World Aquatics released the schedule to its 2026 Open Water World Cup, hosting a more consolidated season than the 2025 cup but with the same locations.
This yearâs cup will kick off one month later than the 2025 iteration did in Somabay, Egypt. It will wrap up at the end of June in Portugal, whereas the 2025 Cup ended in October.Â
2026 Open Water World Cup Schedule
- Stop 1: Somabay, Egypt â March 27-28
- Stop 2: Ibiza, Spain â April 24-25
- Stop 3: Golfo Aranci, Italy â May 1-2
- Stop 4: SetĂșbal, Portugal â June 20-21
The 2026 Cup finishes earlier than usual, World Aquatics says, to make room for a new Open Water Cup calendar structure in 2027. The organization announced that the 2027 World Cup will begin in October of 2026 and end earlier than normal, curtailing timing conflicts with the 2027 World Championships. World Aquatics implied that the 2027 structure, which was made in collaboration with coaches and athletes, would also be used in the 2028 Olympic year and onward.
Going back to 2026, next yearâs Cup will end at least several weeks before the start of the European Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, Asian Games, or Commonwealth Games. This gives dual pool and open water athletes, such as Florian Wellbrock and Gregorio Paltrinieri, wiggle room to both compete in the World Cup and prepare for their largest pool championships of the year.
Perhaps for the sake of non-European travellersâ convenience, the Ibiza and Golfo Aranci stops are to take place on back-to-back weekends. This set-up more closely mirrors that of the pool World Cup, where swimmers compete in different cities of the same region on consecutive weeks.
With no Olympic Games or World Championships this summer, these stops will serve as the sole opportunities for athletes to earn points in the newly-established world rankings. The 2025 season saw David Betlehem and Moesha Johnson finish the year at #1.
Franceâs Logan Fontaine and Italyâs Ginevra Taddeucci will look to defend their 2025 crowns, with Taddeucci once again having the opportunity to compete in home waters.
Whatever happened to WA promising to “do something” with the 25k that they unceremoniously canned?
They did, they wrapped it up, put a bow on it and turned it into a 3k knockout, Merry Xmas đđ.
I really donât like how the US standards are set up for national level open water. the standards for the 5k and 10k are based on pool times alone, and in my opinion, the national championships only really measure the best pool swimmers that can swim a 5k or 10k. Itâs also some swimmerâs only open water race in the span of a year, and we see swimmers make national teams with only one 10k under their belt. I wish they used the zone championships and allowed swimmers to qualify for nationals that way and also had the pool standards still. Or sectional meets. Claire Stuhlmacher for example 9:58/16:44 in the yards pool, not eligible for open water national team… Read more »
US Swimming could follow the lead being set by Swimming Australia who are running their own “Australian Openwater Cup” which sees athletes earn points from results at each state Openwater Champs, the highest points wins the overall “Australian Openwater Cup” which sees them funded to go to World Cup Swims in Ibiza and Golfo Aranci. Details of the Australian Openwater Cup can be found at the following link: https://www.swimming.org.au/performance/elite/australian-open-water-cup
Great initiative by Swimming Australia which sees a bunch of age group international athletes (including some Sandpiper athletes) attending the Queensland Openwater Champs this weekend. I guess some federations are seeing this as a learning opportunity for their younger promising athletes to give them more… Read more »
Thats a great point. If USA swimming uses pool times to qualify for ow nats they might as well race the 10k in the pool .