2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup Recap: Top Male Earners

With the Short Course World Aquatics Swimming Championships just around the corner, now is a great time to look back at the top male earners from the recent World Swimming Cup, which was also held in short course and concluded earlier this month, with results available online. The upcoming Championships will take place in a 25-meter pool in Budapest, Hungary, from December 10–15.

USA Swimming recently announced their roster for the event, which includes several World Cup competitors, along with other familiar faces from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Olympians like Jack Alexy, Carson Foster, Torri Huske, Lily King, Kieran Smith, Katie Grimes, Gretchen Walsh and more.

Among the top U.S. female earners at the World Cup who will be competing again are Kate Douglass and Regan Smith, both of whom shattered world records at the competition. Douglass took home $184,000, while Smith earned $152,000.

No U.S. male swimmer made it into the top five earners at the World Cup. Among the Americans, Kieran Smith earned the most for the men, taking home $13,900, which was the 12th highest amount earned by a male swimmer.

Top 5 Male Earners At The Swimming World Cup

1.Leon Marchand

France’s Leon Marchand earned $174,000 over the course of the series. This total includes a $10,000 bonus for breaking former Olympian Ryan Lochte’s 200 IM world record of 1:49.63, set in 2012 at the Short Course World Championships. Marchand, who holds several national records for France, lowered that time to 1:48.88, becoming the second swimmer—after Lochte—to break 1:50 in the event.

Marchand carried his success from the Paris Games into the competition. In Paris, he won gold four times in the following events: the 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM. He also secured a bronze medal in the 4×100 medley relay. At the World Cup, he earned $30,000 in triple crown bonuses, awarded for winning the same event at all three locations. Marchand achieved the triple crown three times by remaining undefeated in the 100 IM, 200 IM and 400 IM.

2.Noe Ponti

Noe Ponti, who holds national records for Switzerland, had strong performances at the Cup, collecting a total of $142,000. Ponti broke two short course world records, including the 50 butterfly record twice. With a $10,000 bonus for each world record-breaking performance, Ponti earned $20,000 for setting these new records.

Ponti holds an Olympic bronze medal from the Tokyo Olympics, where he finished third in the 100 butterfly. In Paris, he just missed out on another medal in the event, placing fourth. However, Ponti bounced back at the World Cup series, showing his strength as a flyer. In addition to setting a new world record, he achieved two triple crowns in the 50 butterfly and 100 butterfly events.

3.Duncan Scott

Duncan Scott, a Scottish swimmer who represents Great Britain, has won eight Olympic medals across the Rio, Tokyo and Paris Games. Two of these are gold medals in the 4×200 freestyle relay, one from Tokyo and one from Paris. The rest of his medals are silver, including in the 200 freestyle, 200 IM and various relays.

At the World Cup, Scott made $59,500, which includes a $10,000 bonus for his triple crown victory in the 200 freestyle. He also set new national records for Great Britain in the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle and 100 IM during the series.

4.Pieter Coetze

Pieter Coetze, a South African swimmer, earned a total of $54,500 for his performances. Recently, he placed fifth in the 100 backstroke and seventh in the 200 backstroke at the Paris Olympics, with both times being personal bests. This wasn’t Coetze’s first time at the Olympics, though. At just 16 years old, he competed in the Tokyo Games, where he finished 24th in the 100 backstroke during the prelims.

At the World Cup, Coetze set new national short course records in both the 50 and 100 backstroke. He also won the 100 and 200 backstroke at all three stops of the series, earning $20,000 as part of his total prize money.

5.Qin Haiyang

China’s Qin Haiyang recieved $42,000, which included a triple crown bonus for his victory in the 50 breaststroke. He holds all of China’s national records in both the long course and short course breaststroke events. During the series, Haiyang broke the national records for the 50 and 100 breaststroke.

At the Paris Olympics, Haiyang won gold as part of the 4×100 medley relay and silver in the 4×100 mixed medley relay. He also competed in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events but did not medal. Haiyang holds the world record in the long course 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:05.48, which he set at the 2023 Swimming World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.