2021 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)

The 15th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) were held from 16 to 21 December 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.^[3][4] It was previously scheduled for 13 to 18 December but moved back three days on 24 February 2021.^[5] Originally scheduled to be held in 2020, the championships were pushed back one year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Competition took place in a 25-metre (short course) temporary pool installed at Etihad Arena.^[4][6]

2021 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
Host city	Abu Dhabi, UAE
Date(s)	16–21 December
Venue(s)	Etihad Arena
Nations participating	183[1]
Athletes participating	943[1]
Events	46[2]
← 2018 Hangzhou 2022 Melbourne →

In September 2021, it was announced the Championships would be part of a larger aquatics program, called the Abu Dhabi Aquatics Festival, which includes competition in open water swimming, diving, and high diving.^[7][8][9]

Qualification

The qualification period for competing at the 2021 World Swimming Championships ran from 1 December 2019 through 28 November 2021.^[10] On 23 November 2021, FINA announced it would take into consideration times swum as part of the 2021 International Swimming League and allow them to count towards qualification for the 2021 World Championships.^[11] In addition to country-specific selection procedures, competitors were required to achieve a qualifying "A" or "B" time in an event to qualify for the individual or a relay event with individual entries capped at two competitors per country and relay entries capped at one team per country.^[12][13]

Below are the qualifying times for the 2021 World Championships as determined by FINA:^[12]

Event	Men	Women	Men	Women
	"A"		"B"
50 m freestyle	21.40	24.60	22.15	25.46
100 m freestyle	47.23	53.78	48.88	55.66
200 m freestyle	1:44.88	1:55.60	1:48.55	1:59.65
400 m freestyle	3:44.09	4:06.95	3:51.93	4:15.59
800 m freestyle	—	8:35.69	—	8:53.74
1500 m freestyle	14:49.29	—	15:20.42	—
50 m backstroke	23.79	26.81	24.62	27.75
100 m backstroke	51.30	58.08	53.10	1:00.11
200 m backstroke	1:52.66	2:07.19	1:56.60	2:11.64
50 m breaststroke	26.57	30.69	27.50	31.76
100 m breaststroke	57.63	1:06.18	59.65	1:08.50
200 m breaststroke	2:06.23	2:24.30	2:10.65	2:29.45
50 m butterfly	23.08	26.14	23.89	27.05
100 m butterfly	51.35	58.22	53.15	1:00.26
200 m butterfly	1:54.10	2:09.76	1:58.09	2:14.30
100 m individual medley	53.57	1:01.21	55.44	1:03.35
200 m individual medley	1:55.25	2:11.51	1:59.28	2:16.11
400 m individual medley	4:09.19	4:37.54	4:17.91	4:47.25

Schedule

An opening ceremony preceded the start of pool swimming competition on 16 December, was followed by competition from 16 December to 21 December, and concluded with a closing ceremony on 21 December.^[14] A total of 46 events were held.^[2][15]

H	Heats	SF	Semifinals		Finals

M = Morning session (starting at 09:30), E = Evening session (starting at 18:00)

Men

Date →	Thu 16		Fri 17		Sat 18		Sun 19		Mon 20		Tue 21
Event ↓	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E
50 m freestyle					H	SF
100 m freestyle									H	SF
200 m freestyle			H
400 m freestyle	H
1500 m freestyle									H
50 m backstroke					H	SF
100 m backstroke	H	SF
200 m backstroke											H
50 m breaststroke									H	SF
100 m breaststroke	H	SF
200 m breaststroke					H
50 m butterfly							H	SF
100 m butterfly			H	SF
200 m butterfly	H
100 m individual medley					H	SF
200 m individual medley	H
400 m individual medley									H
4 × 50 m freestyle relay							H
4 × 100 m freestyle relay	H
4 × 200 m freestyle relay							H
4 × 50 m medley relay									H
4 × 100 m medley relay											H

Women

Date →	Thu 16		Fri 17		Sat 18		Sun 19		Mon 20		Tue 21
Event ↓	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E
50 m freestyle									H	SF
100 m freestyle			H	SF
200 m freestyle	H
400 m freestyle							H
800 m freestyle			H
50 m backstroke							H	SF
100 m backstroke	H	SF
200 m backstroke					H
50 m breaststroke	H	SF
100 m breaststroke							H	SF
200 m breaststroke											H
50 m butterfly					H	SF
100 m butterfly									H	SF
200 m butterfly			H
100 m individual medley					H	SF
200 m individual medley									H
400 m individual medley	H
4 × 50 m freestyle relay											H
4 × 100 m freestyle relay	H
4 × 200 m freestyle relay									H
4 × 50 m medley relay			H
4 × 100 m medley relay											H

