The World Aquatics organization has announced a three-stop Swimming World Cup Series for 2024, which will take place in Southeast Asia. This follows the previous series held in Europe in 2023 and North America and Europe in 2022. The three meets will be held in Shanghai, China from October 18-20, Incheon, South Korea from October 24-26, and Singapore from October 31 to November 2.
The decision to have a compact three-meet series appears to be a response to the increasing congestion of the international swimming calendar. The series has seen a decline in the number of stops since its peak of 12 around the turn of the century. The post-Olympic series in 2024 will also return to its traditional short course meters format in preparation for the 2024 World Short Course Swimming Championships, which will take place in Budapest, Hungary.
Incheon is a new city to host the World Cup Series, while Shanghai and Singapore have hosted previous events. In the previous year’s series, Qin Haiyang from China won the men’s title and Kaylee McKeown from Australia won the women’s title.
Notably, China sent most of its elite swimmers to the 2023 World Cup Series right after the Asian Games. This could have been an indication that all three meets of the series would be held in Southeast Asia for 2024.