FINA World Championships

FINA, the international governing body of aquatic sports, has organized a World Championship for Open Water (Long Distance) Swimming since 1991. These were held in conjunction with the general FINA World Championships for pool swimming, diving, and water polo in 1991, 1994, 1998, and every odd-numbered year from 2001 to present. Standalone Open Water World Championships were held in even-numbered years between 2000 and 2010.

The scheduled 2021 Championships were set to be held in Fukuoka, Japan, in the summer of 2022, after being postponed from 2021 to accommodate the pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in that year. However, in January 2022, it was announced that the Fukuoka event would be postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19 pandemic measures in Japan.