The 2025 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, first stop of three will kick off today from Carmel, Indiana. The world’s best will take on the short course meter meet, first in Carmel, with stop two being in Westmont, Illinois, and the third will be in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The World Aquatics Swimming World Cup began in the 1980s and was originally known as the FINA World Cup, allowing athletes to compete through the year and continue to earn prize money. We have tracked the prize money dating back to 2007, where the meet became a single-season, fall circuit.
This year’s edition of the World Cup will award an estimated $1,196,000 in prize money across the three stops which is the same as the four previous years dating back to the 2021 World Cup of $1,196,000.
The major difference in this year’s payouts are the “Crown Buster” which will be at the final stop of the series in Toronto. At this stop, additional prize money of $2,500 will be awarded to a swimmer who wins an event for the first time in the series. This swimmer will earn the prize money, if they break the streak of a swimmer going for their third event win of the series. For example, at the Carmel and Westmont stops, swimmer A won the 100 butterfly, however at the Toronto stop, swimmer B wins the 100 butterfly, preventing swimmer A from winning. Swimmer B will thus win the Crown Buster prize.
The Crown(s), will be awarded to a swimmer, who wins the same event at all three stops of the series and will receive additional prize money of $10,000. This goes for all events, excluding the 800 and 1500 freestyle. In which a swimmer who wins all three events- alternating between the stops of the series will earn the Crown.
At each stop of the World Cup tour, the top 20 swimmers in each gender will receive awards, with first place earning $12,000 and 20th place receiving $4,000. The total prize money for the top 20 swimmers at each stop is $112,000 per gender. Across the three stops, the combined prize money amounts to $336,000 per gender, which in total brings the award money to $672,000.
Now for the overall winner, it will be defined based on the position of the athletes following the completion of the series. The scoring and rankings will be based on results from all stops on the series (limited to 3 best events per city). The overall prize money will be awarded to the top 8 swimmers of each gender, with the top prize bringing in $100,000, and the final swimmer finishing in the top 8 with $4,000.
Additionally, there will be a payout of $10,000 for any World Records that are broken during the series.
See below the chart as provided by World Aquatics for the place by place payout for the series:
Note: these payouts are per gender. The top 20 men and top 20 women at each stop earn prize money, plus the top 8 men and top 8 women overall.
Prize Money Per Stop
The prize money will be given out per gender and awarded separately. Having the top 20 men and top 20 women receiving prize money.
| Ranking Position | Total | Ranking Position | Total |
| 1 | $12,000 | 11 | $4,900 |
| 2 | $10,000 | 12 | $4,800 |
| 3 | $8,000 | 13 | $4,700 |
| 4 | $6,000 | 14 | $4,600 |
| 5 | $5,5000 | 15 | $4,500 |
| 6 | $5,400 | 16 | $4,400 |
| 7 | $5,300 | 17 | $4,300 |
| 8 | $5,200 | 18 | $4,200 |
| 9 | $5,100 | 19 | $4,100 |
| 10 | $5,000 | 20 | $4,000 |
Overall Winner
Similarly to the prize money per stop, the overall winners are also aware separately by gender having the top 8 men and top 8 women receiving prize money.
| Overall Ranking | Total | Overall Ranking | Total |
| 1 | $100,000 | 5 | $14,000 |
| 2 | $70,000 | 6 | $12,000 |
| 3 | $30,000 | 7 | $11,000 |
| 4 | $15,000 | 8 | $10,000 |
Sucks they limit it to only 3 events, imagine how much money Walsh, Douglass, McIntosh, etc would make if they can swim however much they wanted
I get why they put that rule in, but it does suck. Gotta make the economics better where folks are incentivized to come finish 4th.