Are you looking forward to the 2023 FINA World Swimming Championships? Unfortunately, the event scheduled for 2022 was postponed until 2023, leaving swimming fans disappointed they couldn’t tune into their favorite championships.
The FINA World Championships 2022 was originally scheduled for Budapest, Hungary, from June 18 to July 3. However, COVID had different ideas, forcing the postponement of the tournament for the 2022 swimming year.
The FINA World Championships took a backseat to the pandemic over recent years, with the tournament’s last edition occurring in Gwangju in South Korea in 2019. 2020, 2021, and 2022 saw the FINA World Championships postponed due to the virus circulating the world, causing mass shutdowns of most sporting events across the globe.
So, provided the pandemic plays ball, how can you watch the 2023 FINA World Championships? We’ll give you our top options for where to tune in for a thrilling swimming experience.
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How to Watch FINA World Swimming Championships 2023 Live
So, how can you watch the 2023 FINA World Swimming Championships? The tournament has several US, UK, and EU broadcasting partners. Here are the following broadcasting companies offering you front-row action from the championships.
Cable TV Partners USA
If you’re watching the 2023 FINA World Swimming Championships in the United States, you can pick up event coverage from the following broadcasting partners.
- NBC Sport Network
- CBC
- Sport TV
- ESPN Latin America
- ESPN
- Antel
Cable TV Partners Europe
If you’re watching the 2023 FINA World Swimming Championships in the EU, you can pick up coverage from the following broadcasting partners.
It’s important to note those unavailable on broadcasting rights holders’ platforms are available on “All Aquatics.”
- Austria: ORF
- Bulgaria: BNT
- Croatia: HRT
- Cyprus: CYBC
- Estonia: ERR
- Finland: YLE
- France: FT
- Georgia: 1TV (Men’s Water Polo only)
- Greece: ERT
- Hungary: MTVA
- Iceland: RUV
- Israel: Sports Channel
- Italy: RAI Sport
- Lithuania: LT
- Montenegro: RTCG
- Netherlands: NOS
- Poland: TVP
- Serbia: RTS
- Slovakia: RTVA
- Slovenia: RTVS
- Sweden: SVT
- Switzerland: SRF, RTS, RSI
- UK: BBC
Online Streaming Sources
If you’re watching outside of these regions, you can pick up coverage on DIRECTV. This platform supports viewing on the following devices.
- Apple TV
- Amazon Fire TV
- Android TV
- Smart TVs
- Tablets, phones, and Windows devices
Note: DIRECTV STREAM is unavailable for streaming on Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox.
If you can’t pick up coverage with any of these broadcasting platforms, you can watch the Championships on the “FINA” YouTube channel or at “fina.org.”
How Do I Watch the FINA World Swimming Championships 2023 Outside the US and Europe?
For those people that want to watch the 2023 FINA World Swimming Championships but don’t have access to these platforms or broadcasting partners in their country, you always have the option of downloading a VPN. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) like ExpressVPN offers a way to securely connect to the internet and hide your IP address.
- Download the software to your desktop or mobile device.
- Connect to a server in the United States or the UK.
- The VPN server cloaks your original IP, replacing it with an IP registered in the VPN server’s country of origin.
- You can purchase a subscription to the broadcasting partner using a gift card from Amazon.com or the broadcaster’s website.
- Please create your account with the broadcasting partner in the US, EU, or UK, and connect to their website to watch coverage of the event on any device.
You can install the VPN directly to your home router or a mobile device if you’re watching the tournament on the move. A VPN offers you a safe, secure connection to the internet, allowing you to protect yourself from the prying eyes of the broadcasting partner and your ISP.
The Latest Rescheduling of the FINA World Championships
Since 2020, 2021, and 2022 are a wash for tournament hopes, the FINA board decided to shift the 2023 tournament in Doha, Qatar, forward to 2024. Placing it in the same year as the 2024 Summer Games. If officials confirm the move, the 2024 event hosted in the Qatari capital will be the first edition to be held in the same year as the Paris 2024 Summer Games scheduled for July 26 to August 11.
The 2022 event scheduled for Japan was taken off the cards after the country saw Tokyo, its capital, experiencing surging cases, with an average of 40,000 new cases a day, the most since the start of the pandemic in Japan.
What Can We Expect at the FINA World Championships?
The 2023 Championships will take place in Fukuoka, Japan, from 14-30 July 2023. The tournament will see competitors swimming for 74 medals across five events, including diving, swimming, open water, artistic swimming, and water polo.
The 2023 FINA World Championships will see many of the world’s top swimmers competing in Japan from around the world, provided there isn’t another surge in the virus. Viewers will get the treat of seeing Olympic champions like Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel compete for medals.
2023 FINA World Championships Venues
The 2023 FINA World Championships will see the event take place at the following four venues across Japan. Most of the events will take place at the Marine Messe. This iconic venue was built for the 1995 and the 2001 Summer Universiade hosted in Fukuoka.
