The World Aquatics Swimming World Cup Series has announced a three-stop series for 2024 that will take place in Southeast Asia. This comes after successful series in Europe and North America in previous years. The meets will be held 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 have a compact three-meet series appears to be a response to an increasingly crowded international swimming calendar. The series has seen a decrease in the number of stops since its peak of 12 around the turn of the century. The return to short course meters format is also notable as it prepares for the upcoming 2024 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Incheon, which hosted the 2014 Asian Games, is a new addition to the World Cup Series while Shanghai and Singapore have previously hosted events. In the previous year’s series, Qin Haiyang from China won the men’s title while Australia’s Kaylee McKeown took home the women’s title.

It is worth noting that China sent most of its elite swimmers to the 2023 World Cup Series shortly after the Asian Games, which could have been a sign of their plans for all three meets of the series to take place in Southeast Asia in 2024.