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2019 World Aquatics Championships

The 2019 World Aquatics Championships were the 18th FINA World Aquatics Championships, held in Gwangju, South Korea from 12 to 28 July 2019. The city had previously hosted the 2015 Summer Universiade aquatics events in the same venues.[2]

Host selection

The host was announced on 19 July 2013 on the biennial General Congress of FINA in Barcelona, the host-city of the 2013 World Aquatics Championships.[3] Budapest was awarded the 2021 Championships in the same vote, though in 2015 it was announced that they will host the 2017 Championships due to Guadalajara's withdrawal. Fukuoka was subsequently awarded the 2021 event.

The awarding was controversial within Korea as the South Korean government claimed that the mayor of Gwangju had forged the signature of endorsement.[4] As a result, the Korean government initially refused to fund the event, but eventually agreed upon passage of a law that required National Assembly approval for future bids for major sporting events.

Symbols

The mascots for the event were a pair of otters, chosen due to their natural habitat being in the mountains near Gwangju, as well as their symbolizing "swimmers' passion for challenge", according to the organizing committee. The slogan of the Championships, meanwhile, was "Dive Into Peace".[5]

Venues

Most of the competitions were held at the Main Aquatics Centre, built for the 2015 Summer Universiade, also hosted in Gwangju.[6] The Aquatics Centre hosted the swimming and diving competitions, and there were two adjacent outdoor temporary venues for synchronised swimming and water polo.[7]

Schedule

A total of 76 medal events were held across six disciplines.[8] Beach water polo was introduced as a demonstration, non-medal event.

Medal table

China topped the medal table, although the United States won the highest number of medals in total.[9] Host nation South Korea earned one bronze medal, from Kim Su-ji in the Women's 1 m springboard.

  *   Host nation (South Korea)

Participating nations

Out of 209 FINA members, 191 nations took part in the Championships, as well as a Refugee Team of independent FINA athletes. 194 teams initially entered,[10][11] setting a new record number of participating nations. However, Lesotho and the United Arab Emirates subsequently withdrew their athletes and did not appear on the start list.[12][13]

Media coverage

In the United States, NBCUniversal holds rights to the event.[14][15]

References

  1. ^ "FINA.org". Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  2. ^ [1] (Gwangju, Budapest win right to host worlds); posted by Reuters on 19 July 2013.
  3. ^ Gwangju Wins Bid to Host 2019 Aquatics Championships
  4. ^ FINA World Championships Bidding Scandal Creates Gwangju Money Woes
  5. ^ "Otters Symbolically Chosen as Gwangju 2019 World Championships Mascots". Swimming World News. 4 May 2018. Archived from the original on 13 July 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  6. ^ Our Plan Archived 28 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine posted by gwangju2019.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  7. ^ "18th FINA World Championships - Venue Info". Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  8. ^ "Schedule" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 June 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  9. ^ "Medals". fina.org. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  10. ^ "PR 57 - FINA Bureau Meeting in Gwangju (KOR)". FINA. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  11. ^ "Gwangju 2019 World Championships boast record 194 participating nations". SwimSwam. 14 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Entry List by Event and Nation" (PDF). FINA. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  13. ^ "Results Book". FINA. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  14. ^ "FINA partners with Universal Sports: new media rights agreement in the USA until 2021". FINA. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  15. ^ "NBCUniversal acquires Universal Sports programming from World Championship Sports Network". NBC Sports Group. 6 July 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2016.

External links