Female swimmer of the meet Curzan had the highest earning

300 swimmers representing 44 different countries earned money at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. Both numbers are an increase from last year, where 299 athletes from 38 countries earned prize money.
The increase in the latter number is representative of the unusual nature of these World Championships in an Olympic year. While many of the top swimming nations, like the United States and Australia, did not send full rosters to the meet, many other nations did, using the meet as a tune-up or qualification event for the Paris Games.
The broader distributions of money are also apparent in the money-per-country table. The USA led the way in 2024 with $367,000 in aggregate earnings, which is down from the $657,000 they won at last year’s meet. Australia, which again was the #2 earner, was down from $637,000 to $292,000.
That means a lot of money is redistributed to other nations.
While the same number of countries (8) cleared $100,000 in earnings, the aggregate earnings of those countries fell from $2.3 million to $1.8 million. In 2024, that represented about two-thirds of the total prize money awarded.
The total money distributed at this year’s World Championships was $270,000 less than last year’s, due to there being only 1 World Record (Pan Zhanle, 100 free, China) versus the 10 set at last year’s meet. In total, $2,760,000 were given out at the 2024 World Championships.
The individual leader was Claire Curzan of the United States, who was also the Female Swimmer of the Meet with $78,750. After a disappointing 2023 where a hospitalization before US Trials left her off the Worlds team, she leaves Doha with gold medals in the 50, 100, and 200 backstroke and the 400 mixed medley relay, plus silver in the 100 fly and bronze in the 400 mixed free relay. Her 50-100-200 sweep made her just the second woman and third swimmer in history to sweep the 50-100-200 of the same stroke at Worlds.
The top male earner was Pan Zhanle of China, boosted by his World Record in the 100 free on a relay leadoff. The individual 100 free was his only medal, but he was on three winning Chinese relays as well.
Four of the top five individual earners were women – which has become the norm, with more women able to medal in multiple events than men among today’s top swimmers.