Mixed

Date →	Thu 16		Fri 17		Sat 18		Sun 19		Mon 20		Tue 21
Event ↓	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E	M	E
4 × 50 m freestyle relay			H
4 × 50 m medley relay					H

Medal summary

Medal table

  *   Host nation (United Arab Emirates)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	9	9	12	30
2	Canada	7	6	2	15
3	Italy	5	5	6	16
4	Russian Swimming Federation	4	7	4	15
5	Sweden	4	5	3	12
6	China	4	1	2	7
7	Netherlands	2	3	3	8
8	Hong Kong	2	0	1	3
9	Israel	2	0	0	2
	Japan	2	0	0	2
11	Germany	1	1	1	3
12	Brazil	1	0	2	3
13	Great Britain	1	0	1	2
	Poland	1	0	1	2
15	Austria	1	0	0	1
	Belarus	1	0	0	1
	South Korea	1	0	0	1
18	Ireland	0	1	1	2
	Lithuania	0	1	1	2
	South Africa	0	1	1	2
	Switzerland	0	1	1	2
22	France	0	1	0	1
	Norway	0	1	0	1
	Trinidad and Tobago	0	1	0	1
	Tunisia	0	1	0	1
26	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0	0	1	1
	Romania	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (28 entries)		48	45	45	138

