2022 FINA Short Course World Championships
- Tuesday, December 13 – Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne, Australia
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
There will be more than $2.1 million (USD) up for grabs at next month’s Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, a decrease compared to the $2.8 million that was on the line last year in Abu Dhabi.
Prize money will be distributed to the top eight finishers in each event—both individual and relays—with the winner earning $10,000 and a total of $45,000 handed out in each race. Last year, each winner earned $15,000 and a total of $67,500 was distributed per event.
The breakdown will be the same as it was at the 2018 championships in Hangzhou, China. The total prize pool sees a slight increase, from $2.07 to $2.16 million, due to the addition of the women’s 1500 free and the men’s 800 free to the program.
| 2018 Breakdown | 2021 Breakdown | 2022 Breakdown | |
| 1st place | $10,000 | $15,000 | $10,000 |
| 2nd place | $8,000 | $12,000 | $8,000 |
| 3rd place | $7,000 | $10,500 | $7,000 |
| 4th place | $6,000 | $9,000 | $6,000 |
| 5th place | $5,000 | $7,500 | $5,000 |
| 6th place | $4,000 | $6,000 | $4,000 |
| 7th place | $3,000 | $4,500 | $3,000 |
| 8th place | $2,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 |
| Total per event | $45,000 | $67,500 | $45,000 |
Note: Prize money for relay events is the same as for individual events, but the prize money is per relay team not per athlete.
There will also be a $25,000 bonus awarded to swimmers who break a world record over the course of the meet.
At last year’s SC Worlds, when the world record prize was $50,000, four new world records were set.
At the 2022 Long Course World Championships in Budapest, a total of $2.73 million was awarded in the pool swimming competition, with each winner earning $20,000.
FINA recently gave out nearly $1.4 million ($1,396,000) at its World Cup series, $200,000 of which came in the form of bonuses from either the ‘triple crown’ or new world records.
When FINA made a significant increase to its prize money pool last year, a primary reason was believed to be the International Swimming League (ISL), which awarded over $6 million in prize money during its fourth season in 2021. This year’s ISL season was canceled due to the war in Ukraine.
WR should get a million.
god that’s such BS. These are the finest athletes in the world.
Just goes to show the significance of competition to FINA events .. it raises the prize money for athletes etc
Where does all this money come from? It seems like a bubble.
Funding? It’s not really a hard concept to wrap your head around. And it’s not exactly a huge amount of money that is up for grabs either
Who is providing the funding?
“…When FINA made a significant increase to its prize money pool last year, a primary reason was believed to be the International Swimming League…”
It’s because it was in the Middle East where countries like UAE 🇦🇪 and Qatar 🇶🇦 possess oil money and are able to offer a bigger prize money compared to other nations in pretty much every sport.