Swimming at the World Aquatics Championships

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.

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).

Year	Date	Edition	Location	Events (men/women/mixed)		Winner of the medal table	Second in the medal table	Third in the medal table
				Long course	Open water
1973	31 August – 9 September	1	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	East Germany	United States	Australia
1975	19–27 July	2	Cali, Colombia	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	United States	East Germany	Hungary
1978	20–28 August	3	West Berlin, West Germany	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	United States	Soviet Union	Australia
1982	29 July – 8 August	4	Guayaquil, Ecuador	15 / 14 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	East Germany	United States	Soviet Union
1986	13–23 August	5	Madrid, Spain	16 / 16 / 0	0 / 0 / 0	East Germany (3)	United States	West Germany
1991	3–13 January	6	Perth, Australia	16 / 16 / 0	1 / 1 / 0	United States	Hungary	Germany
1994	1–11 September	7	Rome, Italy	16 / 16 / 0	1 / 1 / 0	China	Australia	United States
1998	8–17 January	8	Perth, Australia	16 / 16 / 0	2 / 2 / 2	United States	Australia	China
2001	16–29 July	9	Fukuoka, Japan	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	Australia	United States	Italy
2003	12–27 July	10	Barcelona, Spain	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Australia	Russia
2005	16–31 July	11	Montreal, Canada	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Australia	Germany (2)
2007	18 March – 1 April	12	Melbourne, Australia	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Australia	Russia (2)
2009	17 July – 2 August	13	Rome, Italy	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 0	United States	Germany	Australia
2011	16–31 July	14	Shanghai, China	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 1	United States	China	Brazil
2013	19 July – 4 August	15	Barcelona, Spain	20 / 20 / 0	3 / 3 / 1	United States	China	France
2015	24 July – 9 August	16	Kazan, Russia	20 / 20 / 2	3 / 3 / 1	United States	Australia	China
2017	14–30 July	17	Budapest, Hungary	20 / 20 / 2	3 / 3 / 1	United States	France	Great Britain
2019	12–28 July	18	Gwangju, South Korea	20 / 20 / 2	3 / 3 / 1	United States	Australia (7)	Hungary (2)
2022	18 June – 3 July	19	Budapest, Hungary	20 / 20 / 2	3 / 3 / 1	United States	Italy	Australia (4)
2023	14–30 July	20	Fukuoka, Japan	20 / 20 / 2	2 / 2 / 1	Australia (2)	United States (5)	China (3)
2024	2–18 February	21	Doha, Qatar	20 / 20 / 2	2 / 2 / 1	United States (15)	China (3)	Australia (5)
2025	TBA	22	Kallang, Singapore	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
2027	TBA	23	Budapest, Hungary	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

The number of events competed for at each edition of the championships has grown steadily through the years. In 1973, 29 events were swum: 15 for men and 14 for women, all in the pool. Since 2015, the combined number of events for men and women including pool and open water events has been 49, a drastic increase compared to the first edition. Historically, 50 different events have been held across the 17 editions of the championships.

Long course events have been competed since the inaugural edition of the championships in 1973. The youngest male swimmer to participate in the World Swimming Championships was Ahnt Khaung Htut^[1] from Myanmar, who was 12 years old in 2015. He took part at the 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke events. The youngest female swimmer to participate in the World Swimming Championships was 10-year-old Alzain Tareq^[2] from Bahrain in 2015. She participated at the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle events.

A select number of athletes have won medals at both long course and open water events, including Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia, Hayley Lewis from Australia, Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy, Florian Wellbrock from Germany, and Sharon van Rouwendaal from the Netherlands. For a full list of medalists covering all editions of the championships see List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men) and List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women). For a complete list of medal winners in open water swimming see List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming.

