Click here to submit your question to our coaches. Any question, big or small!

October 14th, 2009--

Check out our World Cup Dashboard for results, standings, and recaps of the 2009 World Cup

The 2009-2010 Fina Arena Swimming World Cup kicks off this weekend at its first stop in Durban, South Africa.

Last year’s champions were breaststroker Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa and Marieke Guehrer, an Australian butterflier and freestyler. The World Cup is typically dominated by 50meter sprint specialists, and so while many of the full-time participants of the competition, who will compete for the series title, are in fact world record holders and World Champions, they do not receive much recognition because they swim non-Olympic events. Van der Burgh, for example, holds the LCM world record in the 50 breaststroke, and Guehrer holds the SCM world record in the 50 butterfly.

Past winners of note include Ed Moses of the United States, who won in 2001/2002 and 2003/2004, and the United Kingdom’s Alison Sheppard, who won in 2002/2003.

The series will receive a boost on it's 2 European legs in November, where American Superstar Michael Phelps is expected to compete. Other major stars that will participate in a partial schedule are Australians Leisel Jones and Eamon Sullivan, and French sprinter Alain Bernard.

Cumulative scoring is kept throughout the meets, and the swimmers with the top 3 scores typically receive prizes. The winner of each individual event will receive $1,500, second place will be $1,000, and third place will receive $500. The male and female winners will each receive $100,000, Second will receive $50,000, and third will receive $30,000. Also, $10,000 will be awarded for any World Record's broken.

As the new Suit Regulations have not yet gone into effect for FINA sanctioned meets, all suits allowed at the 2009 World Championships will still be allowed in the World Cup Meets.

2009-2010 will have the fewest number of meets, 5, of any year since the event started in 1988. There was originally 6 meets scheduled, however Rio de Janeiro, host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, had to back out in the 12th hour due to a lack of funding. All races will be swum with prelims and finals, except for the 400 IM and 800 and 1500 Freestyle events.

The participants each receive a score based on the FINA points system (Click here for calculator and Fina Points tables), and the top 10 swimmers at each meet are awarded World Cup points based on their standing in each meet, according to the following table. Swimmers are only ranked based on their single best performance of the meet, regardless of how many events they swim. Bonus points are awarded for breaking a world record (20) or tying a world record (10). Double points are awarded for the series Finale in Singapore. The swimmer with the most World Cup points at the end of the meet are declared the male and female champions. Up to date standings can be found on the Fina website.

Rank Based on Fina Points	World Cup Points Awarded
1	25
2	20
3	16
4	13
5	10
6	7
7	5
8	3
9	2
10	1