With about a month until the Swimming World Cup 2024 series, World Aquatics has released the program for each of the three stops, as well as details on the scoring system and prize money.
The 2024 series takes place fully in Asia and returns to the 25-meter pool (SCM) after being in long-course in 2023 for the upcoming Olympic year. Shanghai, China hosts the first meet from October 18-20, before the action shifts to Incheon, South Korea from October 24-26 and finally to Singapore from October 31-November 2.
Event Program
The 50s through 200s of stroke are on the schedule at each of the three stops, as are the 100/200/400 IM and the 50 through 400 freestyle. The women’s 800 freestyle will be raced in Shanghai and Singapore, and the men’s 800 freestyle in Incheon. It’s the reverse for the 1500 freestyle; the men have two opportunities (Shanghai and Singapore) while the women have one (Incheon).
Scoring System
Like previous years, points are awarded from the finish order and how fast the swim is based on the AQUA Power Points system.
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th |
| Points | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Points are awarded for speed by taking the number of AQUA Power Points a swim is worth, dividing by ten, and rounding down to the nearest tenth.
Prize Money
Swimmers can race as many events as they want at each stop, but only their three best scores from a stop will be added together to determine their score for the stop. At each stop, there is a total of $112,000 (USD) on offer for each gender or $672,000 for the whole series. This is the same amount as was available in 2023 and 2022.
Prize money for rankings at each stop is given through the top 20 positions with men and women scored separately. If there is a tie, the swimmer with the higher AQUA Power Points in their best event during the stop wins.
Prize Money for Each Stop:
| Ranking at Stop | Total | Ranking At Stop | 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 | $5,500 | 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 |
There is also prize money for the top eight swimmers per gender at the end of the entire series. The winner of the men’s and women’s standings will each earn $100,000. A total of $262,000 will be awarded across the top eight swimmers per gender at the end of the series. Again, this is the same amount of money that was on offer in 2023.
Prize Money for Overall Series Ranking:
| OVERALL RANK | TOTAL (USD) |
| 1 | $100,000 |
| 2 | $70,000 |
| 3 | $30,000 |
| 4 | $15,000 |
| 5 | $14,000 |
| 6 | $12,000 |
| 7 | $11,000 |
| 8 | $10,000 |
Total Guaranteed Prize Money To Be Awarded
- Shanghai – $224,000 ($112,00 per gender)
- Incheon – $224,000 ($112,00 per gender)
- Singapore – $224,000 ($112,00 per gender)
- Overall Series Rankings – $524,000 ($262,000 per gender)
- Total – $1,196,000
Additional Prize Money
In addition to the guaranteed prize money from rankings at the end of each stop and the end of the series, swimmers can earn money by breaking a world record or completing a Triple Crown—winning the same event at all three stops.
Swimmers can pick up $10,000 USD for each world record and $10,000 for each Triple Crown. Last year, Kaylee McKeown broke two world records at the World Cup series, swimming 26.86 in the 50 backstroke and a 57.33 100 backstroke at the Budapest stop. There were 20 Triple Crowns won in 2023; 12 were won by women as every women’s freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly events were Triple Crowns.
2023 Swimming World Cup Triple Crowns
Women:
- 50 freestyle — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden
- 100 freestyle — Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong
- 200 freestyle — Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong
- 400 freestyle — Erika Fairweather, New Zealand
- 800/1500 freestyle — Lani Pallister, Australia
- 50 backstroke — Kaylee McKeown, Australia
- 100 backstroke — Kaylee McKeown, Australia
- 200 backstroke — Kaylee McKeown, Australia
- 200 breaststroke — Tes Schouten, Netherlands
- 50 butterfly — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden
- 100 butterfly — Zhang Yufei, China
- 200 butterfly — Zhang Yufei, China
Men:
- 100 freestyle — Thomas Ceccon, Italy
- 50 backstroke — Michael Andrew, United States
- 100 backstroke — Thomas Ceccon, Italy
- 50 breaststroke — Qin Haiyang, China
- 100 breaststroke — Qin Haiyang, China
- 200 breaststroke — Qin Haiyang, China
- 200 butterfly — Matthew Sates, South Africa
- 200 IM — Matthew Sates, South Africa
2023 Results
McKeown and Qin Haiyang followed up their exploits at the 2023 World Championships, where they became the first swimmers to sweep 50/100/200 of a stroke at a World Championships by winning the 2023 Swimming World Cup.
McKeown claimed the women’s trophy win 177.4 points ahead of Siobhan Haughey (166.4) and Zhang Yufei (166.2). Over the three stops of the 2023 World Cup, McKeown earned three backstroke Triple Crowns, broke two world records, and lowered the backstroke World Cup records each time she swam.
Qin won the men’s table with 175.4 points, with Thomas Ceccon (167.9) and Matthew Sates (166.8) finishing second and third. Qin earned three breaststroke Triple Crowns, setting World Cup records in the 50 and 200 breast at the first stop of the series in Berlin.
While not always the case, in 2023 the World Cup overall winners also earned the most prize money throughout the series. Qin earned $166,000 while McKeown topped all swimmers with $186,000.
Why are all of the competition site in Asia?
Oceania?
The Americas?
Europe?
Africa?
Presumably they wanted the series to be compact to make it easy to attend. Last year was all in Europe, this year Asia so maybe next year will be in the Americas?
world aquatics published in an Instagram comment the main names that will go: Thomas Ceccon, Pan Zhanle, Kyle Chalmers, Qin Haiyang, Regan Smith, Zhang Yufei, Siobhan Haughey, Kate Douglass.
They indicated that in the coming weeks they would say more names
Unrelated but can’t believe they just name dropped Dan and Rowdy on primetime NFL
Didn’t know where to put this, but McIntosh will be at short course Worlds!!!
Found the source, that’s awesome
Does worl aquatics assist the athletes with travel expenses?
How much is leon getting ? And how many events 3 or 4 ?
We don’t know yet his schedule. But I guess 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breast and 200 fly. Will he race each event at each stop ? No clue. And maybe he’ll try the 100 IM and the 200 free on one stop.
1br 1 fl 1 fr 4 fun??
I wish the prize money still incentivized an Iron Lady approach of swimming every event under the sun. Would love to see him take on some of those peripheral events, but just crushing a few events at each stop is better for his standing.
It is a start!