FINA has released meet information for the 14th edition of the Short Course World Swimming Championships, which includes the prize money pool. The 2018 Short Course World Championships will be held from December 11th-16th in Hangzhou, China.
The meet will include enough stars to make it interesting, including Caeleb Dressel, Michael Andrew, Ryan Murphy, and Kathleen Baker from the US, but generally falls short of the prestige of the long course equivalent that comes each summer following the Short Course World Championships (for example, Sarah Sjostrom, the world’s best sprint butterflier, is skipping the meet, as is Katie Ledecky).
Notably, the total prize money pool is the exact same as the last SC World Championships in 2016 held in Windsor, Canada. In total, the prize money pool equates to $1.173 million USD – with $867,000 USD allocated towards individual events and $306,000 USD allocated towards relay events.
The full breakdown, which is equally distributed to men and women for both individual events and relay events, is noted below:
- 1st place: $8,000 USD
- 2nd place: $6,000 USD
- 3rd place: $4,000 USD
- 4th place: $2,500 USD
- 5th place: $2,000 USD
- 6th place: $1,500 USD
- 7th place: $1,000 USD
- 8th place: $500 USD
In the event of a tie, the prize money associated with the highest tied position will be equally paid to the individual athletes and/or relay athletes. In addition, FINA will award $15,000 USD for any World Record set during the Championships.
For comparison’s sake, the 2017 FINA World Championships (LC) prize money for individual and relay events was as seen below:
- 1st place: $20,000 USD
- 2nd place: $15,000 USD
- 3rd place: $10,000 USD
- 4th place: $5,000 USD
- 5th place: $4,000 USD
- 6th place: $3,000 USD
- 7th place: $2,000 USD
- 8th place: $1,000 USD
Additionally, there was a $30,000 USD bonus for a World Record set during the Championships.
FINA’s other prominent event(s), the World Cup series, is a little bit of a different story. While there is a total purse over $2.5 million USD this fall, it is broken out across 7 meets within 3 different clusters (spanning approximately two months).
At each individual competition, prize money is broken down as follows for individual events:
- 1st place: $1,500 USD
- 2nd place: $1,000 USD
- 3rd place: $500 USD
- 4th place: $400 USD
- 5th place: $300 USD
- 6th place: $200 USD
For relays, only the top-3 teams receive prize money (only the mixed 200 free and medley relays are contested):
- 1st place: $3,000 USD
- 2nd place: $2,000 USD
- 3rd place: $1,000 USD
Additionally, $10,000 USD is awarded for each World Record performance.
There are other performance bonuses as well. The top 3 male and top 3 female swims of the each meet earn bonus points. Top swims are determined based on FINA points. Only the top-scoring swim from each athlete is counted.
- 1st: 24 points
- 2nd: 18 points
- 3rd: 12 points
The top-8 point scorers for each cluster receive the following prize money:
- 1st place: $50,000 USD
- 2nd place: $35,000 USD
- 3rd place: $30,000 USD
- 4th place: $20,000 USD
- 5th place: $10,000 USD
- 6th place: $5,000 USD
- 7th place: $4,000 USD
- 8th place $3,000 USD
At the end of the series, the top-3 in overall points will receive bonuses of $150k, $100k, and $50k:
- 1st place: $150,000 USD
- 2nd place: $100,000 USD
- 3rd place: $50,000 USD
Athletes are responsible for any national taxes that might be levied on their earnings. National Federations have to notify FINA if money should be paid directly to the federation or the the athletes. In cases of athletes declining money, then, for example if they wish to maintain an amateur status, National Federations can therefore absorb that money without it simply remaining on FINA’s books.
