The 14th FINA World Championships were held on 16–31 July 2011 in Shanghai, China at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The 2011 World Championships featured five aquatics disciplines: swimming, water polo, diving, open water, and synchronized swimming. At this championships, synchronized swimmer Natalia Ishchenko, of Russia, was the most decorated competitor winning all six gold medals of her events, at solo, duet and team routines. These championships served as qualifying stages for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Park Tae-hwan is a South Korean competitive swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. He has four Olympic medals, five world titles, and 20 Asian Games medals. He won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and a silver in the 200-meter freestyle events at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He also won two silver medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle. He is the first Asian swimmer to claim a gold medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle, and the first-ever South Korean swimmer to win any Olympic medal in swimming. He also holds 3 Asian Records, all in Men's Freestyle. He is best known for his impressive range and versatility, as he is able to compete at international level in 100-, 200-, 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle.
Mireia Belmonte García is a Spanish Olympic, world, and European champion swimmer. She is the world record holder in the short course 200 metre butterfly and 400 metre individual medley. Formerly, she held the world record in the short course 400 metre freestyle, 800 metre freestyle, and 1500 metre freestyle. She was the first Spanish woman to win a gold medal in swimming at an Olympic Games and is widely considered to be the greatest Spanish swimmer of all time.
Sun Yang is a Chinese Olympic and former world-record-holding competitive swimmer. In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming. Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Olympic and World Championship gold medals at every freestyle distance from 200 to 1500 metres. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time world champion, he is the most decorated Chinese swimmer in history. In 2017, NBC Sports described him as "very arguably the greatest freestyle swimmer of all time".
Chloe Elizabeth Sutton Mackey is an American retired competition swimmer who specializes in freestyle and long-distance events. Sutton represented the United States at two consecutive Olympic Games. Sutton has won a total of five medals in major international competition, three gold, one silver, and one bronze spanning the Open Water Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, and Pan American Games. She was a member of the 2012 United States Olympic team, and competed in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Katinka Hosszú is a Hungarian competitive swimmer specialized in individual medley events. She is a three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion. She is the owner of a Budapest-based swim school and swim club called Iron Swim Budapest, and a co-owner and captain of Team Iron, founding member of the International Swimming League.
Haley Danita Anderson is an American competitive swimmer who is an Olympic silver medalist. She placed second in the 10-kilometer open water event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Yannick Agnel is a French former competitive swimmer who specialized in freestyle events, and is a three-time Olympic medalist. In his Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won gold in the 200-meter freestyle, gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. He is the current world record holder in the 400-meter freestyle, the European record holder in the 800-meter freestyle, and the national record holder in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle.
Sharon van Rouwendaal is a Dutch swimmer and the Olympic gold medalist in the 10 km open water marathon at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Gregorio Paltrinieri is an Italian competitive swimmer. He is a former world record holder in the short course 1500 metre freestyle. He holds the European record in the long course 800 metre and 1500 metre freestyle events with times of 7:39.27 and 14:32.80, respectively. In the 1500 metre freestyle, he is a 2016 Olympic, three-time world long course, two-time world short course, three-time European long course, and three-time European short course champion. In the 800 metre freestyle, he is a 2019 world long course, 2022 world short course, three-time European long course, and 2021 European short course champion. In the 10 kilometre open water swim, he is a 2022 world and 2020 European champion. In the 5 kilometre open water swim, he is a two-time European champion.
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer. She has won nine Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. With 14 medals and 9 gold medals, she is also the most decorated American woman, most decorated female swimmer, the woman with the most gold medals and fifth-most decorated athlete in Olympic history. She has won a record 16 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships. Ledecky's 10 individual medals at the Olympics and 26 overall medals at the World Aquatics Championships are records in women's swimming. Ledecky is the world record holder in the women's 800- and 1500-meter freestyle, as well as the former world record holder in the women's 400-meter freestyle. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. She is widely regarded as the greatest female swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Ashley Grace Twichell is an American competition swimmer who specializes in long-distance freestyle and open-water events. She placed seventh in the 10 kilometer open water swim at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Twichell's age at her Olympic Games debut, 32 years of age, made her the oldest American swimmer first-timer at an Olympic Games since 1908.
Mackenzie James Horton is an Australian retired freestyle swimmer. He is an Olympic gold medallist, World Championships gold medallist, and 4-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he took the gold in the 400m freestyle, and became the first male swimmer from the state of Victoria to win an Olympic swimming gold in the Games' history.
Andrew Hammond Seliskar is a retired American competitive swimmer. He won the gold medal in the 200 meter butterfly at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai, breaking the Championships record.
Li Bingjie is a Chinese swimmer. She is the world record holder in the short course 400 metre freestyle. She is also the Asian record holder in the long course 400 metre freestyle as well as the short course 1500 metre freestyle. She is the 2021 World Short Course champion in the 400 metre freestyle and 800 metre freestyle. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay and a bronze medal in the 400 metre freestyle.
Grayson Bell is an Australian swimmer. He competed in the men's 50 metre breaststroke event at the 2018 FINA World Swimming Championships, in Hangzhou, China.
Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui is a Tunisian swimmer. He is the African record holder in the long course 400-metre and 1500-metre freestyle, and the short course 800-metre and 1500-metre freestyle events. He competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he won a gold medal in the men's 400-metre freestyle. He ranked No. 16 in the world and was the slowest qualifier for the final race but won Olympic gold with a time of 3:43.36. Hafnaoui was the only Tunisian to win Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020.
Lani Pallister is an Australian competitive swimmer. She is a world record holder in two sports, with a world record in swimming, the short course 4×200-metre freestyle relay, and world records in life saving for the youth age group in the 100-metre rescue medley and 200-metre super lifesaver. She holds the Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian records in the short course 1500-metre freestyle and the Australian record in the short course 800-metre freestyle. She is the first female World Short Course champion in the 1500-metre freestyle, winning the inaugural event for women at the 2022 edition. Over the course of the 2022 World Short Course Championships, she won the gold medal in each of the four events she contested.
Sven Schwarz is a German competitive swimmer. He is the world junior record holder in the short course 800 metre freestyle, and the 2023 European under-23 champion over 800 metres. He won a silver medal in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay and bronze medals in the 800 metre and 1500 metre freestyle at the 2019 European Junior Championships. In 2021, he won one bronze medal each in the 800 metre freestyle and 1500 metre freestyle at the 2021 European Short Course Championships. At the 2022 European Aquatics Championships, he placed fifth in the final of the 800 metre freestyle.
Dávid Betlehem is a Hungarian competitive pool and open water swimmer. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, he won a silver medal in the open water 4×1500 metre team relay. At the 2020 European Aquatics Championships, he won a bronze medal in the 5 kilometre open water team relay. At the 2022 World Junior Open Water Championships, he won gold medals in the 10 kilometre open water swim and team relay. He won the silver medal in the 1500 metre freestyle at the 2021 European Junior Swimming Championships.
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