More global talent expected to emerge at World Aquatics Championships in Singapore

SINGAPORE – While swimming superstars are expected to break records and powerhouses set to dominate across the six disciplines at the July 11-Aug 3 World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore, there remains scope for surprises with unheralded names bidding to punch above their weight.

In the 2024 edition in Doha, Qatar, there were historic moments for Ireland’s men’s 800m and 1,500m freestyle champion Daniel Wiffen, Israel’s women’s 400m individual medley silver medallist Anastasia Gorbenko, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s women’s 200m butterfly bronze medallist Lana Pudar, who won their countries’ first WCH medals.

In 2023, artistic swimmer Eduard Kim and swimmers Siobhan Haughey and Diogo Ribeiro achieved the same feat for Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and Portugal respectively with a podium finish in Fukuoka, Japan, before winning gold at Doha 2024, where athletes from over 30 other countries and territories won medals.

World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki believes there will be more breakthroughs from the 2,500 athletes from 206 territories, who will be competing across an unprecedented 77 events in Singapore over the next three weeks.

There will also be a record prize money pool of more than US$6 million (S$7.7 million), with an additional US$30,000 world record bonus in swimming.

“You are seeing the emergence of new teams, new faces and recognition of growth across all of our disciplines, and I think we will continue to see that here in Singapore,” Nowicki said at the WCH Singapore 2025 opening press conference at Parkroyal on Beach Road on July 10.

Competing in home waters in a year when Singapore is celebrating its 60th birthday, local artistic swimmer Debbie Soh felt the hosting of the biggest aquatic sports event is a sign of how far the nation has come.

The 27-year-old added: “I hope I’ll be able to showcase the beauty of the sport and inspire the next generation of local artistic swimmers.”

In 2023, it was announced that Singapore would become the first South-east Asian nation to host the WCH in 2025, replacing Kazan, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Since then, the local organising committee has wasted no time to put things in place.

They built a 4,800-seater WCH Arena at a car park next to the Leisure Park Kallang mall for the swimming (July 27-Aug 3) and artistic swimming (July 18-25) competitions, as well as a 37m high diving (July 24-27) platform and a pontoon for open water swimming (July 15-20) at Sentosa.

Meanwhile, the OCBC Aquatic Centre has also been spruced up for the water polo (July 11-24) and diving (July 26-Aug 3) events.

Thanking organisers and stakeholders for helping the sport tide through the Covid-19 pandemic and political conflicts around the world, World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam said: “It is not easy to organise the World Aquatics Championships.

“We have six different disciplines and the highest number of events and athletes than any other sport. (The athletes, coaches and national federations) worked really hard in a very difficult time... to reach their best at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the world championships in Budapest 2022, Fukuoka 2023, Doha 2024 and the Paris Olympics.

“They’ve made new records and higher standards across the six disciplines. This is a chance for our sport to leave a positive impact on society and after Singapore 2025, I hope swimming will reach more communities in South-east Asia.”

Including the July 26-Aug 22 World Aquatics Masters Championships, local organisers estimate that 40,000 international visitors will attend the events and contribute $60 million in tourism receipts.

While the high diving structure will be dismantled after the event, WCH 2025 local organising committee co-chair Alan Goh indicated that the authorities are mulling over whether to keep the WCH Arena for national athletes’ preparation ahead of the 2029 SEA Games in Singapore and also for public use.

After training at the WCH Arena pools and having watched the South-east Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships in June, Singapore swimmer Gan Ching Hwee liked how the water temperature could be regulated and how the cheers reverberated around the facility, making for a “very motivating” vibe.

Goh said: “As we progressed the project along, we also started to think about whether it made sense to try to explore ways of keeping the pool beyond the duration of the championships. And that is looking positive.

“Having built a nice facility which is hosting world-class aquatics competition events, we do look to keep it for a little longer and then have Singaporeans benefit from it.”

Meanwhile, the stage is set for the stars to perform, with the best water polo players slugging it out from July 11.

Marko Bijac, captain of defending men’s champions Croatia, said: “We are aware that it will be difficult to reach the quarter-finals, and then the semi-finals, and win medals.

“But game after game, we will do the best we can.

“We are happy that during this preparation period we have been able to avoid injuries and we are ready.”

Eleftheria Plevritou, who skippered Greece to a fairy-tale Women’s Water Polo World Cup victory in April, said: “That gives us stress because teams will now look more at us, but also more strength and confidence, as we want to prove that our team belong among the top teams by winning a medal here.”

Tickets from $10 to $140 are available via Sistic, with some events already sold out.

These include the final day of the women’s 20m (July 26) and men’s 27m (July 27) high diving event, the diving mixed 3m and 10m team finals (July 26), men’s 3m springboard finals (Aug 1), women’s 3m springboard semi-finals and finals (Aug 2), and the July 30, 31, Aug 3 swimming finals.