FINA’s World Cup tour begins Friday in Berlin with a large purse on the line

The 2022 FINA World Cup series is set to take place beginning with a three-day stop in Berlin beginning on Friday. The tour will then move on to Toronto the last weekend in October before heading down to Indianapolis to finish things up the first weekend in November.

The purse for the event is nothing to laugh at with a total of USD $1.2 million being awarded to the top 20 male and female athletes. USD $224,000 will be split at each of the three stops between both the male and female competitors.

Berlin will see several Olympic and World Champions battling for the prize money including Thomas Ceccon, Florian Wellbrock, Kyle Chalmers, Ruta Meilutyte and Kylie Mass.

Last year, Matt Sates was crowned men’s champion after a four-stop tour just ahead of Tom Shields and Arno Kamminga to earn a bonus. This year’s bonuses at the end of the tour will go to the top eight men and women athletes, based on their overall ranking. Those top finishers will split USD $262,000.

On the women’s side, Emma McKeon was the women’s champion in 2021, but she will not compete on the tour. The door, instead, will be open to double Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Siobhan Haughey and Hali Flickinger, who won two bronzes herself in Tokyo.

With such an expansive field, the tour will not disappoint. Chalmers who lowered the short-course 100 free world record to 44.84 in Kazan, Russia, in October last year, said “Not only did I set a world record during last year’s Swimming World Cup, but the experience both in and out of the competitive arena helped turn some good-natured rivalries into friendships.”

“I’m looking forward to setting some more super-fast times in the 25m pool as well as really enjoying the sideline activities. I hear we have a sweet program lineup so I’m looking to find out what Berlin, Toronto and Indianapolis have in store.”

In addition to enjoying the competition and social events, the potential payout at the end doesn’t hurt either.