The November 26th deadline has passed and FINA has announced 7 cities as bidders for the 2025 and 2027 FINA World Championships and FINA World Masters Championships. In a rare twist, that includes a bid being offered up by Greensboro, North Carolina in the United States: a country that has never hosted the World Championships but has topped the medals table in 13 out of 17 editions.
The 7 bidders will be invited to a meeting at FINA’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on January 25th, 2019, after which the federations/cities will have until June 17th, 2019 to finalize their bids. On June 17th, they will make presentations to FINA, and the FINA Bureau will vote on and award the bids on July 11, 2019
FINA 2025 and 2027 World Championships:
- AUSTRALIA, Melbourne
- CHINA, city to be confirmed
- HUNGARY, Budapest
- RUSSIA, Kazan
- SERBIA, Belgrade
- UKRAINE, city to be confirmed
- USA, Greensboro, North Carolina
The FINA World Aquatics Championships, held in odd-numbered years, bring together the 6 disciplines under the FINA banner: pool swimming, open water swimming, diving, high diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo. So far, Barcelona, Spain and Rome, Italy are the only cities to have hosted the event twice. Of the named cities, Melbourne, Australia (2007); Budapest, Hungary (2017); Belgrade, Serbia (1973 – inaugural edition); and Kazan, Russia (2015) have previously hosted. China hosted once before in Shanghai in 2011, and Ukraine has never hosted the event.
The Greensboro Aquatic Center in the United States is currently hosting the US Winter National Championships. The facility announced earlier this year that they would add a 4th pool at a cost of $8.2 million to the complex to offer an additional 19 short course lanes and 8 long course lanes.
The Greensboro Aquatic Center’s main competition pool has a seating capacity of 1,848 off-deck, which is fall smaller than most recent hosts of the meet. The most likely host would be a temporary pool in the historic Greensboro Coliseum, located in the same complex, with a capacity of over 23,000.
All-Time Hosting Awards, FINA World Aquatics Championships
| Year | Date | Edition | Location | Athletes | Events | Events details | Winner of the medal table | Second of the medal table | Third of the medal table |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 31 August – 9 September | 1 | Belgrade, Yugoslavia | 686 | 37 | 18 (m), 19 (f) |  United States |
 East Germany |
 Italy |
| 1975 | 19–27 July | 2 | Cali, Colombia | 682 | 37 | 18 (m), 19 (f) | United States |
East Germany |
 Hungary |
| 1978 | 20–28 August | 3 | West Berlin, West Germany | 828 | 37 | 18 (m), 19 (f) | United States |
 Soviet Union |
 Canada |
| 1982 | 29 July – 8 August | 4 | Guayaquil, Ecuador | 848 | 37 | 18 (m), 19 (f) | United States |
East Germany |
Soviet Union |
| 1986 | 13–23 August | 5 | Madrid, Spain | 1119 | 41 | 19 (m), 22 (f) | East Germany |
United States |
Canada |
| 1991 | 3–13 January | 6 | Perth, Australia | 1142 | 45 | 21 (m), 24 (f) | United States |
 China |
Hungary |
| 1994 | 1–11 September | 7 | Rome, Italy | 1400 | 45 | 21 (m), 24 (f) | China |
United States |
 Russia |
| 1998 | 8–17 January | 8 | Perth, Australia | 1371 | 55 | 26 (m), 29 (f) | United States |
Russia |
 Australia |
| 2001 | 16–29 July | 9 | Fukuoka, Japan | 1498 | 61 | 29 (m), 32 (f) | Australia |
China |
United States |
| 2003 | 12–27 July | 10 | Barcelona, Spain | 2015 | 62 | 29 (m), 33 (f) | United States |
Russia |
Australia |
| 2005 | 16–31 July | 11 | Montreal, Canada | 1784 | 62 | 29 (m), 33 (f) | United States |
Australia |
China |
| 2007 | 18 March – 1 April | 12 | Melbourne, Australia | 2158 | 65 | 29 (m), 36 (f) | United States |
Russia |
Australia |
| 2009 | 17 July – 2 August | 13 | Rome, Italy | 2556 | 65 | 29 (m), 36 (f) | United States |
China |
Russia |
| 2011 | 16–31 July | 14 | Shanghai, China | 2220 | 65 | 29 (m), 36 (f) | United States |
China |
Russia |
| 2013 | 19 July – 4 August | 15 | Barcelona, Spain[1][2][3] | 2293 | 68 | 30 (m), 37 (f), 1 (mixed) | United States |
China |
Russia |
| 2015 | 24 July – 9 August | 16 | Kazan, Russia[4] | 2400 | 75 | 30 (m), 37 (f), 8 (mixed) | China |
United States |
Russia |
| 2017 | 14–30 July | 17 | Budapest, Hungary[5] | 2360 | 75 | 30 (m), 37 (f), 8 (mixed) | United States |
China |
Russia |
| 2019 | 12–28 July[6] | 18 | Gwangju, South Korea | ||||||
| 2021 | 16 July – 1 August | 19 | Fukuoka, Japan | ||||||
| 2023 | 6–22 October | 20 | Doha, Qatar |
Perth was the first city to hold the World Championships twice – 91 and 98. Fukuoka will join the list soon.
Budapest will absolutely get it again. The Duna Arena is one of the fastest, most modern pools in the world, and they were fantastic hosts. Everyone loved Budapest. The second city is up for grabs, but Greensboro?? Where in the world would everyone stay??
Theres plenty of places to stay. Right next door is High Point and as cheesy and dumb as it sounds, is home to the furniture mart/market every year that I am sure attracts WAAY more people than the world champs swimming, seriously.
I have been wondering if US would ever make a serious bid for Worlds.