FINA World Aquatics Championships
Flag of FINA
Status	active
Genre	sporting event
Date(s)	mid-year
Frequency	biennial
Location(s)	various
Inaugurated	1973 (1973)
Most recent	Budapest 2022
Previous event	Gwangju 2019
Next event	Fukuoka 2023
Organised by	FINA

The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events are contested in a long course (50-metre) pool.

The event was first held in 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and is now held every two years. From 1978 to 1998, the World Championships were held every four years, in the even years between Summer Olympic years. From 2001 until 2019, the Championships have been held every two years, in the odd years.

Due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the scheduling of both the Olympic Games and the Championships between 2019 and 2025 became somewhat erratic, with World Championships not taking place in Japan in 2021 to accommodate the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, and then delayed again to 2023 because of pandemic-related issues in Japan. As a result, an extraordinary edition of the event was announced for 2022 in Budapest, Hungary, so as not to leave a four year gap between World Championships. As a result, World Championships will be held in four consecutive years for the first time – 2022 in Budapest,Hungary, 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan (the original 2021 event hosts, delayed thrice), 2024 in Qatar (moved to 2024 from the original 2023 event, then moved again to January to accommodate the 2024 Summer Olympics), and 2025 in a place to be announced. This will also mean there will be six global championships in the space of four years (mid 2021 - to mid 2025). The circle resumes with Budapest hosting the event again in 2027.

Athletes from all 209 FINA members could take part in the competition. In 2019, records were set for the most countries participating, with 192 members, and the most athletes participating, with 2,623 athletes.^[1]

Championships

Year	Dates	Edition	Location	Athletes	Events	Events Details	Winner	Second	Third	Most Medals
1973	31 August – 9 September	1	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	686	37	18 (M), 19 (W)	United States	East Germany	Italy	United States
1975	19–27 July	2	Cali, Colombia	682	37	18 (M), 19 (W)	United States	East Germany	Hungary	United States
1978	20–28 August	3	West Berlin, West Germany	828	37	18 (M), 19 (W)	United States*	Soviet Union	Canada	United States
1982	29 July – 8 August	4	Guayaquil, Ecuador	848	37	18 (M), 19 (W)	United States	East Germany	Soviet Union	United States
1986	13–23 August	5	Madrid, Spain	1119	41	19 (M), 22 (W)	East Germany	United States	Canada	United States
1991	3–13 January	6	Perth, Australia	1142	45	21 (M), 24 (W)	United States	China	Hungary	United States
1994	1–11 September	7	Rome, Italy	1400	45	21 (M), 24 (W)	China	United States	Russia	China
1998	8–17 January	8	Perth, Australia	1371	53	24 (M), 27 (W), 2 (X)	United States	Russia	Australia	United States
2001	16–29 July	9	Fukuoka, Japan	1498	61	29 (M), 32 (W)	Australia	China	United States	United States
2003	12–27 July	10	Barcelona, Spain	2015	62	29 (M), 33 (W)	United States	Russia	Australia	United States
2005	16–31 July	11	Montreal, Canada	1784	62	29 (M), 33 (W)	United States	Australia	China	United States
2007	18 March – 1 April	12	Melbourne, Australia	2158	65	29 (M), 36 (W)	United States	Russia	Australia	United States
2009	17 July – 2 August	13	Rome, Italy	2556	65	29 (M), 36 (W)	United States	China	Russia	United States and  China
2011	16–31 July	14	Shanghai, China	2220	66	29 (M), 36 (W), 1 (X)	United States	China	Russia	China
2013	19 July – 4 August	15	Barcelona, Spain[2][3][4]	2293	68	30 (M), 37 (W), 1 (X)	United States	China	Russia	United States
2015	24 July – 9 August	16	Kazan, Russia[5]	2400	75	30 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)	China	United States	Russia	China
2017	14–30 July	17	Budapest, Hungary[6]	2360	75	30 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)	United States	China	Russia	United States
2019	12–28 July[7]	18	Gwangju, South Korea	2623	76	30 (M), 38 (W), 8 (X)	China	United States	Russia	United States
2022	18 June – 3 July[8]	19	Budapest, Hungary[9]	2034	74	29 (M), 37 (W), 8 (X)	United States	China	Italy	United States**
2023	14–30 July[10]	20	Fukuoka, Japan[11]
2024	2–18 February[12]	21	Doha, Qatar
2025		22	Kazan, Russia[13]
2027		23	Budapest, Hungary[13]