Results

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle details	Benjamin Proud  Great Britain	20.45	Ryan Held  United States	20.70	Joshua Liendo  Canada	20.76
100 m freestyle details	Alessandro Miressi  Italy	45.57	Ryan Held  United States	45.63	Joshua Liendo  Canada	45.82
200 m freestyle details	Hwang Sun-woo  South Korea	1:41.60	Aleksandr Shchegolev Russian Swimming Federation	1:41.63	Danas Rapšys  Lithuania	1:41.73
400 m freestyle details	Felix Auböck  Austria	3:35.90	Danas Rapšys  Lithuania	3:36.23	Antonio Djakovic  Switzerland	3:36.83
1500 m freestyle details	Florian Wellbrock  Germany	14:06.88 WR	Ahmed Hafnaoui  Tunisia	14:10.94 AF	Mykhailo Romanchuk  Ukraine	14:11.47
50 m backstroke details	Kliment Kolesnikov Russian Swimming Federation	22.66	Christian Diener  Germany Lorenzo Mora  Italy	22.90	Not awarded
100 m backstroke details	Shaine Casas  United States	49.23	Kliment Kolesnikov Russian Swimming Federation	49.46	Robert Glință  Romania	49.60
200 m backstroke details	Radosław Kawęcki  Poland	1:48.68	Shaine Casas  United States	1:48.81	Christian Diener  Germany	1:48.97
50 m breaststroke details	Nic Fink  United States	25.53 AM	Nicolò Martinenghi  Italy	25.55	João Gomes Júnior  Brazil	25.80
100 m breaststroke details	Ilya Shymanovich  Belarus	55.70 CR	Nicolò Martinenghi  Italy	55.80	Nic Fink  United States	55.87
200 m breaststroke details	Nic Fink  United States	2:02.28	Arno Kamminga  Netherlands	2:02.42	Will Licon  United States	2:02.84
50 m butterfly details	Nicholas Santos  Brazil	21.93	Dylan Carter  Trinidad and Tobago	21.98	Matteo Rivolta  Italy	22.02
100 m butterfly details	Matteo Rivolta  Italy	48.87	Chad le Clos  South Africa	49.04	Andrey Minakov Russian Swimming Federation	49.21
200 m butterfly details	Alberto Razzetti  Italy	1:49.06	Noè Ponti  Switzerland	1:49.81	Chad le Clos  South Africa	1:49.84
100 m individual medley details	Kliment Kolesnikov Russian Swimming Federation	51.09	Tomoe Hvas  Norway	51.35	Thomas Ceccon  Italy	51.40
200 m individual medley details	Daiya Seto  Japan	1:51.15	Carson Foster  United States	1:51.35	Alberto Razzetti  Italy	1:51.54
400 m individual medley details	Daiya Seto  Japan	3:56.26	Ilya Borodin Russian Swimming Federation	3:56.47 ER, WJ	Carson Foster  United States	3:57.99
4 × 50 m freestyle relay details	Italy Leonardo Deplano (21.37) Lorenzo Zazzeri (20.42) Manuel Frigo (21.21) Alessandro Miressi (20.61)	1:23.61	Russian Swimming Federation Andrei Minakov (21.14) Vladimir Morozov (20.61) Vladislav Grinev (20.72) Aleksandr Shchegolev (21.28) Daniil Markov[a]	1:23.75	Netherlands Jesse Puts (21.30) Stan Pijnenburg (20.91) Kenzo Simons (21.16) Thom de Boer (20.41) Thomas Verhoeven[a]	1:23.78
4 × 100 m freestyle relay details	Russian Swimming Federation Kliment Kolesnikov (46.44) Andrey Minakov (45.61) Vladislav Grinev (45.87) Aleksandr Shchegolev (45.53) Vladimir Morozov[a] Daniil Markov[a]	3:03.45	Italy Alessandro Miressi (46.12) Thomas Ceccon (45.71) Leonardo Deplano (45.98) Lorenzo Zazzeri (45.80) Manuel Frigo[a]	3:03.61	United States Ryan Held (45.75) Hunter Tapp (46.78) Shaine Casas (46.50) Zach Apple (46.39) Tom Shields[a]	3:05.42
4 × 200 m freestyle relay details	United States Kieran Smith (1:41.79) Trenton Julian (1:41.35) Carson Foster (1:41.65) Ryan Held (1:42.21) Hunter Tapp[a] Zach Harting[a]	6:47.00	Russian Swimming Federation Vladislav Grinev (1:43.18) Aleksandr Shchegolev (1:40.86) Mikhail Vekovishchev (1:42.16) Ivan Girev (1:42.92) Nikolay Snegirev[a] Daniil Shatalov[a]	6:49.12	Brazil Fernando Scheffer (1:42.51) Murilo Sartori (1:42.07) Kaique Alves (1:43.15) Breno Correia (1:41.87) Leonardo Coelho Santos[a]	6:49.60
4 × 50 m medley relay details	Russian Swimming Federation Kliment Kolesnikov (22.76) Kirill Strelnikov (25.62) Andrey Minakov (21.76) Vladimir Morozov (20.37) Pavel Samusenko[a] Andrei Nikolaev[a] Oleg Kostin[a] Aleksandr Shchegolev[a]  United States Shaine Casas (23.11) Nic Fink (25.13) Tom Shields (21.75) Ryan Held (20.52) Will Licon[a] Trenton Julian[a] Zach Apple[a]	1:30.51 =CR	Not awarded		Italy Lorenzo Mora (23.24) Nicolò Martinenghi (25.30) Matteo Rivolta (21.95) Lorenzo Zazzeri (20.29) Michele Lamberti[a] Thomas Ceccon[a]	1:30.78
4 × 100 m medley relay details	Italy Lorenzo Mora (50.34) Nicolò Martinenghi (55.94) Matteo Rivolta (48.43) Alessandro Miressi (45.05) Thomas Ceccon[a] Alberto Razzetti[a] Lorenzo Zazzeri[a]	3:19.76 CR	United States Shaine Casas (50.44) Nic Fink (55.27) Trenton Julian (49.36) Ryan Held (45.43) Hunter Tapp[a] Will Licon[a] Zach Apple[a]	3:20.50	Russian Swimming Federation Kliment Kolesnikov (49.47) Danil Semianinov (57.06) Andrey Minakov (48.81) Aleksandr Shchegolev (45.31) Pavel Samusenko[a] Alexander Zhigalov[a] Roman Shevliakov[a] Vladislav Grinev[a]	3:20.65