Updated after the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	254	205	150	609
2	Australia	101	107	69	277
3	China	62	31	55	148
4	East Germany	50	40	25	115
5	Hungary	35	19	28	82
6	Great Britain	27	23	47	97
7	Italy	26	30	33	89
8	Germany	22	39	39	100
9	France	22	23	27	72
10	Russia	20	36	28	84
11	Sweden	20	20	17	57
12	Netherlands	14	30	28	72
13	Canada	14	25	44	83
14	South Africa	12	7	16	35
15	Japan	11	27	40	78
16	Soviet Union	11	20	21	52
17	Brazil	9	12	10	31
18	West Germany	8	7	11	26
19	Ukraine	8	6	7	21
20	Poland	6	11	12	29
21	Spain	5	7	6	18
22	Lithuania	5	3	3	11
23	Denmark	4	9	8	21
24	South Korea	4	2	2	8
25	Romania	4	1	7	12
26	Zimbabwe	3	5	0	8
27	Tunisia	3	3	3	9
28	Finland	3	2	1	6
29	New Zealand	2	6	8	16
30	Belarus	2	1	1	4
31	Portugal	2	1	0	3
	Serbia	2	1	0	3
33	Ireland	2	0	0	2
34	Hong Kong	1	2	1	4
	Norway	1	2	1	4
36	Costa Rica	1	1	2	4
37	Greece	1	1	1	3
38	Belgium	1	0	2	3
39	Suriname	1	0	0	1
40	Switzerland	0	6	2	8
41	Austria	0	4	4	8
42	Slovakia	0	3	2	5
43	Croatia	0	2	0	2
44	Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
	Iceland	0	1	1	2
	Jamaica	0	1	1	2
	Yugoslavia	0	1	1	2
48	Czech Republic	0	1	0	1
	Israel	0	1	0	1
50	Egypt	0	0	3	3
51	Singapore	0	0	2	2
52	Argentina	0	0	1	1
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0	0	1	1
	Neutral Independent Athletes [a]	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1
	Venezuela	0	0	1	1
Totals (57 entries)		779	786	776	2,341

Boldface denotes active swimmers and highest medal count among all swimmers (including these who not included in these tables) per type.

Rank	Swimmer	Country	Gender	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Michael Phelps	United States	M	2001	2011	** 26 **	6	1	** 33 **
2	Katie Ledecky	United States	F	2013	2023	21	5	–	26
3	Ryan Lochte	United States	M	2005	2015	* 18 *	5	* 4 *	** 27 **
4	Caeleb Dressel	United States	M	2017	2022	15	2	–	17
5	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden	F	2009	2024	14	8	3	25
6	Simone Manuel	United States	F	2013	2019	* 11 *	3	2	* 16 *
7	Missy Franklin	United States	F	2011	2015	11	2	3	16
	Sun Yang	China	M	2009	2019	11	2	3	16
9	Lilly King	United States	F	2017	2023	* 11 *	2	–	* 13 *
10	Ian Thorpe	Australia	M	1998	2003	11	1	1	13

* including one medal in the relay event in which this swimmer participated in the heats only
** including two medals in the relay events in which this swimmer participated in the heats only

Rank	Swimmer	Country	Gender	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Katie Ledecky	United States	F	2013	2023	16	3	–	19
2	Michael Phelps	United States	M	2001	2011	15	5	–	20
3	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden	F	2009	2024	14	6	3	23
4	Sun Yang	China	M	2009	2019	11	2	1	14
5	Ryan Lochte	United States	M	2005	2015	10	3	3	16
6	Katinka Hosszú	Hungary	F	2009	2019	9	1	5	15
7	Caeleb Dressel	United States	M	2017	2022	8	–	–	8
8	Grant Hackett	Australia	M	1998	2007	7	6	1	14
9	Ana Marcela Cunha	Brazil	F	2011	2024	7	1	7	15
10	Aaron Peirsol	United States	M	2001	2009	7	1	–	8

The World Championships have often been the occasion at which elite swimmers reach the peak of their season, and hence numerous world records are often broken.

• List of World Championships records in swimming

• Major achievements in swimming by nation
• Swimming at the Summer Olympics

• FINA Official Championship Results History – Swimming (men)
• FINA Official Championship Results History – Swimming (women)^{[permanent dead link‍]}