Records galore: Six things to know about the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore

[SINGAPORE] Not long after sundown on Thursday (Jul 10), President Tharman Shanmugaratnam declared the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore open, kickstarting 24 days of action that will, in all likelihood, see some record-breaking feats in the pool.

At the opening ceremony held at the Esplanade’s Singtel Waterfront Theatre, he spoke of how the world of aquatics has seen “remarkable advances” in recent years, as records that were long unbroken – and even regarded as unbreakable in some instances – have been surpassed.

The 22nd World Aquatics Championships is also an opportunity to celebrate the “quiet but profound” way in which sport can unite people, even as we root for different teams.

“In a world increasingly divided, sport reminds us that we can strive together even as we compete, that we can demonstrate our common humanity,” said President Tharman.

Among the 500-plus guests in attendance were World Aquatics president and former Kuwaiti national swimmer Husain Al-Musallam, several Singapore ministers, and some of the athletes from all over the world.

The championships began on Friday morning with water polo and will finish with the final swimming and diving events on Aug 3.

Here are six things to know about the World Aquatics Championships:

A first for South-east Asia

Singapore is the first country in South-east Asia to host this championships, which is considered the second most prestigious aquatics event after the Olympic Games.

It was back in February 2023 when it was announced that the Republic would stage the 2025 edition, taking over from Kazan, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Three competition venues

Swimming and artistic swimming events will take place at the new 4,800-seater WCH Arena, which was built earlier this year on a former open-air car park next to the Leisure Park Kallang mall, a short walk from the National Stadium.

The other two competition venues are the OCBC Aquatics Centre, where diving and water polo will take place; and Palawan Green in Sentosa, where spectators can catch the open water and high diving events.

Record participation

There will be over 2,500 athletes from 206 countries and territories competing across a record 77 medal events in six aquatics disciplines: swimming, artistic swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, and water polo.

In a speech at the opening ceremony on Thursday, Husain also revealed that, for the first time, there will be more female swimmers than males at the global meet.

Singapore is fielding a total of 72 athletes, its largest contingent to date. The group includes 32 athletes who are making their debut at the championships. 

Plenty of stars

It is a star-studded affair in Singapore, with Paris 2024 gold medal winners Leon Marchand, Summer McIntosh, Katie Ledecky, Thomas Ceccon and Kaylee McKeown all set to race in the pool.

Keep a lookout for Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky, the current world and Olympic champion in the men’s 10 km open water swimming. For the women, Australia’s Moesha Johnson is one to watch. She won a silver in the 10 km open swim in Paris and is one of the favourites to claim her first individual world title in Singapore.

In diving, China made a clean sweep of all the gold medals at the Paris Games and at last year’s world championships. If all goes according to plan, the likes of women’s four-time 3-metre springboard world champion Yani Chang and the men’s 10-m champion Hao Yang will take gold in Singapore too.

In artistic swimming, Olympic champions China will probably dominate the team competitions once again. For the men’s solo and mixed duet categories, check out the teams from the US, Japan, Ukraine and Spain who are all expected to do well.

Emergence of more swimming medallists

At the last championships held in Doha last year, 29 countries won swimming medals, which was the deepest medal table in the event’s history. World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki is expecting to see that number surpassed in Singapore.

“The sport is really at that point where general dominance of individuals or countries is dissipating,” the American said at a press conference on Thursday. 

“We are seeing more rising stars. Will we see more than 30 world records? I don’t know. Will we see more than 29 medallist countries? Yeah, maybe that’s what I expect. If we can pull that off, that would be a real testament to the growth of our sport.”

In Doha last year, the US won eight gold medals out of 20 overall in swimming, while China was second with seven golds from 11 medals.

More prize money

The Singapore edition will see athletes competing for a slice of a record prize money pool of more than US$6 million, with an additional US$30,000 world-record bonus in swimming. Last year in Doha, the total amount awarded was US$5.6 million.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit the official website for details