Australia’s Moesha Johnson and Germany’s Florian Wellbrock won the 10km and 3km knockout sprint races at the opening stop in Cancún, earning points toward the new World Cup season.
Moesha Johnson and Florian Wellbrock each won the 10km and 3km knockout sprint at the first stop of the 2026–2027 Open Water World Cup in Cancún, SwimSwam said. The points count toward the new series, not the completed 2026 overall title already won by Hungary’s David Betlehem.
World Aquatics scheduled both 10km races for 6 November and both knockout sprints for 7 November. The new season is the competition’s first to span two calendar years; World Aquatics said the change followed feedback from the open-water community about aligning with major competitions and supporting athlete preparation.
| Race | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women’s 10km | Moesha Johnson, 2:03:31.20 | Airi Ebina, Japan; 13 seconds behind | Ginevra Taddeucci, Italy |
| Women’s 3km knockout sprint | Johnson, 5:39.20 for the final 500 meters | Ichika Kajimoto, Japan | Lisa Pou, Monaco |
| Men’s 10km | Florian Wellbrock, 1:53:55.80 | Domenico Acerenza, Italy; 2.7 seconds behind | David Betlehem; another 0.2 seconds back |
| Men’s 3km knockout sprint | Wellbrock | Betlehem; 0.9 seconds behind | Marc-Antoine Olivier, France |
Ebina’s silver was her first international medal, while Pou earned her first individual World Cup medal. Olivier’s bronze was his 27th World Cup medal across 11 years. Kajimoto is the knockout sprint’s only world champion to date.
Johnson, who trains in Magdeburg, and Wellbrock are training partners. Johnson won Olympic 10km silver in 2024 and the 5km and 10km world titles in 2025. Wellbrock won Olympic 10km gold at the Tokyo Games and both the pool 1500-meter freestyle and open-water 10km at the 2019 World Championships.
Johnson went unbeaten in individual World Cup races across all five stops held during calendar 2026. She also won every 10km sprint-lap bonus, which pays the swimmer fastest over the opening lap. In comments to World Aquatics, Johnson said she had initially pursued the bonus to make money, but that it became a new tactic and changed her approach to racing.
The next stop is scheduled for Somabay, Egypt, on 19–20 March 2027, when swimmers can earn more points toward the new series.
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