If you are an aquatics athlete with international experience but limited access to elite-level training in your home country, this is probably the most important piece of news you will read this year. The World Aquatics Scholarship Programme 2026-27 is officially open for applications, and this cycle comes with a historic first that makes it even more significant than the eleven editions that came before it. High Diving scholarships are being offered for the very first time in the programme’s twelve-year history.
Whether you are a swimmer, a diver, a water polo player, an artistic swimmer, an open water swimmer, or now a high diver, this programme has been designed with athletes like you in mind. In this article, we are going to cover everything you need to know about the 2026-27 edition of the World Aquatics Scholarship Programme: what it offers, who can apply, how the process works, where scholars train, and why this opportunity could genuinely transform your athletic career.
What Is the World Aquatics Scholarship Programme?
The World Aquatics Scholarship Programme is the largest athlete scholarship initiative run by any international sports federation in the world. It was launched in 2014 by World Aquatics, the global governing body for aquatic sports, with a clear and compelling purpose: to provide financial and technical support to athletes who have demonstrated internationally recognised achievements but who lack access to the kind of high-performance training that would allow them to compete at the very highest levels of their sport.
The thinking behind the programme is straightforward but powerful. Talent is distributed equally around the world. Opportunity is not. There are gifted swimmers in landlocked countries with no access to Olympic-standard pools, exceptional divers whose national federations cannot fund proper coaching, water polo players who have represented their countries internationally but who train in facilities that bear no resemblance to what their competitors in wealthier nations enjoy every day. The World Aquatics Scholarship Programme exists to narrow that gap.
Since its founding in 2014, the programme has transformed the careers of hundreds of athletes across the globe. It has become one of the most respected development initiatives in international sport, and each year, the programme has evolved to reach new disciplines and serve more athletes. The 2026-27 edition is the most expansive version yet.
The Historic Addition: High Diving Scholarships for the First Time
Of all the things worth noting about the 2026-27 programme, the introduction of High Diving scholarships is the most significant. This is a first in the programme’s twelve-year history, and it represents a major commitment from World Aquatics to the growth and global development of high diving as a competitive discipline.
High diving, which involves athletes performing dives from heights of 27 metres for men and 20 metres for women, is one of the most demanding and visually spectacular disciplines in aquatics. Yet it has historically been underrepresented in the scholarship programme. That changes in 2026-27, with six high diving scholarship places now available as part of the overall programme.
Orlando Duque, the Chairperson of the World Aquatics High Diving Technical Committee and the 2013 World Champion in high diving, described the development as a game changer. He said that the scholarship gives emerging high divers the stability and support they need to focus on performance and represent their countries at the highest level. Coming from a man who spent years at the top of the discipline, that endorsement carries real weight.
Unlike scholarship holders in swimming, diving, and open water swimming who are placed at designated World Aquatics Training Centres, high diving scholarship recipients and their National Federations will have the flexibility to choose their own training location and programme. The scholarship provides a grant to support that training arrangement, which makes sense given the relatively limited number of high-level high diving facilities worldwide.
What Sports Are Covered in the 2026-27 Programme?
The 2026-27 World Aquatics Scholarship Programme covers all six of the aquatic disciplines governed by World Aquatics. Each discipline has its own set of scholarship places, eligibility criteria, and training arrangements. Here is a breakdown of how the programme is structured across each sport.
Swimming
Swimming is the largest component of the scholarship programme, with places available for 100 athletes. This has been the backbone of the programme since its launch in 2014, and the swimming scholarships are the most established and well-resourced in the entire initiative. Scholarship swimmers are placed at world-class World Aquatics Training Centres where they receive full-time coaching, access to top-tier facilities, and support for international competition participation. The 2026-27 swimming scholarships run for two years, commencing September 1, 2026, and extending through to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Open Water Swimming
Open water swimming scholarships are available for 20 athletes. Open water swimmers are placed at specialist training locations, primarily at Azura Florida Aquatics in Davie, USA, and at the Antibes Training Centre in France. Like the swimming scholarships, open water swimming awards run for two years to support athletes in their preparations for LA28.
Diving
Twenty diving scholarship places are available in the 2026-27 programme. Diving scholars are based at the World Aquatics Training Centre in Toronto, Canada, where they train under expert coaching and in elite facilities. Diving scholarships also run for two years through to the 2028 Olympics.
