The World Aquatics 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, 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 aquatics discipline of swimming is considered the flagship event at every edition of the World Aquatics Championships since its introduction in 1973. While open water swimming events were added to the program in 1991, it is considered a separate discipline to swimming.
Sarah Fredrika Sjöström is a Swedish competitive swimmer specialising in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events.
Farida Hisham Osman is an Egyptian competitive swimmer who specializes in butterfly and freestyle events. She is an All-Africa Games gold medalist and Egyptian national champion and record-holder. Osman is the fastest female swimmer in Egypt and Africa, she is currently coached by Teri McKeever. Osman holds the senior national records for all the butterfly, freestyle and backstroke events, as well as African records in the 50m and 100m butterfly.
Evgeny Mikhailovich Rylov is a Russian competitive swimmer and Olympic champion specializing in backstroke events. He won three gold medals at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, and a bronze medal at his senior international debut at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan. He also won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and a gold medal at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, both were in the 200 metre backstroke event. In 2018, at the 2018 World Short Course Championships, he won gold medals in the 200 metre backstroke and 50 metre backstroke. At the 2019 World Championships, he won a gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke, silver medal in the 100 metre backstroke, and silver medal in the 50 metre backstroke. He won the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke and 200 metre backstroke at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Taylor Madison Ruck is a Canadian competitive swimmer. She won two Olympic bronze medals as part of Canada's women's 4×100 metre and 4×200 metre freestyle relay teams at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Ruck won eight medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Her eight medal performance of one gold, five silver, and two bronze tied her with three other athletes for the most all-time at a single Commonwealth Games, as well as making her the most decorated Canadian female athlete ever at a single Commonwealth Games. Ruck is the all-time leading medallist at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships having won nine gold, two silver, and two bronze over the course of the 2015 and 2017 editions.
Penelope Oleksiak is a Canadian competitive swimmer. Nicknamed "Magic Penny", she is one of her country's most decorated Olympians. Oleksiak rose to fame during the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she became the first Canadian to win four medals in the same Summer Games, and the country's youngest Olympic champion with her gold medal win in the 100 m freestyle. She was the first athlete born in the 2000s to claim an Olympic gold medal in an individual event. Her success led to her being awarded the 2016 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete, the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's top female athlete for 2016, and a member of the Canadian Press team of the year. Five years later she won three additional medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, breaking the national record for Olympic medals; joined in 2024 by sprinter Andre De Grasse, with seven Olympic medals each.
The swimming competitions at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima were held from 6 to 10 August at the Aquatic Centre. The open-water marathon was held on August 4 in Laguna Bujama.
The 15th FINA World Swimming Championships were held from 16 to 21 December 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was previously scheduled for 13 to 18 December but moved back three days on 24 February 2021. Originally scheduled to be held in 2020, the championships were pushed back one year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Competition took place in a 25-metre temporary pool installed at Etihad Arena.
Claire Curzan is an American competitive swimmer and Olympian. Specialising in multiple events, she earned an Olympic silver medal in the 4×100 meter medley relay in the 2020 Summer Olympics by swimming the preliminary butterfly leg. She holds junior world records in the long course 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly and the short course 50 meter butterfly and 100 meter butterfly. She also holds American records in the short course 50 meter backstroke and 50 meter butterfly, and formerly held the American record in the 100 yard butterfly. She currently swims for the Virginia Cavaliers.
David Popovici is a Romanian competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle events and is the reigning Olympic champion in the 200-metre event, having won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He is a former world record holder in the long course 100-metre freestyle and the current junior world record holder in the long course 200-metre freestyle. He also holds the junior world record in the short course 100-metre freestyle.
Lana Pudar is a Bosnian and Herzegovian competitive swimmer specializing in the butterfly events. She won the gold medal in the women's 200 m butterfly and a bronze medal in the women's 100 m butterfly at the 2022 European Aquatics Championships, and a bronze in the women's 200 m butterfly at the 2021 FINA World Swimming Championships. She competed at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics.
Kirabo Namutebi is a Ugandan swimmer who represented Uganda in the Women's 50m Freestyle Heat at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. During the 2020 ISF World School Games in France, she led team Uganda to France.
The 8th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships was held from 30 August to 4 September 2022 at the Videna Aquatic Center in Lima, Peru. It was open to competition for girls ages 14 to 17 years old and boys ages 15 to 18 years old at the end of the 2022 calendar year. All events were conducted in a 50-metre pool.
Daria Tatarinova is a Russian competitive swimmer. At the 2021 European Junior Swimming Championships, she won the gold medal in the 50 metre freestyle in European junior record time as well as gold medals in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, 4×100 metre mixed freestyle relay, 4×100 metre mixed medley relay, and the silver medal in the 100 metre freestyle.
Daria Sergeevna Klepikova is a Russian competitive swimmer. She is a Russian record holder in the short course 4×50 metre freestyle relay and 4×50 metre medley relay. She won two gold medals at the 2021 European Short Course Championships, one in the 4×50 metre freestyle relay and one in the 4×50 metre medley relay, swimming freestyle on each finals relay. At the 2021 European Junior Championships she won six gold medals and one silver medal in individual and relay events.
Vladislav Gerasimenko is a Russian competitive swimmer. He is a world junior record holder in the long course 4×100 metre medley relay, swimming a 59.53 for the breaststroke portion of the relay. He is a four-time medalist at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and a five-time medalist at the World Junior Swimming Championships, spanning breaststroke and freestyle disciplines. He competed at the 2021 European Short Course Swimming Championships, placing sixteenth in the preliminaries of the 50 metre breaststroke.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is set to compete at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan from 14 to 30 July.
Oleksandr Viktorovych Zheltyakov is a Ukrainian swimmer. He is twice gold medalist at the 2023 World Junior Championships and multiple European Junior Championships medalist.
