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Swissman Noe Ponti picked up a pile of Francs at the opening stop of the Swimming World Cup in Shanghai, China thanks in part to his World Record bonus. Archive photo via European Aquatics
Rebecca Meder broke the South African Record in the 200 IM in long course at the Olympics; on Sunday she broke the record in short course as well.
In a friendly chat with fellow World Cup competitor Duncan Scott of Great Britain, Swiss ace Noe Ponti predicted his heats World Record in the 50m fly.
21-year-old Laura Lahtinen pulled off the mild upset in the women’s 100m butterfly, hitting a new lifetime best of 55.58 in the process.
Lewis Clareburt powered his way to two New Zealand national records to close out day 3 of action at the 2024 World Cup in Shanghai, China.
British multi-Olympic medalist Duncan Scott is set to appear in the final of the men’s 200m freestyle on day 3 of the World Cup in Shanghai.
Benvenuti alla copertura live delle finali del terzo giorno della Coppa del Mondo di Nuoto 2024 a Shanghai, dove ci aspettiamo grandi emozioni
Noe Ponti broke the World Record in the 50 short course meters fly on Sunday in Shanghai, China at the first stop of the 2024 Swimming World Cup Series.
20-year-old Olympic medalist Tang Qianting kept the records rolling on night 2 in Shanghai, hitting a new Chinese and Asian mark in the women’s 100m breast.
October 21st, 2024
The first stop of the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Shanghai, China is complete, which means the first dollars have been officially earned.
Following the latest iteration of World Cup scoring and prize money systems, there is no money given directly for an athlete’s finish in any specific event. Instead, athletes earned points based on their three best performances, which are determined on a combination of finish place and time (full description after the money tables).
Athletes are awarded prize money both for their ranking in each meet, and for their overall points ranking throughout the series, with over $1 million in total prize money available across 9 days of competition.
The early leaders are Switzerland’s Noe Ponti, who broke the only World Record of Shanghai to earn a $10,000 bonus. In spite of that record, he only finished 2nd in the men’s standings, owed to the fact that he only won two events whereas Leon Marchand of France won three. Placement tends to outweigh “time” in the way the scoring is constructed, with time acting as a tie-breaker between swimmers with the same placings.
The two had a big head-to-head showdown in the 100 IM, where Marchand won and Ponti was 2nd by .01 seconds. That .01 seconds wound up being worth $2,000 for Marchand.
The top scorer on the women’s side was Kate Douglass, who was .1 seconds ahead of her American teammate Regan Smith. The pair both won three events, and they each had big points swims (Smith scored 1000 in the 100 back at 54.89, Douglass 974 in the 100 IM at 56.99), but it was Douglass’ 2nd and 3rd events being almost at the same level that gave her the slimmest of margins.
Also keep an eye out for swimmers who might swim all three legs, as winning an event three times comes with more money bonuses.
Courtesy: Sophie Kaufman
Like previous years, points are awarded from the finish order and how fast the swim is based on the AQUA Power Points system.
Points are awarded for speed by taking the number of AQUA Power Points a swim is worth, dividing by ten, and rounding down to the nearest tenth.
Swimmers can race as many events as they want at each stop, but only their three best scores from a stop will be added together to determine their score for the stop. At each stop, there is a total of $112,000 (USD) on offer for each gender or $672,000 for the whole series. This is the same amount as was available in 2023 and 2022.
Prize money for rankings at each stop is given through the top 20 positions with men and women scored separately. If there is a tie, the swimmer with the higher AQUA Power Points in their best event during the stop wins.
Prize Money for Each Stop:
There is also prize money for the top eight swimmers per gender at the end of the entire series. The winner of the men’s and women’s standings will each earn $100,000. A total of $262,000 will be awarded across the top eight swimmers per gender at the end of the series. Again, this is the same amount of money that was on offer in 2023.
Prize Money for Overall Series Ranking:
Total Guaranteed Prize Money To Be Awarded
In addition to the guaranteed prize money from rankings at the end of each stop and the end of the series, swimmers can earn money by breaking a world record or completing a Triple Crown—winning the same event at all three stops.
Swimmers can pick up $10,000 USD for each world record and $10,000 for each Triple Crown. Last year, Kaylee McKeown broke two world records at the World Cup series, swimming 26.86 in the 50 backstroke and a 57.33 100 backstroke at the Budapest stop. There were 20 Triple Crowns won in 2023; 12 were won by women as every women’s freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly events were Triple Crowns.
Women:
Men:
McKeown and Qin Haiyang followed up their exploits at the 2023 World Championships, where they became the first swimmers to sweep 50/100/200 of a stroke at a World Championships by winning the 2023 Swimming World Cup.
McKeown claimed the women’s trophy win 177.4 points ahead of Siobhan Haughey (166.4) and Zhang Yufei (166.2). Over the three stops of the 2023 World Cup, McKeown earned three backstroke Triple Crowns, broke two world records, and lowered the backstroke World Cup records each time she swam.
Qin won the men’s table with 175.4 points, with Thomas Ceccon (167.9) and Matthew Sates (166.8) finishing second and third. Qin earned three breaststroke Triple Crowns, setting World Cup records in the 50 and 200 breast at the first stop of the series in Berlin.
While not always the case, in 2023 the World Cup overall winners also earned the most prize money throughout the series. Qin earned $166,000 while McKeown topped all swimmers with $186,000.
A lot of them will have spent quite a bit on travel and accommodation to even be able to compete.
Michael Andrew – 38th
Time to hang up the cap and goggles.
Pan Zhanle was 28th… should he hang up his goggles too?
Except this is much more Andrew’s type of competition format. Pan is only really good at one event (he’s unbelievably good at that event but it’s just the one and it’s LC). His 200 LCM is also good yes but the 100 is his real main event.
Just once, I would like to see what Kate Douglass could throw down in the W 100 BR.
The answer to the article’s question is Ponti. But he is still behind Marchand on the list?
List is sorted by points because the big prize is based on point standings at the end of the meet, instead of being sorted by prize money.
If there were more bonuses involved I’d post the table sorted both ways, but seems like unnecessary clutter given that it’s the same aside from just the one WR bonus.
I would like an article on why Seto is so much faster than Marchand in the 400 IM scm. I think it’s because while Marchand has good underwaters, the speed Seto comes on and off the wall is just faster.
Marchand hasn’t done a 4 IM in scm fully tapered since he went 3:28 in yards which converts to 3:50 in scm, well below Seto’s record. Maybe we’ll see him go that fast at worlds but I doubt it
I think Marchand will find it harder than we think to break Seto’s record
I’m curious to understand the personal finance for the swimmers here when it comes to the World Cup: How much money is going into their pockets? Like KD’s $12,000 for example: Does she have to pay for her own airfare, ground transportation, dining, accommodation, etc.? Or is USA Swimming, FIFA, World Cup host, etc. paying for a portion of that?
They dont publicise numbers but the 12 swimmers they used heavily to promote the series absolutely will have their costs covered by FINA, and probably receive an appearance fee on top of that.
Right. And sometimes other athletes can negotiate directly with host federations on costs, and sometimes federations cover costs too.
Didn’t Douglas break the 100 IM record?
American record
She broke the World Cup Record but not the World Record. No bonuses for World Cup Records.
I really expected it to be far higher.
The prize money is constructed to reward swimmers who compete at all three stops. The biggest prizes are the overall series prizes. Qin won $166,000 last season total, McKeown won $186,000.
Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers’ Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …
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