World Aquatics has scheduled a nearly-identical Open Water World Cup scheduled in 2024 as it did in 2023, with one crucial change.
The first three stops of the five stop series, as well as the final stop, will be repeats of the planned 2023 tour. The fourth stop, however, will shift from Paris, France to Hong Kong in the Olympic year (with no stops being organized as an official test event in the Seine).
The series will also start much earlier, with the race in Soma Bay, Egypt coming roughly six weeks earlier in 2024 than it did in 2023.
2024 World Aquatics Open Water World Cup Series
- Soma Bay (EGY) – 23-24 March
- Golfo Aranci (ITA) – 25-26 May
- Setubal (POR) – 1-2 June
- Hong Kong (CHN) – 26-27 October – TBC
- Eilat (ISR) – TBC
This includes a “to be confirmed” stop in Eilat, Israel, which was originally scheduled to conclude the 2023 series, though amid ongoing fighting in the region, that event had to be moved to Funchal, Portugal on the island of Madeira.
“Every stop of the World Aquatics Open Water World Cup 2024 provides something extraordinary, from the crystal-clear waters of Soma Bay to the Hong Kong skyline,” said World Aquatics President Captain Husain Al-Musallam. “Next year promises to be a really special one for open water swimming.”
Map of the 2024 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup Series
Soma Bay looks spectacular
How do you qualify for the open water world cups
Your national federation has to enter you.
It’s not clear otherwise who is eligible.
Not sure how other countries do it but in Australia, the top 6 – 8 ranked Openwater athletes (Male and Female) from a local selection event are invited to go to the World Cup stops selected by Swimming Australia as priority international events, with the top 4 ranked male and female athletes funded and the remaining athletes accepting the offer to self-fund their trips.
Yeah I think for big swimming countries like the US and Australia, anyone they’d send would cut mustard.
I guess the bigger question is if like Sri Lanka wanted to send a 13-year-old who swims a 36-minute 1500 free, what’s the standard that prevents that.
Not sure that there is a “minimum standard” as such, but the cost for a nation or a self-funder to cover the travel/accommodation and race entries, restricts entries to a realistic standard from what I have seen.
Also restricting an athlete not ready for this level of competition is the 15minutes/5km rule. An athlete 15min behind the winner in a 5km and 30minutes behind in a 10km is removed from the course and DNF registered as their result, further encouragement for a nation not to support an athlete that does not fit this level of competition.
Fairly common to see athletes finishing up to 15 minutes behind the winner in many of the 10km World Cup races but not much more than that so Nations appear to be supporting entries to appropriate athletes on the whole.