An impressive group of the world’s best swimmers fiercely competed across the four legs for an overall prize pool of US $1.45 million. The FINA Swimming World Cup 2021 saw a total of 1021 athletes compete (431 women and 590 men) and 57 national federations from five continents were represented.
Following the unveiling of the 2022 season for the FINA Swimming World Cup, let’s go back and relive the TOP-10 moments from the 2021 event stops.
1. South Africa’s Matt Sates started off the Swimming World Cup with an impressive series of success in Berlin: 4 golds, 1 silver, and 2 Junior World Records. The 18-year-old continued his impressive sequence of wins to top the Men’s overall rankings.
2. Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko sailed away with the overall top spot and the 12,000 dollars in Berlin, an authentic surprise!
3. Sensational last 25m for Chad Le Clos in his 200m FLY comeback win,
after Tom Shields claimed the first round in the 100m Butterfly Final in Berlin.
4. Superb win of Viktoria Gunes! The Turkish surprised everyone in Budapest in the 200m Breaststroke final swimming from the outside.
5. Women overall winner Aussie Emma Mckeon tied the World Cup record (50.58) set by Sarah Sjostrom in 2017 in the 50m Butterfly
6 – Kira Toussaint claimed 12 out 12 Backstroke events. An incredible score for Queen of Backstroke Kira Toussaint. the Dutch was able to clinch twelve Gold medals and set a new World Cup Record in the Women’s 50m Backstroke (25.81)
7 – Daiya Seto attended only the last two legs of the World Cup series, enough to put on a show in the Medley events. He finished at his best in Kazan setting a new World Cup Record in the Men’s 200m Medley (1:50.66)
8 – Switzerland’s Maria Ugolkova and USA’s Tom Shields – Two of the main protagonists of this edition able to claim 14 and 16 medals this year. Shields finished 2nd in the overall rankings
9 – Kyle Chalmers went close many times during the Swimming World Cup 2021 and he finally delivered: Chalmers set a new World Record in the 100m Freestyle Final in Kazan (44.84)
10 – Thanking everyone for these amazing competitions. Sates and McKeon topped the men’s and women’s podiums respectively, earning them each US$ 100,000 in overall prize money.
Source: FINA
Shuaeeb Is a seasoned sportswriter, social worker, and philanthropist. He has been renowned for his support of disabled sports persons and championing for equal rights and opportunities for all sports persons. He is also a father of 4 children and married to His partner Moana who is of Australian descent. He currently does sports volunteering and disability support work aside from writing for this August media.
