Russia stripped of hosting swim worlds, moved to Singapore

Russia was stripped of hosting the 2025 swimming world championships on Thursday and Singapore was awarded the event by the governing body of the sport.

Russia had originally been chosen in 2019 to host the event in Kazan, which also held the championships in 2015.

The International Olympic Committee has asked the governing bodies of sports not to stage events in Russia following the country's invasion of Ukraine.


"Singapore has everything we hope to share with our athletes: world-class facilities, proven experience of hosting events of the highest quality and a comprehensive approach to aquatic sports that runs from elite level to the community," World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam said in a statement which did not mention Russia.

The world championships feature swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo. This year's worlds will be in Fukuoka, Japan, and next year's event will be in Doha, Qatar.

World Aquatics previously removed last year's world short-course swimming championships from Russia and gave that event to the Australian city of Melbourne.