2024 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- 10-15 December 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Roster index
The countdown to the 2024 Short Course World Championships in Budapest has begun, marking the final competition of this Olympic year. To ease the anticipation, we’ve prepared an emergency kit for swimming nerds (like me) featuring a collection of stats and trivia about the Championships and 25m pool records.
HISTORY
- The 50m backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke events were introduced in the fourth edition, in Hong Kong 1999.
- The 4×50 freestyle and 4×50 medley relays were added in 2012 in Istanbul.
- The championships have been hosted by a different country each time, except for China and the UAE, which hosted twice (Shanghai 2006–Hangzhou 2018 and Dubai 2010–Abu Dhabi 2021).
The First Edition
In 1993, FINA organized the first Short Course World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. At the time, the event was exclusive to swimming and excluded other aquatic sports like synchronized swimming, diving, and water polo.
- China won the event with 10 gold medals.
- 12 world records were broken.
Nations
- Championship with the most nations: Abu Dhabi 2021, with 183 nations.
- The United States has won the medal table 9 out of 16 times.
- Record gold medals in a single edition – United States (21 golds, Indianapolis 2004).
- Record total medals in a single edition – United States (41 total, Indianapolis 2004).
- All-time medal table:
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
154 | 125 | 102 | 381 |
| 2 |  Australia |
91 | 99 | 81 | 271 |
| 3 |  China |
46 | 42 | 42 | 130 |
| 4 |  Sweden |
32 | 25 | 22 | 79 |
| 5 |  Russia |
29 | 28 | 43 | 100 |
| 6 |  Netherlands |
24 | 27 | 27 | 78 |
| 7 |  Brazil |
24 | 9 | 23 | 56 |
| 8 |  Great Britain |
22 | 41 | 44 | 107 |
| 9 |  South Africa |
22 | 17 | 8 | 47 |
| 10 |  Japan |
21 | 15 | 23 | 59 |
| 11 |  Hungary |
21 | 11 | 11 | 43 |
| 12 |  Germany |
20 | 27 | 27 | 74 |
| 13 |  Italy |
16 | 36 | 30 | 82 |
ATHLETES
- Most decorated swimmers in short course
Rank Swimmer Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 Ryan Lochte 21 10 7 38 2 Ranomi Kromowidjojo 14 9 5 28 3 Katinka Hosszu 17 8 2 27
- The youngest ever winner was Ruta Meilutyte in 2012 in Istanbul, where she won the 50m and 100m breaststroke at the age of 15.
- The oldest winner was Nicholas Santos at the 2022 Melbourne edition, when he won the 50m butterfly at the age of 42.
RACES AND RECORDS
- The longest-standing short course World Records are held by Paul Biedermann and Therese Alshammar, both set in 2009 and now 15 years old. The German Biedermann swam the 200m freestyle in 1:39.37, while the Swede Alshammar set the 50m butterfly record at 24.38.
- Currently, there are eight athletes who hold the World Records in both long course and short course of the same event:
- Katie Ledecky, 800m freestyle (LCM: 8:04.79 / SCM: 7:57.42)
- Katie Ledecky, 1500m freestyle (LCM: 15:20.48 / SCM: 15:08.24)
- Regan Smith, 100m backstroke (LCM: 57.13 / SCM: 54.27)
- Ruta Meilutyte, 50m breaststroke (LCM: 29.16 / SCM: 28.37)
- Katinka Hosszu, 200m IM (LCM: 2:06.12 / SCM: 2:01.86)
- Paul Biedermann, 200m freestyle (LCM: 1:42.00 / SCM: 1:39.37)
- Kliment Kolesnikov, 50m backstroke (LCM: 23.55 / SCM: 22.11)
- Caeleb Dressel, 100m butterfly (LCM: 49.45 / SCM: 47.78)
- The athletes who have set the most World Records in the 25m pool during their careers are Katinka Hosszu (18) among women and Ryan Lochte (11) among men.