Water Polo
Twenty water polo scholarship places are available. Unlike swimming and diving scholars who train at dedicated World Aquatics Training Centres, water polo scholarship holders are placed at first and second division clubs across Europe in Spain, France, Croatia, and Greece. This placement model ensures that athletes are competing and training in highly competitive club environments where they face top-level opposition regularly. Water polo scholarships are awarded on a one-year basis for the 2026-27 cycle.
Artistic Swimming
Ten scholarship places are available for artistic swimming, awarded to duets rather than individual athletes. Artistic swimming scholarship duets and their National Federations choose their own training location and programme, supported by a scholarship grant. Like water polo, artistic swimming scholarships are awarded on a one-year basis.
High Diving
Six high diving scholarship places are available in the 2026-27 programme, representing the first time this discipline has been included in the scholarship programme. Similar to artistic swimming, high diving scholars and their National Federations will select their own training location, supported by a scholarship grant. High diving scholarships are awarded on a one-year basis.
What Does the Scholarship Actually Provide?
For athletes placed at World Aquatics Training Centres, which covers swimming, open water swimming, and diving scholars, the scholarship is genuinely comprehensive. Here is what training centre-based scholars receive:
Full board accommodation: Athletes live at or near the training centre, with accommodation covered as part of the scholarship. This removes one of the most significant practical barriers to relocating for training.
Access to world-class training facilities: Training centre-based scholars use facilities that are among the best available anywhere in the world. The quality of the pools, gyms, recovery facilities, and coaching infrastructure at World Aquatics Training Centres is at the level that top national programmes would provide to their own athletes.
Expert coaching: Scholars work with experienced, high-level coaches who understand the demands of international competition. The coaching quality at World Aquatics Training Centres has been consistently praised by past scholarship holders as a key factor in their development.
Competition support: The scholarship includes support for athletes to participate in key competitions as part of their training and development. World Aquatics covers round-trip travel to the training centre and contributes up to $1,000 per athlete per year toward participation in World Championships qualifying events.
Insurance coverage: Health and sports insurance is provided for all training centre-based scholars, which is an important practical benefit for athletes relocating to a foreign country.
Personal pocket money allowance: Athletes receive a personal stipend to cover day-to-day living expenses.
Personal development opportunities: The programme is designed to develop the whole athlete, not just their athletic performance. Scholars have access to various personal development opportunities that build skills and perspectives beyond the pool.
Study opportunities: Athletes placed at the Bahrain Training Centre benefit from study opportunities at the University of Technology Bahrain, which is covered as part of their scholarship package. This integration of academic and athletic development is a particularly distinctive feature of the Bahrain placement.
Where Are the World Aquatics Training Centres?
For the 2026-27 programme, swimming scholars are placed at training centres in Antibes in France, Bahrain, Thanyapura in Phuket, Thailand, and Bond University on the Gold Coast of Australia. Open water swimmers train at Azura Florida Aquatics in Davie, USA, and at the Antibes facility in France. Diving scholars are based at the Toronto facility in Canada.
These locations span four continents and represent a genuinely global network of high-performance training environments. Each centre has been selected not just for the quality of its facilities but for the quality of its coaching staff and its track record of developing elite athletes.
The Antibes centre in France has become particularly well known within the scholarship programme for the level of performance it has produced. Athletes training there set their 100th national record during the World Aquatics Swimming Championships in Budapest in December 2024, which is a remarkable milestone for a centre that had only been operating for just over a year at that point. Among those record-setters was Kevin Teixeira of Andorra, who set two national records in a single day during those championships.
The Toronto centre has also built a strong reputation, particularly for diving. Cuban four-time Olympic diver and former national team coach José Antonio Guerra works with scholarship athletes there, bringing decades of elite experience to bear on the development of young athletes from Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Serbia, the Czech Republic, and other nations.
Who Is Eligible to Apply?
Understanding eligibility is essential before a National Federation puts forward a candidate. The core eligibility requirements are consistent across all disciplines, with some sport-specific variations. Here is what every candidate must meet to be considered:
Current national team membership: The athlete must be an active member of their national team. This is not a programme for promising juniors who have not yet made their country’s senior squad. World Aquatics is looking for athletes who are already representing their countries at international level.
