With 6 World Championships in 3 Years, Who Has Won the Most Medals?
It’s been a busy three years of international swimming. The sport, like much else, came to a screeching halt in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. International meets, including the Tokyo Olympics, were postponed, and the backlog is in some ways only just now dissipating nearly a half-decade later.
The world’s best swimmers have convened six times in the last three years for meets labeled as World Championships. There were Short-Course Championships in 2021, 2022 and the latest last December, on the heels of the Paris Games. After two years without a World Championships in the long-course pool, World Aquatics is set to host them in four consecutive years, including major meets in 2022 and 2023 and the shoe-horned 2024 event in February before the Games.
That’s a lot of racing and a lot of medals to be had. So who’s led the way in hardware gained?
Before we get to the numbers, context is important. The list of swimmers to take part at all six meets is slim, and those positioned to peak at all six is essentially zero. Each meet brings unique and occasionally conflicted objectives that go beyond certain long-course swimmers – Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus among them – who swim primarily long-course at this point in their careers. The timing of the 2024 meet in February ruled out most Americans and just about anybody competing in the NCAA (like Leon Marchand). Both the 2021 and 2024 World Short-Course Championships came on the heels of Olympics, which dampened participation. The 2021 meet was impacted by residual travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic; Australia, for instance, did not travel to Abu Dhabi for that meet for health and safety reasons.
So caveats aside, who came out on top?
The U.S. rules the medal standings
To no one’s surprise, the U.S. had the most medals across the six world championships, with 208 total. That’s more than double second-place Australia’s 98. Nations two, three and four combined for 232.
The U.S.’s 76 golds also lead all nations. Australia was second with 37, while China and Canada each had 20.
The U.S. finished first in total medals at all six meets. Australia surpassed it in terms of golds at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka with 13 to the U.S.’s seven, though the U.S. netted 38 total medals to the Aussies’ 25.
Tied for third in total medals are Canada and Italy with 68 each. China was the only other nation with at least 30 medals with 46.
Meet the medal king …
Nic Fink has won 25 total medals, 13 of them gold, swimming at all but the 2024 Short-Course Worlds. The three-time Olympic medalist won six individual gold medals, and more than half of his total medals (13) were individual. Fink was 28 years old in Abu Dhabi in 2021 when he won his first medal at any World Championship event.
Americans took the top three spots on the men’s side, with Carson Foster and Shaine Casas tied with 19 apiece. Foster has 10 individual medals, Casas five. Fifteen of Casas’ medals are in short-course competition.
A special generation of Italians populates the leaderboard. Alessandro Miressi has 18 medals, followed by 17 for Nicolo Martinenghi, 16 for Thomas Ceccon and 11 each for Alberto Razzetti and Lorenzo Mora. Kyle Chalmers breaks the blockade with 14 medals, the only non-American or non-Italian with more than 10.
… And the queen
It should come as a surprise to no one that Kate Douglass, she of the seemingly endless event list, sits atop the women’s medal table. The American has 33 Worlds medals, having earned multiple medals at each of the six events. Six of her 15 gold medals and 14 of her total medal haul comes from individual events. She’s won medals in breaststroke, freestyle and the individual medley.
In all, 29 women have 10 or more medals over the six World Championships. Mollie O’Callaghan is second to Douglass with 11 gold medals. Claire Curzan and Torri Huske of the U.S. have 10 golds each, with Curzan tallying 24 medals and Huske 20 for second and third, respectively. O’Callaghan has 19 total medals.
Two Canadians follow in Maggie Mac Neil and Summer McIntosh. Sarah Sjostrom is in the top 10 with 15 total medals, including nine gold, seven of which are individual. Special designation for Siobhan Haughey, who has 10 medals, all of them individual.
