The 2024 Swimming World Cup Series has been announced, with three stops set to take place in southeast Asia. This marks a departure from the previous series, which was held in Europe and North America. The meets will take place in Shanghai, China from October 18-20, Incheon, South Korea from October 24-26, and Singapore from October 31 to November 2.

The decision to hold the series in a compact format seems to be a response to an increasingly crowded international swimming calendar. The number of stops in the series has decreased since its peak of 12 around the turn of the century. Additionally, the post-Olympic series will return to its traditional short course meters format in preparation for the upcoming 2024 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Incheon, which hosted the 2014 Asian Games, is a new city to be included in the World Cup Series. Shanghai and Singapore have both previously hosted events. Qin Haiyang of China and Kaylee McKeown of Australia won the men’s and women’s series respectively during the 2023 event.

It is worth noting that China sent most of its elite swimmers to the 2023 World Cup Series immediately after the Asian Games. This could have been a sign of their plans to host all three meets of the series in southeast Asia for 2024.