* Record by number of gold medals –  United States (23 gold medals, 1978)
** Record by number of total medals –  United States (49 medals in total, 2022)

All-time medal table

Updated after the 2022 World Aquatics Championships.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	286	218	167	671
2	China	164	108	82	354
3	Russia	105	73	62	240
4	Australia	95	106	79	280
5	East Germany	51	44	27	122
6	Italy	46	45	64	155
7	Hungary	40	31	31	102
8	Germany	37	62	67	166
9	Great Britain	30	27	51	108
10	France	28	33	29	90
11	Canada	26	50	60	136
12	Netherlands	18	36	32	86
13	Sweden	17	20	17	54
14	Brazil	17	15	17	49
15	Soviet Union	16	28	28	72
16	Japan	14	47	72	133
17	Ukraine	12	17	27	56
18	South Africa	12	6	16	34
19	Spain	10	35	27	72
20	West Germany	8	7	12	27
21	Poland	6	10	9	25
22	Denmark	4	8	8	20
23	Greece	4	5	8	17
24	Zimbabwe	4	5	0	9
25	Serbia	4	2	1	7
26	Romania	4	1	7	12
27	Finland	3	2	2	7
28	Croatia	2	3	4	9
29	Tunisia	2	2	4	8
30	Lithuania	2	2	3	7
31	Belarus	2	1	3	6
	Yugoslavia	2	1	3	6
33	South Korea	2	1	2	5
34	Mexico	1	8	13	22
35	Switzerland	1	5	1	7
36	Norway	1	2	1	4
37	Malaysia	1	1	6	8
38	Bulgaria	1	1	4	6
39	Belgium	1	1	2	4
	Costa Rica	1	1	2	4
	FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro	1	1	2	4
	North Korea	1	1	2	4
43	Colombia	1	0	0	1
	Suriname	1	0	0	1
45	New Zealand	0	5	6	11
46	Austria	0	3	5	8
47	Slovakia	0	3	2	5
48	Czech Republic	0	3	0	3
49	Cuba	0	1	1	2
	Czechoslovakia	0	1	1	2
	Iceland	0	1	1	2
	Jamaica	0	1	1	2
53	Ecuador	0	1	0	1
	Montenegro	0	1	0	1
55	Egypt	0	0	3	3
56	Argentina	0	0	2	2
	Singapore	0	0	2	2
58	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1
	Venezuela	0	0	1	1
Totals (60 entries)		1084	1092	1081	3257

Multiple gold medalists

Boldface denotes active athletes and highest medal count per type.

Rank	Athlete	Country	Gender	Discipline	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Michael Phelps	United States	M	Swimming	2001	2011	26	6	1	33
2	Svetlana Romashina	Russia	F	Synchronised swimming	2005	2019	21	–	–	21
3	Katie Ledecky	United States	F	Swimming	2013	2022	19	3	–	22
4	Natalia Ishchenko	Russia	F	Synchronised swimming	2005	2015	19	2	–	21
5	Ryan Lochte	United States	M	Swimming	2005	2015	18	5	4	27
6	Svetlana Kolesnichenko	Russia	F	Synchronised swimming	2011	2019	16	–	–	16
7	Caeleb Dressel	United States	M	Swimming	2017	2022	15	2	–	17
8	Alla Shishkina	Russia	F	Synchronised swimming	2009	2019	14	–	–	14
9	Anastasia Davydova	Russia	F	Synchronised swimming	2001	2011	13	1	–	14
10	Alexandra Patskevich	Russia	F	Synchronised swimming	2009	2017	13	–	–	13

Disciplines

Except as noted below, there are male and female categories for each event.

Swimming

Diving

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 added at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships:

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

High diving

• 27m (men only)
• 20m (women only)

High diving included since the 15th FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2013 in Barcelona but was dropped at the 2022 championship due the lack of suitable venues.

Open water swimming

• 5 km
• 10 km
• 25 km
• Mixed Team

Open water swimming was first held at the 1991 FINA World Championships.

Synchronized swimming

Except for Free Combination and Highlight, all events include technical and free routines, with medals awarded separately.

• Solo
• Duet, including mixed pair (male-female) since the 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2015 in Kazan
• Team
• Free combination
• Highlight since 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju

Water polo

• Men's tournament
• Women's tournament