^a Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle details	Sarah Sjöström  Sweden	23.08 CR	Ranomi Kromowidjojo  Netherlands	23.31	Katarzyna Wasick  Poland	23.40
100 m freestyle details	Siobhán Haughey  Hong Kong	50.98 CR	Sarah Sjöström  Sweden	51.31	Abbey Weitzeil  United States	51.64
200 m freestyle details	Siobhán Haughey  Hong Kong	1:50.31 WR	Rebecca Smith  Canada	1:52.24	Paige Madden  United States	1:53.01
400 m freestyle details	Li Bingjie  China	3:55.83	Summer McIntosh  Canada	3:57.87	Siobhán Haughey  Hong Kong	3:58.12
800 m freestyle details	Li Bingjie  China	8:02.90 CR	Anastasiya Kirpichnikova Russian Swimming Federation	8:06.44	Simona Quadarella  Italy	8:07.99
50 m backstroke details	Maggie Mac Neil  Canada	25.27 WR	Kylie Masse  Canada	25.62	Louise Hansson  Sweden	25.86
100 m backstroke details	Louise Hansson  Sweden	55.20	Kylie Masse  Canada	55.22	Katharine Berkoff  United States	55.40
200 m backstroke details	Rhyan White  United States	2:01.58	Kylie Masse  Canada	2:02.07	Isabelle Stadden  United States	2:02.20
50 m breaststroke details	Anastasia Gorbenko  Israel	29.34	Benedetta Pilato  Italy	29.50	Sophie Hansson  Sweden	29.55
100 m breaststroke details	Tang Qianting  China	1:03.47 AS	Sophie Hansson  Sweden	1:03.50	Mona McSharry  Ireland	1:03.92
200 m breaststroke details	Emily Escobedo  United States	2:17.85	Evgeniia Chikunova Russian Swimming Federation	2:17.88	Molly Renshaw  Great Britain	2:17.96
50 m butterfly details	Ranomi Kromowidjojo  Netherlands	24.44 CR	Sarah Sjöström  Sweden	24.51	Claire Curzan  United States	24.55 WJ
100 m butterfly details	Maggie Mac Neil  Canada	55.04	Louise Hansson  Sweden	55.10	Claire Curzan  United States	55.39 WJ
200 m butterfly details	Zhang Yufei  China	2:03.01	Charlotte Hook  United States	2:04.35	Lana Pudar  Bosnia and Herzegovina	2:04.88
100 m individual medley details	Anastasia Gorbenko  Israel	57.80	Béryl Gastaldello  France	57.96	Maria Kameneva Russian Swimming Federation	58.15
200 m individual medley details	Sydney Pickrem  Canada	2:04.29	Yu Yiting  China	2:04.48 =WJ	Kate Douglass  United States	2:04.68
400 m individual medley details	Tessa Cieplucha  Canada	4:25.55	Ellen Walshe  Ireland	4:26.52	Melanie Margalis  United States	4:26.63
4 × 50 m freestyle relay details	United States Abbey Weitzeil (23.59) Claire Curzan (23.40) Katharine Berkoff (23.81) Kate Douglass (23.42) Torri Huske[b]	1:34.22	Sweden Sarah Sjöström (23.33) Michelle Coleman (23.38) Sara Junevik (24.02) Louise Hansson (23.81) Hanna Rosvall[b]	1:34.54	Netherlands Kim Busch (24.29) Maaike de Waard (23.71) Kira Toussaint (24.01) Ranomi Kromowidjojo (22.88) Marrit Steenbergen[b] Tessa Giele[b]	1:34.89
4 × 100 m freestyle relay details	United States Kate Douglass (52.39) Claire Curzan (52.25) Katharine Berkoff (52.38) Abbey Weitzeil (51.50) Torri Huske[b]  Canada Kayla Sanchez (51.73) Maggie Mac Neil (52.07) Rebecca Smith (52.11) Katerine Savard (52.61) Bailey Andison[b]	3:28.52	Not awarded		Sweden Sarah Sjöström (51.45) Michelle Coleman (52.06) Sophie Hansson (53.41) Louise Hansson (51.88) Sara Junevik[b]	3:28.80
4 × 200 m freestyle relay details	Canada Summer McIntosh (1:54.30) Kayla Sanchez (1:52.97) Katerine Savard (1:54.01) Rebecca Smith (1:51.68) Tessa Cieplucha[b] Sydney Pickrem[b]	7:32.96 AM	United States Torri Huske (1:54.72) Abbey Weitzeil (1:54.31) Melanie Margalis (1:54.83) Paige Madden (1:52.67) Katharine Berkoff[b] Emma Weyant[b]	7:36.53	China Li Bingjie (1:53.42) Cheng Yujie (1:54.91) Zhu Menghui (1:55.73) Liu Yaxin (1:55.86)	7:39.92
4 × 50 m medley relay details	Sweden Louise Hansson (25.91) Sophie Hansson (29.07) Sarah Sjöström (23.96) Michelle Coleman (23.44) Hanna Rosvall[b] Emelie Fast[b]	1:42.38 =WR	United States Rhyan White (26.33) Lydia Jacoby (29.62) Claire Curzan (24.56) Abbey Weitzeil (23.10) Katharine Berkoff[b] Emily Escobedo[b] Kate Douglass[b]	1:43.61	Netherlands Kira Toussaint (26.08) Kim Busch (30.59) Maaike de Waard (24.51) Ranomi Kromowidjojo (22.85) Tessa Giele[b]	1:44.03
4 × 100 m medley relay details	Sweden Louise Hansson (56.25) Sophie Hansson (1:03.70) Sarah Sjöström (54.65) Michelle Coleman (51.60) Hanna Rosvall[b] Emelie Fast[b]	3:46.20 ER	Canada Kylie Masse (55.76) Sydney Pickrem (1:04.97) Maggie Mac Neil (55.30) Kayla Sanchez (51.33) Katerine Savard[b] Summer McIntosh[b]	3:47.36	China Peng Xuwei (57.12) Tang Qianting (1:03.25) Zhang Yufei (54.93) Cheng Yujie (52.11) Wan Letian[b] Yu Yiting[b] Zhu Jiaming[b]	3:47.41 AS

