Record 194 nations participating at Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships

The 18th FINA World Championships have commenced in the South Korean city of Gwangju with a record 194 out of 209 FINA national member federations participating across six disciplines - a record number for the aquatic sport’s penultimate event behind the Olympic Games.

Taking place from 12th to 28th July, world swimming governing body FINA is also expecting an estimated 2,500 participants - an increase from the 2,360 competitors from Budapest in 2017.

Held a year in advance of the Tokyo Olympics, the 2019 Aquatics World Championships will see global superstars of swimming, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and water polo compete for 76 world champion titles.

Being staged across six venues fast times are expected at the state-of-the-art Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Centre.

High diving is the only non-Olympic aquatic discipline at the Championships.

The large global participation is viewed as both a blessing and a curse by different factions within the sport.

While some view this as FINA fulfilling its constitutional mission of spreading aquatic sport around the world, others lament that the interests of the world’s best swimmers and best swimming nations are sacrificed in part for the benefit of globalisation of aquatic sport.

Gwangju’s 2013 bid to host the Championships became mired in scandal when it was revealed that city officials forged the signatures of top government officials in submitting the bid proposal.

Image shows the Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Centre.