2024 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Roster Index
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Pick’em
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Prelims Live Recap: Day 1
- Finals Live Recap: Day 1
Nearly 100 swimmers have earned prize money on the first day of the 2024 Short Course World Championships, and American Gretchen Walsh led the way with $58,750 – almost entirely owed to World Record bonuses.
World Aquatics is offering up $25,000 prize money bonuses for each World Record broken at the meet, and they got walloped on day 1, to the tune of 7 World Records for $175,000 in prize money bonuses – equal to almost 10% of the prize money available at the meet in total.
While we don’t expect that record-breaking pace to keep up throughout the meet (day one had the most obvious targets), the same record-breakers like Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Summer McIntosh, and later into the action Regan Smith still have lots more opportunities for World Records this week in Budapest. That includes Walsh again in the 50 fly final – even while becoming the first woman to break the 24 second barrier, she didn’t hit the wall quite right, so there might be another tenth or two in that swim with perfect turns and finishes.
Notes:
- NCAA swimmers can keep prize money up to their expenses; then there is a massive loophole where they can accept rewards from their National Olympic Committees, so as long as the rest of their prize money is funneled through those organizations (checks are all written to national federations, not athletes directly), it’s kosher.
- We’ve made the assumption that the four members of finals relays share the money equally. There is no rule about how money should be divided between members of a relay, so we’ll never officially know how much is awarded to each athlete, so we’re using this estimate.
Summary of $445,000 in Prize Money Awarded on Day 1
| Rank | Swimmer | Country | Event Money – Day 1 | World Record Bonuses |
Total Prize Money – After Day 1
|
| 1 | Gretchen Walsh | USA | $2,500 | $56,250 | $58,750 |
| 2 | Kate Douglass | USA | $12,500 | $31,250 | $43,750 |
| 3 | Summer McIntosh | Canada | $11,750 | $25,000 | $36,750 |
| 4 | Noe Ponti | Switzerland | $0 | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| 5 | Mary-Sophie Harvey | Canada | $14,750 | $14,750 | |
| 6 | Lani Pallister | Australia | $10,000 | $10,000 | |
| 6 | Shaine Casas | USA | $10,000 | $10,000 | |
| 6 | Ahmed Jaouadi | Tunisia | $10,000 | $10,000 | |
| 9 | Katharine Berkoff | USA | $2,500 | $6,250 | $8,750 |
| 9 | Alex Shackell | USA | $2,500 | $6,250 | $8,750 |
| 9 | Jack Alexy | USA | $2,500 | $6,250 | $8,750 |
| 9 | Luke Hobson | USA | $2,500 | $6,250 | $8,750 |
| 9 | Kieran Smith | USA | $2,500 | $6,250 | $8,750 |
| 9 | Chris Guiliano | USA | $2,500 | $6,250 | $8,750 |
| 15 | Alex Walsh | USA | $8,000 | $8,000 | |
| 15 | Alberto Razzetti | Italy | $8,000 | $8,000 | |
| 15 | Florian Wellbrock | Germany | $8,000 | $8,000 | |
| 18 | Abbie Wood | Great Britain | $7,000 | $7,000 | |
| 18 | Finlay Knox | Canada | $7,000 | $7,000 | |
| 18 | Kuzey Tuncelli | Turkey | $7,000 | $7,000 | |
| 21 | Paige Madden | USA | $6,000 | $6,000 | |
| 21 | Carson Foster | USA | $6,000 | $6,000 | |
| 21 | Damien Joly | France | $6,000 | $6,000 | |
| 24 | Claire Weinsterin | USA | $5,000 | $5,000 | |
| 24 | Ellen Walshe | Ireland | $5,000 | $5,000 | |
| 24 | David Schlicht | Australia | $5,000 | $5,000 | |
| 24 | Sven Schwarz | Germany | $5,000 | $5,000 | |
| 28 | Isabel Gose | Germany | $4,000 | $4,000 | |
| 28 | Rebecca Meder | South Africa | $4,000 | $4,000 | |
| 28 | Ilia Borodin | Neutral Athletes B | $4,000 | $4,000 | |
| 28 | Luca de Tullio | Italy | $4,000 | $4,000 | |
| 32 | Leah Neale | Australia | $3,000 | $3,000 | |
| 32 | Emma Carrasco | Spain | $3,000 | $3,000 | |
| 32 | Berke Saka | Turkey | $3,000 | $3,000 | |
| 32 | Kirill Martynychev | Neutral Athletes B | $3,000 | $3,000 | |
| 36 | Sofia Diakova | Neutral Athletes B | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Tamara Potocka | Slovakia | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Daiya Seto | Japan | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Zalan Sarkany | Hungary | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Meg Harris | Australia | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Milla Jansen | Australia | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Alexandria Perkins | Australia | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Alessandro Miressi | Italy | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Leonardo Deplano | Italy | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Lorenzo Zazzeri | Italy | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 36 | Manuel Frigo | Italy | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
| 47 | Ingrid Wilm | Canada | $1,750 | $1,750 | |
| 47 | Penny Oleksiak | Canada | $1,750 | $1,750 | |
| 47 | Kamil Sieradzki | Poland | $1,750 | $1,750 | |
| 47 | Jakub Majerski | Poland | $1,750 | $1,750 | |
| 47 | Ksawery Masiuk | Poland | $1,750 | $1,750 | |
| 47 | Kacper Stokowski | Poland | $1,750 | $1,750 | |
