The FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, or more commonly "Open Water Worlds", was a bi-annual FINA (now World Aquatics) championship for open water swimming[1] [2] held in even years from 2000 to 2010, inclusive. Race distances were 5, 10, and 25 kilometers (also known as 5K, 10K, and 25K).
The 10 km race at the 2008 edition served as the main qualifying event for the 2008 Olympics 10 km event.
Twelve editions were part of the World Aquatics Championships and six edition were held stand alone editions. Starting in 2011, the biannual event was merged to the World Aquatics Championships.
| Edition | Year | Venue | Country | Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2 | ||||
| 2nd | 2 | ||||
| 3d | 6 | ||||
| 4h | 9 | ||||
| 5th | 6 | ||||
| 6th | 9 | ||||
| 7th | 6 | ||||
| 8th | 9 | ||||
| 9th | 6 | ||||
| 10th | 6 | ||||
| 11th | 6 | ||||
| 12th | 6 | ||||
| 13th | 6 | ||||
| 14th | 6 | ||||
| 15th | 7 | ||||
| 16th | 7 | ||||
| 17th | 7 | ||||
| 18th | 7 | ||||
| 19th | 7 | ||||
| 20th | 7 | ||||
| 21st | 5 | ||||
| 22nd | 5 | ||||
| 120 | |||||
Starting in 2000, the FINA Open Water World Championiships were held in the years between the World Aquatics Championships, providing an annual championships for Open Water Swimming. At its January 2010 meeting, the FINA Bureau decided to replace this event with a junior (18 and under) championships, making the 2010 Open Water Worlds the last edition of these championships, and 2012 seeing the first of a Junior Open Water Worlds.
| Year | Edition | Location | Events | Distances competed | Winner of the medal table | Second in the medal table | Third in the medal table |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 1 |  Honolulu, USA | 3 (m), 3 (w), 2 (mixed) | 5 km, 10 km, 25 km | |||
| 2002 | 2 |  Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt | 3 (m), 3 (w), 2 (mixed) | 5 km, 10 km, 25 km | |||
| 2004 | 3 | Dubai, UAE | 3 (m), 3 (w), 2 (mixed) | 5 km, 10 km, 25 km | |||
| 2006 | 4 |  Naples, Italy | 3 (m), 3 (w) | 5 km, 10 km, 25 km | |||
| 2008 | 5 |  Seville, Spain | 3 (m), 3 (w) | 5 km, 10 km, 25 km | |||
| 2010 | 6 |  Roberval, Canada | 3 (m), 3 (w) | 5 km, 10 km, 25 km | |||
Open water swimming events have been competed since the sixth edition of the championships in 1991. From 2000 to 2010, FINA organized in even years specific championships for open water swimming events, being the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships.
| Edition | 1991 | 1994 | 1998 | 2001 | 2003 | 2005 | 2007 | 2009 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 5 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| 10 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||
| 25 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Women | 5 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| 10 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||
| 25 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Mixed | 5/6 km | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| 25 km | X | |||||||||||||||||
| Number of events | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | ||
The best swimmers:[3]
| Swimmer | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Lurz | 12 | 4 | 4 | 20 | |
| 2 |  Yuri Koudinov | 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
| 3 | Vladimir Dyatchin | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | |
| 4 | David Meca | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 | |
| 5 | Spyridon Gianniotis | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Swimmer | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Larisa Ilchenko | 8 | 1 | 0 | 9 | |
| 2 |  Ana Marcela Cunha | 7 | 2 | 8 | 17 | |
| 3 | Edith van Dijk | 6 | 5 | 4 | 15 | |
| 4 | Viola Valli | 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
| 5 | Britta Kamrau | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 |