Temporary venue at Kallang to be built for World Aquatics Championships in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Singapore will build a temporary facility for swimming and artistic swimming events when it hosts the World Aquatics Championships from July 11 to Aug 3, 2025, organisers revealed on July 12.

At an event to mark the one-year countdown to the championships, it was announced that the sheltered venue will be built at Carpark G, near the Kallang Tennis and Kallang Football Hub and hold an estimated 4,800 seats.

It will comprise two pools and spectator stands, as well as a fan zone with interactive activities, merchandise areas, sponsors’ booths, and food and beverage stalls.

The water polo and diving events will be at the OCBC Aquatic Centre while Sentosa will host open-water swimming (Palawan Beach) and high diving (Palawan Green).

Organisers also unveiled the Singapore 2025 logo and tagline “Water Shapes Us” at the countdown event at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.

The championships will see over 2,500 of the world’s best aquatic athletes compete across six disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open-water swimming, artistic swimming and water polo. Singapore will also host the World Para Swimming Championships in September 2025.

When it was

first announced in February 2023

that Singapore would be the first South-east Asian country to stage the World Aquatics Championships, the 50,000-seater National Stadium was mooted as the venue for swimming.

However, in January, it was reported that swimming and artistic swimming could instead be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, which seats 12,000.

Alan Goh, 2025 World Aquatics Championships organising committee co-chairperson and chief executive officer of Sport Singapore, said the temporary facility will be built by next June and could first host the National School Games.

Speaking to the media at the event, Goh said: “There are many factors we took into consideration when selecting the venue. Of course, National Stadium and Indoor Stadium were (involved in discussions) as well.

“But when we had discussions with World Aquatics, it was clear that the National Stadium with its 50,000 capacity is way over the typical attendance for the event.

“So on balance, and having considered factors such as cost, factors such as downtime of the Indoor Stadium and National Stadium, the decision was best to hold the events in the Aquatic Centre and build a very nice facility in Carpark G.”

Recent world championships have been held in existing venues – at Doha 2024, swimming and artistic swimming were hosted in a temporary pool constructed inside the 15,500-capacity Aspire Dome. In Fukuoka 2023, swimming was held at the 15,000-seater Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall A, part of the Fukuoka Convention Centre.

Mark Chay, Singapore Aquatics president and organising committee co-chairperson, said that officials are still “assessing the cost of the event”.

He added: “If we were to hold everything (2,500 athletes across six sports) here at this wonderful facility (aquatic centre), we would actually have a very, very long event. So it’s about scheduling, about making sure that we have a very tight and robust programme, capturing all the highlights across the six aquatic sports and therefore, the temporary venue.”

Asked if the final choice was “underwhelming” given the earlier options of the Indoor and National stadiums, Chay said: “I wouldn’t say it is underwhelming. When it comes to these world championships, we also look at what the seating capacity will be and what will actually create the most vibrant atmosphere.

“And building a swimming pool in the National Stadium or Indoor Stadium may not be the best way to actually get the whole community involved and get behind the athletes.”

Goh also noted that both venues could still be available for use for “concerts or other events during the world championships”.

He still expects the event to be a spectacle, adding: “There are many temporary facilities that have been built around sporting events. I would like to dispel the notion that temporary facilities cannot be world class and exciting.

“We do believe that we have the proper designers and pool makers that will come together and erect the facility in time. So I’m very confident that we will have world-class facilities.”