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 Aquatics 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 Aquatics 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 medals197331 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 Singapore2062,4347732 (M), 34 (W), 11 (X)202726 June – 18 July23 Budapest, Hungary202924 Beijing, China * Record by number of gold medals – (23 gold medals, 1978) and (23 gold medals, 2024) ** Record by number of total medals – (49 medals in total, 2022)

All-time medal table Updated after the 2025 World Aquatics Championships.

Multiple gold medalists Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count per type. Rank Athlete Country Gender Discipline From To Gold Silver BronzeTotal 1 Michael Phelps M Swimming 2001 2011 26 6 1 33 2 Katie Ledecky F Swimming 2013 2025 23 6 1 30 3 Svetlana Romashina F Artistic swimming 2005 2019 21 – – 21 4 Natalia Ishchenko F Artistic swimming 2005 2015 19 2 – 21 5 Ryan Lochte 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 Alla Shishkina F Artistic swimming 2009 2019 14 – – 14 10 Simone Manuel F Swimming 2013 2025 13 5 2 20

Disciplines, events & medalists Except where specified below, there are male and female categories for each event.

Swimming (since 1973)

Distance Free Back Breast Fly I.M. Free relay Medley relay Mixed free relay Mixed medley relay50 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 World Aquatics World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships World Aquatics Swimming World Cup World Aquatics Masters Championships FINA Marathon Swim World Series List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men) List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women) List of World Championships records in swimming Major achievements in swimming by nation

Notes

References

External links

1973 World Aquatics Championships results 1975 World Aquatics Championships results 1978 World Aquatics Championships results 1982 World Aquatics Championships results 1986 World Aquatics Championships results 1991 World Aquatics Championships results 1994 World Aquatics Championships results 1998 World Aquatics Championships results 2001 World Aquatics Championships results 2003 World Aquatics Championships results 2005 World Aquatics Championships results 2007 World Aquatics Championships results 2009 World Aquatics Championships results 2011 World Aquatics Championships results 2013 World Aquatics Championships results 2015 World Aquatics Championships results 2017 World Aquatics Championships results 2019 World Aquatics Championships results 2022 World Aquatics Championships results 2023 World Aquatics Championships results 2024 World Aquatics Championships results 2025 World Aquatics Championships results Results from Omegatiming (archived) Results from sports123 (Swimming) (archived) Results from sports123 (Diving) (archived) Results from sports123 (Synch swimming) (archived) Results from sports123 (Waterpolo) (archived) Results from TheSports.org Results from Swimrankings