2021 FINA SHORT COURSE SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
- Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- SCM (25m)
- Prize Money
- Meet Site
- Psych Sheet
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- FINA Live Results
- Omega Live Results
For the third-straight edition of the FINA World Short Course Championships, the United States led all countries in gold medals in 2021. Their 9 topped Canada (7) and Italy (5) in the traditional gold-silver-bronze medal sorting.
For the 6th-straight edition, the United States also earned the most total medals with 30, bettering Italy’s 16 and the 15 earned by both Russia and Canada.
While Team USA’s results were a drop from their historic 17 gold, 37-total medal performance in the last edition in 2018,
Drop from 17 in 2018, though still better than in the last post-Olympic edition in 2016, it was better than the 8 golds and 30 total medals they won in 2016. With the context of 5 swimmers leaving the meet early for COVID-related reasons (either positive tests, contact tracing, or trying to avoid infection), it was a satisfying result for the Americans.
Canada and Italy, meanwhile, had even more satisfying results. Canada won 7 gold medals, which is more than the 6 that they won in the first 14 editions of the World Short Course Championships combined. Italy’s 5 was likewise almost as many as the 6 that they’ve won all-time at this meet.
Hong Kong won its first ever gold medals at this meet, thanks to Siobhan Haughey topping the 200 (in World Record fashion) and 400. In spite of hosting the event in 1999, Hong Kong has never medaled at a World Short Course Championships.
Bosnia & Herzogovina won its first-ever medal when Lana Pudar took bronze in the women’s 200 fly. The country first competed independently at the Olympics in 1992, but that means they have sponsored independent sporting teams for as long as the Short Course World Championships have existed (the first edition was in 1993 in Spain).
Three other countries also earned their highest-ever placements: Dylan Carter of Trinidad & Tobago earned silver in the men’s 50 fly after his country had only two bronzes all-time, Noe Ponti earned silver in the men’s 200 fly after his coutnry had only four bronzes all-time, and Ellen Walshe earned silver in the women’s 400 IM, after her country only had won 1 bronze all-time.
A pair of ties meant that there were 48 sets of gold medals awarded in 46 events. The US and Russia tied in the men’s 200 medley relay (and also tied the Meet Record), while the US and Canadian women tied in the women’s 400 free relay.
Including ties, there were 14 relay gold medal sets awarded. With 28 “prelims only” swimmers also receiving gold medals, that means a total of 118 separate gold medals were handed out across the meet.
Total medals handed out:
- 118 gold
- 93 silver
- 100 bronze
In addition to finals relay swimmers, prelims swimmers received:
- 28 extra golds
- 18 extra silvers
- 19 extra bronzes
Every inhabited continent won at least 1 medal, except for Oceania. While traditional power Australia is usually at or near the top of the SC Worlds medals table, they sent just one swimmer, Holly Barratt, and she didn’t finish on a podum.
Continent Medals Table
| Continent | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Europe | 22 | 26 | 25 | 73 |
| North America | 16 | 15 | 14 | 45 |
| Asia | 9 | 1 | 3 | 13 |
| South America | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Africa | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Oceania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
National Medals Table
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| USA | 9 | 9 | 12 | 30 |
| Canada | 7 | 6 | 2 | 15 |
| Italy | 5 | 5 | 6 | 16 |
| Russian Swimming Federation | 4 | 7 | 4 | 15 |
| Sweden | 4 | 5 | 3 | 12 |
| People’s Republic of China | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| Hong Kong, China | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Israel | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Japan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Germany | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Brazil | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Poland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Austria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Belarus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Republic of Korea | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ireland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Lithuania | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| South Africa | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| France | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Norway | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Tunisia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Romania | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ukraine | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Way to go USA. Impressive to see young guns like Curzan waking away with 6 medals. Good job
Not really a surprise considering the vast majority of countries didn’t send a full team or any team at all.
This was one of the major meets where I found the videos of individual swimmers an enlightening set of portraits: Tomoe Hvas, Claire Curzan, Carson Foster, etc. Nice Job!
Double the medals of any other country. I’ll take it. Great summary.
And 9 times the population of number 2…
135 medals or bust.
Go Sweden! Very impressed by those girls!
Israel also had its highest performance ever
Solid showing for Antarctica, rising to a tie for 6th among the continents at these championships.
#momentum
Team USA rocked. Despite the COVID issues, what a way for them to close out the meet