World Aquatics Masters Championships

World Aquatics Masters Championships
Status	Active
Genre	Sporting event
Date	Mid-year
Frequency	Biennial
Country	Varying
Inaugurated	1986 (1986)
Most recent	Singapore 2025
Previous event	Doha 2024
Next event	Budapest 2027
Participants	85 Federations
Organised by	World Aquatics
Website	https://www.worldaquatics.com/

The World Aquatics Masters Championships (formerly the FINA World Masters Championships) are an international multi-sport Aquatics championships for competitors aged 25 years and older, in accordance with World Aquatics rules and regulations. It is the highest level of masters swimming in the world. The championships are usually held biennially, with competition in all five World Aquatics disciplines: swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and artistic swimming. Starting in 2015, the competition has been held jointly with the World Aquatics Championships.

History

The event is organised by World Aquatics, the global governing body for aquatic sports. Originally called the FINA World Masters Championships, now the World Aquatics Masters Championships since Fukuoka 2023 after FINA rebranded to World Aquatics. Competition is for athletes aged 25 and older, with a minimum age of 30 in water polo.

The first edition of the championships under this formal masters program was held in 1986 in Tokyo, Japan. The championships draw a global field of international athletes, the 2025 edition in Singapore — the first time the event was held in Southeast Asia — hosted around 6,000 athletes from approximately 100 countries.

Disciplines

The Championships typically include competition in:

Swimming – held in 50 m long course pools with age groups divided in five-year increments.

Open Water Swimming – usually contested over distances such as 3 km.

Diving – including springboard, platform, and synchronised events.

Artistic Swimming – solo, duet, mixed duet, and team routines.

Water Polo – with age-group tournaments for both men's and women's teams.

Age groups begin at 25–29 (or 30–34 in water polo) and progress in five-year increments (25–29, 30–34, 35–39, etc.) without an upper limit and discipline is separated into gender and age categories. This structure ensures fair competition within comparable age brackets. Relay teams use combined age totals, allowing teams to form squads across multiple age groups. Competitors represent both their registered club/team and compete under the flag of their national federation.

Editions

Number	Year	Location	Dates	Results
Non-FINA World Masters Championships
-	1978	Toronto, Canada
-	1984	Christchurch, New Zealand
FINA World Masters Championships
1	1986	Tokyo, Japan	12–16 July
2	1988	Brisbane, Australia	10–15 October
3	1990	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	6–13 August
4	1992	Indianapolis, USA	25 June–5 July
5	1994	Montreal, Canada	4–10 July
6	1996	Sheffield, Great Britain	23 June–3 July
7	1998	Casablanca, Morocco	19–30 June
8	2000	Munich, Germany	29 July–4 August
9	2002	Christchurch, New Zealand	21 March–3 April
10	2004	Riccione, Italy	1–13 June
11	2006	Stanford, USA	4–17 August
12	2008	Perth, Australia	18–25 April
13	2010	Gothenburg-Borås, Sweden	27 July–7 August
14	2012	Riccione, Italy	3–17 June
15	2014	Montreal, Canada	27 July–10 August
Jointly with the World Aquatics Championships
16	2015	Kazan, Russia	5–16 August
17	2017	Budapest, Hungary	7–20 August
18	2019	Gwangju, South Korea	5–18 August
19	2023	Fukuoka, Japan	2–11 August
20	2024	Doha, Qatar	23 February–3 March
21	2025	Singapore	26 July–22 August
22	2027	Budapest, Hungary
23	2029	Beijing, China

Results

Results are archived on the Masters section on the World Aquatics website.

2019

Source:

  *   Host nation (South Korea)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain	45	42	39	126
2	United States	40	24	35	99
3	Japan	33	30	26	89
4	Brazil	23	17	25	65
5	Thailand	21	6	4	31
6	Australia	18	9	3	30
7	South Africa	14	8	5	27
8	Russia	12	9	10	31
9	Hungary	11	7	11	29
10	Germany	6	4	0	10
11	Denmark	6	3	1	10
12	Israel	6	0	1	7
13	Romania	5	4	2	11
14	Italy	4	14	0	18
15	Netherlands	4	8	3	15
16	China	4	5	4	13
17	Canada	2	2	7	11
18	South Korea*	1	7	12	20
19	France	1	3	3	7
20	Sweden	1	2	2	5
21	Ukraine	1	1	5	7
22	Spain	0	4	1	5
23	Mexico	0	2	4	6
24	Greece	0	1	0	1
	Malaysia	0	1	0	1
	Norway	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland	0	1	0	1
28	Croatia	0	0	1	1
	Egypt	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1
Totals (30 entries)		258	215	206	679

See also

• World Aquatics Championships
• Masters Swimming
• European Aquatics Masters Championships

External links

• Website for the results of the FINA World Masters Championships are reported in the FINA dedicated web page (PDF)
• FINA XIV World Masters Champs 2012 in Riccione (ITA) (PDF)