World swimming will return to Beijing, China in 2026 for the 2026 World Aquatics World Swimming Championships (better known as the World Short Course Swimming Championships). The meet will take place at the iconic ‘Water Cube’ that played host to the 2008 Olympic Games where Michael Phelps won his legendary 8 gold medals.
“We are thrilled and deeply honoured to host the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in 2026 in Beijing, a city with a proud Olympic history and a passion for aquatic sports,” said Chinese Swimming Association President Zhou Jihong.
World Aquatics is touting over 1,000 athletes from over 200 nations to participate in the 25 meter version of its global swimming championship, though both numbers would be high based on the event’s history.
The announcement was made after the conclusion of the World Aquatics General Congress this week in Singapore at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships. Unlike this year’s event, the 2026 championship is exclusive to pool swimming.
Beijing is a relatively-late selection: Budapest was chosen as the 2024 hosts, for example, in July 2017. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of war between frequent hosts Russia and Ukraine, however, have disrupted hosting planning and shoved meets around over the last five years.
Beijing is also scheduled to host the multi-sport World Aquatics Championships in 2029.
The Chinese capital is the only city to have hosted both the Summer Olympics (2008) and the Winter Olympics (2022).
The National Aquatics Centre, known colloquially as the “Water Cube” because of its square shape and water-drop-patterened lit up exterior, held 17,000 spectators for the 2008 Olympic Games. After the Olympics, that number was reduced to 4,598, still making it one of the largest permanent aquatic centers in the world. While many major meets are moving into multi-sport arenas with temporary pools built, Short Course World Championships have remained in primarily aquatic facilities – albeit sometimes with expanded seating. The Duna Arena in Budapest hosted in 2024 and the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Center hosted in 2022.
After the Olympics, it was converted into a water park, with a main pool, a demonstration pool, and a training pool, complete with seven story water slides, a wave machine, and performance stages.
The Water Cube was temporarily reconfigured to host the curling events at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
China previously hosted the World Short Course Championships in Shanghai in 2006 and Hangzhou in 2011. A total of 109 World Aquatics events have been produced in China, including the 2011 World Aquatics Championships. 38 of those events have been in Beijing.
Oh the glorious Water Cube, what a cool pool design.
pool tierlist article?
That’s a great idea for an article, and the Water Cube would have to be high on the list. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to Beijing.
It was especially nice to see that the WC was still being actively used as a water park/rec facility, considering how some host cities have just let the pools decay. They even had a gift shop and small museum of the 2008 Olympics (with an entire section devoted to Michael Phelps).
That’s slightly awkward for the Chinese swimmers, I’d assume they still prioritize Asian Games over this but they have to take it somewhat seriously now.
So we’re going to ignore the entire Chinese team was busted for PEDs last year, just like they were 25 years ago with HGH, and then the “turtle blood soup” secret which turned out to be drugs too?
You’re gonna side with the cheaters on this one really?
What would be the qualifying meet for USA Swimmers for this?
Summer nationals (LCM)
The Zhou Jihong express…
Just don’t do training camp in Asia again team USA
Asian countries should probably host all future world championship, LCM and SCM.
Timezones is friendly to me 😁
Good timezone for Aussie fans but no doubt we’ll send a very weak team.