World Aquatics Swimming World Cup: How to watch, schedule, preview

Léon Marchand and more Olympic gold medalists return to competition at the World Aquatics World Cup series, starting this week and airing live on Peacock.

The three-stop series — Shanghai, Incheon and Singapore — is held in 25-meter pools rather than 50-meter pools used for the Olympics.

Swimmers accumulate points based on their results and times with overall men’s and women’s champions crowned after the final stop.

The men’s entries for Shanghai include Marchand, who at his home Olympics in Paris became the fourth swimmer to win at least four individual gold medals at one Games.

World records could be under threat at the World Cup stops given some of the world’s top swimmers — including Marchand — do not often compete in 25-meter pools.

Marchand, the 400m individual medley world record holder in a 50-meter pool, has never competed in the biennial world short course championships that are held in 25-meter pools. He has set numerous records in 25-yard pools in NCAA competition for Arizona State.

Others entered in Shanghai include individual Paris Olympic gold medalists Pan Zhanle of China and Thomas Ceccon and Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy, veteran Chad le Clos and China’s Qin Haiyang, who swept the breaststrokes at the 2023 World Championships.

Americans Kate Douglass and Regan Smith are among the women’s headliners after combining for nine medals in Paris.

They’re joined by Australian Kaylee McKeown, who swept the backstrokes at the last two Olympics, and more including China’s Zhang Yufei and Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, who each won medals at the last two Olympics.

The full Shanghai entry list is here.

2024 Swimming World Cup Broadcast Schedule