Who Made The Most Money at the Swimming World Cup Stop in Incheon?

2024 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – INCHEON

• Thursday, October 24th – Saturday, October 26th
• Prelims at 9:30am local (8:30pm previous night ET)/Finals at 7:30m local (6:30am ET)
• Munhak Park Tae-Hwan Swimming Pool, Incheon, South Korea
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Central
• Event Schedule
• Entered Athletes
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Finals Recap
• Results

After a fast weekend of racing in Incheon, the dust has finally settled on the second stop of the 2024 World Cup and several swimmers are walking away from the meet with extra money in their pockets.

On the men’s side, Noe Ponti improved upon his runner-up performance in Shanghai to win the $12,000 first place bonus over Leon Marchand by .1. Marchand, who won the leaderboard in Shanghai will take home $10,000 for his effort in finishing 2nd. Both swimmers swept their events in Incheon, but Ponti ultimately got the upper-hand with his times coming closer to the current world records in his events.

Similar to the story on the men’s side, the top two finishers on the women’s side from Shanghai flipped their finish here, with American Regan Smith leading Kate Douglass by .2. Though the pair were extremely close through most of the meet, Smith’s American Record in the 200 backstroke sealed the deal for her, especially with Douglass scratching the 200 IM on Saturday. Theoretically, if Douglass had decided to swim the 200 IM in Incheon, she still would’ve needed to be significantly faster than she was in the event in Shanghai to beat Smith. In order to beat Smith outright for the title, Douglass would have had to have posted a time of 2:02.64 based on her other point totals, but she was only 2:04.09 in Shanghai. With Douglass’ best time standing at a 2:02.12, she might have had a chance, but Smith certainly made herself hard to beat with her performances.

Both Douglass and Smith broke individual World Records in Incheon as well, with Douglass breaking the mark in the 200 breast and Smith taking down the 100 back. With that, they will each walk away from the meet with a $10,000 world record bonus in addition to their other earnings.

In accordance with the latest structure of the World Cup, the top 20 athletes for both genders will take home prize money from their performance in Incheon. Though Douglass and Smith were awarded bonuses for breaking the world records in their respective events, none of the athletes received money for winning an individual event at the meet.  Instead, additional bonuses will be awarded to athletes who sweep an event across all 3 stops of the competition. With the final stop slated to occur next week, several of those bonuses have the potential to be handed out. In addition, it seems likely that either Smith or Douglass/Marchand or Ponti will walk away with the $100,000 series bonus.

• Read more about the scoring and prize money here.

Men’s Standings/Earnings – Incheon

Women’s Standings/Earnings – Incheon

Overall Prize Money Through 2/3 Stops

Men

Women

How does the prize money and scoring work?

Courtesy: Sophie Kaufman

Scoring System

Like previous years, points are awarded from the finish order and how fast the swim is based on the AQUA Power Points system.

Points are awarded for speed by taking the number of AQUA Power Points a swim is worth, dividing by ten, and rounding down to the nearest tenth.

Prize Money

Swimmers can race as many events as they want at each stop, but only their three best scores from a stop will be added together to determine their score for the stop. At each stop, there is a total of $112,000 (USD) on offer for each gender or $672,000 for the whole series. This is the same amount as was available in 2023 and 2022.

Prize money for rankings at each stop is given through the top 20 positions with men and women scored separately. If there is a tie, the swimmer with the higher AQUA Power Points in their best event during the stop wins.

Prize Money for Each Stop: 

There is also prize money for the top eight swimmers per gender at the end of the entire series. The winner of the men’s and women’s standings will each earn $100,000. A total of $262,000 will be awarded across the top eight swimmers per gender at the end of the series. Again, this is the same amount of money that was on offer in 2023.

Prize Money for Overall Series Ranking: 

Total Guaranteed Prize Money To Be Awarded

• Shanghai – $224,000 ($112,00 per gender)
• Incheon – $224,000 ($112,00 per gender)
• Singapore – $224,000 ($112,00 per gender)
• Overall Series Rankings – $524,000 ($262,000 per gender)
• Total – $1,196,000

Additional Prize Money

In addition to the guaranteed prize money from rankings at the end of each stop and the end of the series, swimmers can earn money by breaking a world record or completing a Triple Crown—winning the same event at all three stops.

Swimmers can pick up $10,000 USD for each world record and $10,000 for each Triple Crown. Last year, Kaylee McKeown broke two world records at the World Cup series, swimming 26.86 in the 50 backstroke and a 57.33 100 backstroke at the Budapest stop. There were 20 Triple Crowns won in 2023; 12 were won by women as every women’s freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly events were Triple Crowns.

2023 Swimming World Cup Triple Crowns

Women:

• 50 freestyle — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden
• 100 freestyle — Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong
• 200 freestyle — Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong
• 400 freestyle — Erika Fairweather, New Zealand
• 800/1500 freestyle — Lani Pallister, Australia
• 50 backstroke — Kaylee McKeown, Australia
• 100 backstroke — Kaylee McKeown, Australia
• 200 backstroke — Kaylee McKeown, Australia
• 200 breaststroke — Tes Schouten, Netherlands
• 50 butterfly — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden
• 100 butterfly — Zhang Yufei, China
• 200 butterfly — Zhang Yufei, China

Men:

• 100 freestyle — Thomas Ceccon, Italy
• 50 backstroke — Michael Andrew, United States
• 100 backstroke — Thomas Ceccon, Italy
• 50 breaststroke — Qin Haiyang, China
• 100 breaststroke — Qin Haiyang, China
• 200 breaststroke — Qin Haiyang, China
• 200 butterfly — Matthew Sates, South Africa
• 200 IM — Matthew Sates, South Africa

2023 Results

McKeown and Qin Haiyang followed up their exploits at the 2023 World Championships, where they became the first swimmers to sweep 50/100/200 of a stroke at a World Championships by winning the 2023 Swimming World Cup.

McKeown claimed the women’s trophy win 177.4 points ahead of Siobhan Haughey (166.4) and Zhang Yufei (166.2). Over the three stops of the 2023 World Cup, McKeown earned three backstroke Triple Crowns, broke two world records, and lowered the backstroke World Cup records each time she swam.

Qin won the men’s table with 175.4 points, with Thomas Ceccon (167.9) and Matthew Sates (166.8) finishing second and third. Qin earned three breaststroke Triple Crowns, setting World Cup records in the 50 and 200 breast at the first stop of the series in Berlin.

While not always the case, in 2023 the World Cup overall winners also earned the most prize money throughout the series. Qin earned $166,000 while McKeown topped all swimmers with $186,000.