Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Open water swimming has steadily grown around the world. Not only have the number of swimmers and coaches increased, but also so have the number of officials and volunteers.

With thousands of local open water swimming events added annually to the global open water schedule, more and more regional, national and international competitions have been hosted around the world.

Open water swimming has been formally added to the Olympic Games, the Universiade, the Special Olympics World Summer Games, the CrossFit Games, the Juegos Suramericanos (South American Games), the Southeast Asian Games, the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, the Asian Beach Games, the South American Beach Games (Juegos Suramericanos de Playa), the Pan American Games, the Polar Olympics, and several other international competitions.

The 20th World Maccabiah Games (משחקי המכביה) in Israel will also have open water swimming events (1.5 km), leaving only the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games are the few international exceptions without open water events.

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