Throwback Thursday: World Championships Celebrating Golden Anniversary; A Look At the Past 50 Years

POPOVICI David ROU Gold Medal, HWANG Sunwoo KOR Silver Medal, DEAN Tom GBR Bronze Medal 200m Freestyle Men Swimming FINA 19th World Championships Budapest 2022 Budapest, Duna Arena 20/06/22 Photo Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

World Championships Celebrating Golden Anniversary; A Look At the Past 50 Years

The World Championships, first held 50 years ago in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, have played an important role in swimming’s growth and popularity.

A half century ago, swimming entered – perhaps – its most important era.

The year, 1973, marked the first FINA World Championships. It gave the sport of swimming an international showcase and competition in non-Olympic years, thereby increasing the sport’s relevancy. How long ago was that? First of all, the 1973 World Championships took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, a country that does not exist in today’s world.

By the numbers:

The 2023 World Championships, July 14-30, in Fukuoka, Japan, will be the 20th edition of long-course Worlds.
The meets have been held on five of the world’s seven continents—all but Africa and Antarctica.
Ten of the 20 meets have been held in Europe, with Asia hosting four, Australia three, South America two and North America one.
Five cities have welcomed—or in the case of Fukuoka, will welcome—the world’s best swimmers on two separate occasions: Perth (1991, 1998), Rome (1994, 2009), Barcelona (2003, 2013), Budapest (2017, 2022) and Fukuoka (2001, 2023).
At the inaugural competition, the United States won the most gold medals (15) and most medals overall (38)—women and men combined. East Germany followed with 13 gold and 28 overall, but they dominated the women’s competition with 10 gold medals and seven world records. Italy ranked third in the combined standings (2/5). Hungary and Sweden also won two golds, while Canada and Japan had six total medals, with Australia and the Soviet Union earning five. Overall, 15 countries captured at least one medal in the first World Championships.
Besides having fewer events, there weren’t any 50-meter races at the first Worlds. The men’s events were the 100, 200, 400 and 1500 freestyle, plus the 100 and 200 backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly events. There was a 200 IM and 400 IM and three relays—the 400 medley plus the 400 and 800 free. The women’s events were the same except the women swam the 800 free instead of the 1500, and there were just two relays (no 800 free relay).

THE MAJOR PLAYERS

The Americans were the top performers at the next three meets as well (Cali, Colombia; West Berlin; and Guayaquil, Ecuador)—until 1986 in Madrid, when East Germany won the most gold medals, although the U.S. still claimed the most medals overall. China and Australia have each claimed the most gold medals at times, but only China has won the total medal count other than the U.S. in World Championships history.

While the U.S., China, Australia and East Germany were the major players, several countries found themselves in the top three in the medal count over the years, including Russia (and the Soviet Union), Italy, Hungary and Canada.

As the sport has grown, so has the talent globally, making it more difficult for countries to rack up as many gold medals.

GENDER EQUALITY

The World Championships reached the point of equality among events well before the Olympics. The women AND men have swum both the 800 and 1500 freestyles since 2001—something that didn’t happen in the Olympics until 20 years later.

This was a huge milestone for gender equality in the sport that finally reached the Olympic level.

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

“It is really exciting. It has been a long time coming,” said Katie Ledecky after the Olympics finally contested the women’s 1500 in Tokyo two years ago. Ledecky has won 19 World Championships gold medals in her storied career (most in history for a female swimmer) along with seven Olympic gold medals.

“There is that history of why the 1500 free wasn’t an Olympic event for women for so long. It is nice that there is the parity in the schedule between the men and the women. It is meaningful to me knowing so many of the great freestylers didn’t have that opportunity (and now we have it).”

It took awhile for the Olympics to catch up, but both meets now finally have the same number of relays—and even a couple of mixed relays.

These changes illustrate how the World Championships not only brought more attention to the sport of swimming year-round, but laid the groundwork for more equality in the sport.

ON THE RISE

After 37 events (all sports) at the inaugural World Championships 50 years ago, that number has now doubled to 74. And with it, the interest in aquatics has increased exponentially. Last year, 185 countries took part in the World Championships. Let that number sink in when thinking about the global interest and rise within the sport. Of those 185 countries, 23 of them earned at least one medal in 2022, with 10 countries earning at least 10 medals.

The United States and China led with 18 golds apiece. The Americans totaled 49 medals, followed by China (28), Italy (22), Australia (19) and Canada (14). While those countries have remained among the top countries at the World Championships in the past half century, others are rising into that group with Japan (13), Great Britain (11) France (11), Ukraine (10), Germany (10), Hungary (5), Brazil (5) and the Netherlands (5) continuing to grow.

Aquatics is more global than it ever has been during its competitive history—and that global rise began 50 years ago in Belgrade.

The next half century begins this summer in Japan.

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