International competition experience: The athlete must have represented their country at international competitions. The level and recency of that international experience, along with specific qualifying competition requirements, varies by discipline and is set out in detail in the official programme guide.
Preparation for upcoming championships: Athletes must be preparing to compete at upcoming World Aquatics Championships and the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028. The scholarship programme is explicitly designed to build pipelines of competitive talent for the highest-level events in the sport, not to provide general development support.
Need for improved training conditions: Priority is given to athletes who lack access to high-performance training in their home countries. This is a core principle of the programme: it targets athletes for whom the scholarship will represent a genuinely transformative improvement in their training environment, not those who already have access to comparable facilities domestically.
Age requirements: There are age limits for each discipline. For water polo, for example, athletes must be between 18 and 27 years old at the start of the scholarship. Sport-specific age requirements for all disciplines are set out in the programme guide.
Willingness to relocate: Training centre-based athletes must be willing and able to move to a foreign country to attend the designated training centre. This is a significant personal commitment, and it is worth being clear-eyed about what it involves before applying.
Language requirements: Candidates for water polo placements are required to have graduated from high school and to have an intermediate level of English proficiency, given that they will be training and potentially studying in an English-language environment.
No existing alternative funding: Athletes who already benefit from alternative financial sources of comparable value are not the intended target of this programme. Priority goes to those with genuine financial need.
Age limits, national ranking requirements, and qualifying competition criteria apply for each discipline, and the sport-specific details are available in the official 2026-27 programme guide. Continental representation and gender equality are prioritised across the entire cohort of selected scholars to ensure diversity and inclusivity.
How to Apply: The Process Explained
It is important to understand that individual athletes do not apply directly to the World Aquatics Scholarship Programme. Applications are submitted by National Federations on behalf of their nominated athletes. This is an institutional nomination process, not a direct student application model.
If you are an athlete who believes you are eligible and would like to be considered, the first step is to contact your National Federation’s development team or scholarship coordinator and express your interest. Your federation is the gateway to this opportunity, and building a relationship with the people who manage scholarship nominations at your national level is the most important practical step you can take.
For National Federations, the application deadline for the 2026-27 programme is April 30, 2026. A separate application must be submitted for each nominated athlete, and there are discipline-specific application forms for each sport. National Federations are asked to use the correct form for the athlete’s discipline when submitting their nominations.
To submit your application, visit the official World Aquatics Scholarship Programme 2026-27 announcement page where you will find discipline-specific application links for Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming, and High Diving.
You can also download the full programme guidelines from the World Aquatics Development Programme athletes page which contains the complete eligibility requirements and sport-specific criteria for all disciplines.
For any questions about the application process or eligibility requirements, National Federations and athletes can contact the World Aquatics Development Unit directly at development@worldaquatics.com.
The 2026-27 Programme in Context: Building Toward LA28
It is worth understanding the timing of this scholarship cycle in relation to the broader competitive calendar. The scholarships in swimming, open water swimming, and diving run for two years, starting September 1, 2026, and running all the way through to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. This is by design. World Aquatics has structured the two-year scholarships specifically to support athletes throughout the critical preparation period leading up to LA28.
The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will be a landmark event for aquatics, as it is for all Olympic sports. By placing scholarship athletes in world-class training environments from September 2026 onwards, World Aquatics is giving those athletes a genuine two-year runway to reach their peak performance in time for the Games. That kind of systematic, long-term support is exactly what athletes from countries with limited national programme resources need to compete on equal terms with athletes from more resource-rich nations.
The one-year scholarships in artistic swimming, high diving, and water polo still provide meaningful preparation time, particularly for athletes who may be in the earlier stages of their international careers and who can use a year at an elite-level programme to take a significant step forward in their development.
What Athletes and Institutions Say About the Programme
The most compelling case for the World Aquatics Scholarship Programme is made not by statistics or official announcements, but by the athletes who have lived it. The testimony of past scholarship holders is consistent in its themes: improved coaching, better facilities, personal growth, and a genuine shift in competitive performance.
Kevin Teixeira of Andorra, who trained at the Antibes centre, set two national records in a single day at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships in Budapest. For a small nation like Andorra with limited aquatics infrastructure, that kind of performance would simply not have been achievable without the access to world-class training that the scholarship provided.