| 53 | Daria Klepikova | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Daria Trofimova | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Milana Stepanova | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Arina Surkova | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Egor Kornev | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Dmitrii Zhavoronkov | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Aleksandr Shchegolev | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 53 | Andrei Minakov | Neutral Athletes B | $1,500 | $1,500 | |
| 61 | Sofia Morini | Italy | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Sara Curtis | Italy | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Chiara Tarantino | Italy | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Emma Menicucci | Italy | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Marco Antonio Ferereira | Brazil | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Guilherme Santos | Brazil | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Kaique Alves | Brazil | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 61 | Leonardo Coelho Santos | Brazil | $1,250 | $1,250 | |
| 69 | Sara JUvenik | Sweden | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Louise Hansson | Sweden | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Hanna Bergman | Sweden | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Sofia Aastedt | Sweden | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Sergio de Celis Montalban | Spain | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Luis Dominguez | Spain | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Miguel Perez-Godoy Brageli | Spain | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 69 | Nacho Campos Beas | Spain | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 77 | Nikolett Padar | Hungary | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Panna Ugrai | Hungary | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Petra Senanszky | Hungary | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Lilla Abraham | Hungary | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Jere Hribar | Croatia | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Nikola Miljenic | Croatia | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Vlaho Nenadic | Croatia | $750 | $750 | |
| 77 | Toni Dragoja | Croatia | $750 | $750 | |
| 85 | Nina Jazy | Germany | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Niocle Maier | Germany | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Nina Holt | Germany | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Nele Schulze | Germany | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Maximillian Giuliani | Australia | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Edward Sommerville | Australia | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Harrison Turner | Australia | $500 | $500 | |
| 85 | Matthew Temple | Australia | $500 | $500 |
It’s nice seeing swimmers earn decent money.
Compared to 2021 it is a big reduction, about 33% in event prize money and 50% reduction in WR bonuses (see link in the article). That means payouts for day 1 is about $300,000 less than what the 2021 pay-scale offered.
Speaking of money, I wonder how much money in endorsements Kate Douglass earned in the Visa commercial during the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Why is there $0 event money for Noe Ponti?
Because he didn’t win the event (he set a WR in semis). Final is tomorrow.
It was a semifinal swim so he hasn’t actually WON the event yet, that’s also why Walsh has relatively low event money because she only has the relay money in that category.
@Braden Keith, correct if I’m wrong but I think that the relay bonus (10000 $) needs to be divided by the number of swimmers including prelim swimmers. USA used 6 women in total which means Gretchen for example will get 1666,66 $.
WR bonus is right. It’s only divided by 4 (The final swimmers).
1) There’s a note on this
2) I can’t imagine sharing the WR bonus with prelims swimmers. Maybe the prize money for winning, but not the WR bonus.
1. I just checked it.
2. Yeah that’s what I meant. WR bonus is only shared by the 4 final swimmers.
But the prize money of winning the relay is 100 % shared with the prelim swimmers, which will impact the whole money table above.
No hate on Jillian Cox, but I can’t see how a 55 split shares evenly in the prize money.
So while we all hate what lawyers have done to college athletics let’s also remember that before 2021 the NCAA would make sure to ruin her life if she took this prize money. Their stubborn attempt to keep their cartel going is the primary thing to be blamed for the current mess that threatens college sports
$6250 is chump change to Kate Douglass especially after the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup.
Shaine is like why did Leon have to take down Lochte’s WR first?
$58,750 in 2 minutes = $1,762,500 per hour! just saying….
Juan Soto, eat your heart out.
That sounds nice and all but that’s not the reality. She put in a lot more hours than that to earn that money. I hope her and others are able to continue cashing in at this meet.
Then there is Elon Musk.
Still less than some CEO’s