- Marine Messe Fukuoka (swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo)
- Kokusai Center (water polo)
- Fukuoka Prefectural Pool (diving)
- Boat Race Fukuoka (open water swimming, high diving) Sopron Lőver Pool (water polo)
2023 FINA World Championships Swimming Schedule
The 2023 FINA World Championships will take place over eight days of competition, with plenty of action on each day of the Championships.
You can expect the following events to occur over the competition’s eight days.
Day One
- Men’s 400m freestyle (Heats and Final)
- Men’s 100m breaststroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 50m butterfly (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 400m individual medley (Heats and Final)
- Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay (Heats and Final)
- Women’s 400m freestyle (Heats and Final)
- Women’s 100m butterfly (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 200m individual medley (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay (Heats and Final)
Day Two
- Men’s 200m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 100m backstroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 100m breakstroke (Final)
- Men’s 50m butterfly (Final)
- Women’s 1500m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 100m backstroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 100m breaststroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 100m butterfly (Final)
- Women’s 200m individual medley (Final)
Day Three
- Men’s 200m freestyle (Final)
- Men’s 800m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 100m backstroke (Final)
- Men’s 50m breaststroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 200m butterfly (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 200m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 1500m freestyle (Final)
- Women’s 100m backstroke (Final)
- Women’s 100m breaststroke (Final)
Day Four
- Men’s 100m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 800m freestyle (Final)
- Men’s 50m breaststroke (Final)
- Men’s 200m butterfly (Final)
- Men’s 200m individual medley (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 200m freestyle (Final)
- Women’s 50m backstroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 200m butterfly (Heats and Semifinals)
- Mixed 4x100m medley relay (Heats and Final)
Day Five
- Men’s 100m freestyle (Final)
- Men’s 200m backstroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 200m breaststroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 200m individual medley (Final)
- Women’s 100m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 50m backstroke (Final)
- Women’s 200m breaststroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 200m butterfly (Final)
- Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay (Heats and Final)
Day Six
- Men’s 50m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 200m backstroke (Final)
- Men’s 200m breaststroke (Final)
- Men’s 100m butterfly (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 4×200 freestyle relay (Heats and Final)
- Women’s 100m freestyle (Final)
- Women’s 800m freestyle (Heats)
- Women’s 200m backstroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 200m breaststroke (Final)
- Women’s 50m butterfly (Heats and Semifinals)
Day Seven
- Men’s 50m freestyle (Final)
- Men’s 1500m freestyle (Heats)
- Men’s 50m backstroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Men’s 100m butterfly (Final)
- Women’s 50m freestyle (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 800m freestyle (Final)
- Women’s 200m backstroke (Final)
- Women’s 50m breaststroke (Heats and Semifinals)
- Women’s 50m butterfly (Final)
- Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay (Heats + Final)
Day Eight
- Men’s 1500m freestyle (Final)
- Men’s 50m backstroke (Final)
- Men’s 4×100 medley relay (Heats and Final)
- Women’s 50m freestyle (Final)
- Women’s 50m breaststroke (Final)
- Women’s 400m individual medley (Heats and Final)
- Women’s 4x100m medley relay (Heats and Final)
About the FINA World Swimming Championships
The FINA World Championships, also known as the World Aquatics Championships, has been traditionally a biennial event since 2001. In the near 20 years, the event hasn’t experienced any problems to push it off track. However, 2020 had different plans for the tournament.
Originally, the Budapest meeting was the first of the four consecutive championships set for 2022 to 2025. This rescheduling has been unprecedented since the start of the competition in 1973. The Budapest event would have been the 19th edition of the World Championships.
2023 will see the return of FINA to competitive swimming. We wait with bated breath to see if they can pull it off or if the pandemic has different ideas for the tournament. Only time will tell, but we have our fingers crossed.
COVID and Setback to the FINA World Championships
The World Aquatics Championships (FINA World Championships) was set for competition in 2021. Still, organizers pushed it back due to the pandemic causing the delay of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. The rescheduling was to avoid clashing with the summer games, which also have swimming events that might impede athletes’ performance at FINA.
However, the pandemic had other plans, surging across the world thanks to the spread of the Omicron variant. Due to having taken place between May 13 to 29, the tournament experienced another postponement.
Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima had the following to say about the decision to postpone the 2022 FINA World Championships.
“It’s really disappointing when we think of the swimmers and fans who have been looking forward to the tournament. We’ll switch our attention and prepare for another year.”
The head of the Russian Swimming Federation, President Vladimir Salnikov, also a standing member of the FINA Bureau, had the following to say to Russia’s state news agency, TASS, regarding the postponement of the tournament to 2023.
“The FINA bureau met Friday and voted to postpone the World Championships to 2023 due to the pandemic and other issues related to organizing the arrival and accommodation of participants in the coronavirus environment, and no alternative options for the World Championships were presented.”
According to new information, the 2023 World Aquatics Championships are expected to take place in Japan.