^b Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Mixed events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
4 × 50 m freestyle relay details	Canada Joshua Liendo (20.94) Yuri Kisil (20.99) Kayla Sanchez (23.51) Maggie Mac Neil (23.11) Rebecca Smith[c] Katerine Savard[c]	1:28.55	Netherlands Jesse Puts (21.33) Thom de Boer (20.35) Ranomi Kromowidjojo (22.97) Kira Toussaint (23.96) Kenzo Simons[c]	1:28.61	Russian Swimming Federation Vladimir Morozov (21.17) Andrey Minakov (20.95) Maria Kameneva (23.17) Arina Surkova (23.68) Daniil Markov[c] Rozaliya Nasretdinova[c]	1:28.97
4 × 50 m medley relay details	Netherlands Kira Toussaint (26.21) Arno Kamminga (25.40) Ranomi Kromowidjojo (24.36) Thom de Boer (20.23) Tessa Giele[c] Nyls Korstanje[c] Kim Busch[c]	1:36.20 CR	United States Shaine Casas (23.16) Nic Fink (25.82) Claire Curzan (24.85) Abbey Weitzeil (23.21) Kate Douglass[c] Katharine Berkoff[c]	1:37.04	Italy Lorenzo Mora (23.28) Nicolò Martinenghi (25.60) Elena Di Liddo (24.91) Silvia Di Pietro (23.50) Michele Lamberti[c] Benedetta Pilato[c] Leonardo Deplano[c]	1:37.29

^c Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Coverage

More than 180 countries provided viewing opportunities through television broadcast and online streaming mediums.^[16] One of the broadcasting agencies providing coverage of pool swimming competition internationally is the Olympic Channel.^[17][18] Additional international coverage was provided by Eurovision Sports.^[19]

Variations in country representation

Due to a multi-year ban of Russian representation at World Championships by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, competitors from the country were not allowed to compete using their flag, anthem, nor country name during competition, instead competing with the name Russian Swimming Federation.^[20][21][22]

Issues related to COVID-19

On 14 December 2021, it was announced that South African swimmers residing in South Africa would not be able to compete in the championships, due to travel bans resulting from the prevalence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which is the World Health Organization's latest “variant of concern.”^[23]

On 16 December 2021, FINA informed the Singapore Swimming Association that its entire squad will not be able to compete in the championships due to contact tracing protocols, after four of the country's swimmers tested positive for COVID-19 while in Abu Dhabi.^[24]

On 17 December 2021, FINA confirmed seven accredited participants with positive COVID-19 results, which included at least one administrator from Nigeria, and that in turn knocked out all four of Nigeria's swimmers from the meet. This raised questions about its protocols, as some swimmers from other nations such as Great Britain and the United States were allowed to continue competing despite members of those teams testing positive for COVID-19.^[25]

By the end of the championships on 21 December 2021, FINA provided a cap number of 40 individuals who tested positive in the duration of the meet.^[26] Later the exact number of COVID-19 positive accounts was provided, 37 cases total out of all 5,000 individuals involved with the competition, 15 of which were athlete cases.^[27][28]