 |
| 42 |  Ireland (IRL) | 13 | 8 | 10 | 31 |
| 43 |  Singapore (SGP) | 10 | 29 | 33 | 72 |
| 44 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Switzerland (SUI) | 10 | 13 | 29 | 52 |
| 45 |  Kenya (KEN) | 7 | 5 | 4 | 16 |
| 46 |  Egypt (EGY) | 6 | 5 | 6 | 17 |
| 47 |  Serbia (SRB) | 5 | 17 | 10 | 32 |
| 48 |  Hong Kong (HKG) | 5 | 13 | 56 | 74 |
| 49 |  Colombia (COL) | 5 | 6 | 11 | 22 |
| 50 |  Estonia (EST) | 4 | 7 | 13 | 24 |
| 51 |  Faroe Islands (FAR) | 4 | 7 | 3 | 14 |
| 52 |  Israel (ISR) | 3 | 15 | 21 | 39 |
| 53 |  Kazakhstan (KAZ) | 3 | 13 | 7 | 23 |
| 54 |  Greece (GRE) | 3 | 7 | 9 | 19 |
| 55 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| 56 |  Chinese Taipei (TPE) | 2 | 8 | 12 | 22 |
| 57 |  Portugal (POR) | 2 | 7 | 13 | 22 |
| 58 |  Mexico (MEX) | 2 | 6 | 3 | 11 |
| 59 |  Moldova (MDA) | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| 60 |  Bulgaria (BUL) | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| 61 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Yugoslavia (YUG) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 62 |  Indonesia (INA) | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| 63 |  Barbados (BAR) | 2 | 2 | 7 | 11 |
| 64 |  Turkey (TUR) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| 65 |  Algeria (ALG) | 1 | 5 | 5 | 11 |
| 66 |  Chile (CHI) | 1 | 5 | 0 | 6 |
| 67 |  Zimbabwe (ZIM) | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| 68 |  Cuba (CUB) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 69 |  Latvia (LAT) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
 Uzbekistan (UZB) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 71 |  Liechtenstein (LIE) | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 72 |  Puerto Rico (PUR) | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 73 |  Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 74 |  Malaysia (MAS) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 75 |  Iceland (ISL) | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 76 |  Vietnam (VIE) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 77 |  Venezuela (VEN) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 78 |  Luxembourg (LUX) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 79 |  Syria (SYR) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 United Arab Emirates (UAE) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 81 |  Ecuador (ECU) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Macau (MAC) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Papua New Guinea (PNG) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Paraguay (PAR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Peru (PER) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Sri Lanka (SRI) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (86 entries) | 7523 | 6952 | 6862 | 21337 | |
- Some silver and bronze medals since 1988 to 1993 are missing.
Venues
References
- ↑ "FINA Swimming World Cup 2019 | fina.org - Official FINA website". Archived from the original on 2019-04-21. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
- ↑ "Swimming World Cup 2022 - Prize money". World Aquatics. 2022-08-24. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
- ↑ "World Aquatics Debuts Open Category at Berlin Swimming World Cup 2023". World Aquatics. 2023-08-16. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
- ↑ "Competition Info | FINA Official". World Aquatics. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
- ↑ "Competition Info | FINA Official". World Aquatics. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
- ↑ "Competition Info | FINA Official". World Aquatics. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
- ↑ Noyce, Eleanor (2023-10-04). "Not one person signed up for the 'open' category at the Swimming World Cup". PinkNews. Retrieved 2023-10-04.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 "FINA Swimming World cup : Golden Book" (PDF). Fina.org. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- 1 2 Moravcova Tops Final FINA World Cup Rankings; Balcerzak is Top American – January 29, 2001 Archived April 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Swimming World Magazine: published 2001-01-29; retrieved 2009-06-13.
- ↑ Kamardina, Olga (30 October 2021). "Sates and McKeon topped overall ranking". FINA. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ↑ Dornan, Ben (31 October 2021). "McKeon, Sates, Toussaint, Shields Earn Over $100K From FINA 2021 World Cup". SwimSwam. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-22. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ "Katinka Hosszu Wraps up 300th World Cup Gold with 200 Fly Win in Kazan". November 2019.
- 1 2 as East Berlin
- ↑ as Leningrad
External links
- "Fina-Arena-Worldcup Berlin 2008". 19 October 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- "Swimrankings - Swimming Rankings and Results - Worldwide, International Swim Sport". Swimrankings.net. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- "Katinka Hosszu Becomes First Swimmer to 200 World Cup Wins". Swimswam.com. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
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