The 2009 World Aquatics Championships or the XIII FINA World Championships were celebrated in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in 2009 from July 17 to August 2. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo.

Rome won the right to stage the event on July 16, 2005 in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Rome defeated rival bids from Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 (Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

), Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 (Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

) and Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 (Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

).

A record 2556 athletes from 185 countries participated.

FINA's decision to allow the use of polyurethane suits have dubbed these Championships the "Plastic Games".

Medal table

1		11	11	7	29
2		11	7	11	29
3		8	8	4	20
4		7	4	1	12
5		4	5	10	19
6		4	3	2	9
7		4	1	5	10
8		3	1	0	4
9		2	1	3	6
10		2	1	1	4
11		2	0	3	5
12		1	7	3	11
13		1	2	1	4
14		1	2	0	3
15		1	1	0	2
15		1	1	0	2
15		1	1	0	2
18		1	0	1	2
19		1	0	0	1
20		0	4	5	9
21		0	3	3	6
22		0	1	0	1
22		0	1	0	1
24		0	0	1	1
24		0	0	1	1
24		0	0	1	1
24		0	0	1	1
24		0	0	1	1
24		0	0	1	1
24		0	0	1	1
Total		65	65	67	197

Schedule

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; font-size:100%; position:relative;"
|-
|bgcolor=#00cc33| ● ||Opening ceremony|| bgcolor=#3399ff|   ||Events|| bgcolor=#ffcc00| ● ||Final events||bgcolor=#ee3333| ● ||Closing ceremony
|-

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; font-size:90%; line-height:1.25em; width:80%;"
|-
! July/August
! 17
! 18
! 19
! 20
! 21
! 22
! 23
! 24
! 25
! 26
! 27
! 28
! 29
! 30
! 31
! 01
! 02
! T
|-
| Ceremonies || ||bgcolor=#00cc33 align=center|●|| || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||bgcolor=#ee3333 align=center|●
||
|- align="center"
| align="left" | Swimming

Swimming at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships

The swimming competition of the 2009 World Aquatics Championships was held at the Foro Italico sports complex in Rome, Italy, from Sunday 26 July – Sunday 2 August 2009.-Events:...

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 4
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 4
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 5
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 4
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 5
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 5
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 6
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 7
| 40
|- align="center"
| align="left" | Open water swimming

Open water swimming at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships

The Open Water Swimming competition at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships were held from July 21 to 25 at the beach of Ostia in Rome.-Schedule:...

|
|
|
|
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 2
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 2
|
|
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 6
|- align="center"
| align="left" | Diving

Diving at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships

The diving competition at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships were held from July 17 to July 25. This diving competition complements the 2010 FINA Diving World Cup.- Medals table :-Men:-Women:...

| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 2
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 2
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 2
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 10
|- align="center"
| align="left" | Water polo

Water polo at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships

Water polo at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships were held from July 19 to August 1, 2009, in Rome, Italy.-Water polo men:-Water polo women:-External links:*...

|
|
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
|
| 2
|- align="center"
| align="left" | Synchronised swimming

Synchronised swimming at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships

The Synchronised swimming competition at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships wer held from July 18 to July 25.-Medals table:-Medal summary:...

|
| bgcolor="#3399ff" | ●
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
| bgcolor=#ffcc00 | 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 7
|-
! Finals !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 1 !! 5 !! 3 !! 2 !! 2 !! 4 !! 4 !! 4 !! 5 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 7 !! 65
|}

FINA Congress 2009

As is customary with the World Championships, FINA held its biennial General Congress in Rome during the event, on July 24, 2009 beginning at 9:00 a.m. At this meeting, the 22-member FINA Bureau (the executive board of the IF) was for its 2009-2013 term. Per FINA rules, the Bureau then elected the Executive officers from its members (i.e. President, Treasurer and Secretary).

In addition to the General Congress, Technical Congresses (TCs), or discipline-specific meetings, will be in each present discipline, as well as an Extraordinary Congress on Masters Rules. Dates for these meetings are:

• July 15: Diving TC, Open Water TC
• July 16: Synchronized Swimming TC, Water Polo TC
• July 23: Swimming TC, Masters EC.

Note: The Technical Congresses were scheduled to be held prior to both the start of competition within the given disciple and before the General Congress. Also note: only swimming does not have competition on the date of the General Congress.

Swimsuit controversy

In March 2009, based on urgings from its membership, FINA had begun an attempt to implement limits to suit construction that were seen by members of the swimming community as adding buoyancy, stability, speed and endurance. These efforts began after suit introductions in early 2008, and led to a May 2009 declaration by FINA on limitations to suits and a list of approved suits for competition. Following this, suit manufactures were given time to adjust their various products which had not been initially approved. In June 2009, FINA ruled on these, and subsequently was forced into backing off the suit restrictions it had named in March presumably on fear of suit (although FINA still was sued by some manufacturers, such as TYR). The net effect was that leading into the 2009 World Championships, most restrictions on suit make-up were not in force. This situation also led to rule changes being passed by both FINA's Technical Swimming Committee (on July 23) and the General Congress (July 24) placing restrictions on suits. However, these rule changes will not go into effect until 2010, and there had been some attempts to delay this implementation (the impression from the General Congress was that the rules would be in effect on January 1, 2010; however, the FINA Executive Director was quoted a few days later as say the date within 2010 was unclear and may mean April or May). Subsequently on July 31, 2009, the FINA Bureau (the Board of the organization), solidified the implementation date as January 1, 2010.

As a result, and the believed benefit from the suits, some were calling these Worlds the "Plastic Games". These materials, which include polyurethane

Polyurethane

A polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...

, have been claimed by some quarters to be performance enhancing. This claim can be seen to be supported by the 43 World Records set in this meet and by the fact that meet records were lowered in 38 of 40 events, with the 2 events not with new meet records occurring on the last day (in the previous 2 Worlds, "Championships Records" were bettered in 24 (2007) and 19 (2003) events). In particular, the Arena X-Glide

Arena X-Glide

Arena X-Glide is a swimsuit made of pure polyurethane that causes a swimmer to slide through water faster when swimming. One notable example of the efficacy of this suit design is that of Paul Biedermann of Germany who wore the suit in the 2009 World Championships, breaking two world records...

 swimsuit, worn by German Paul Biedermann

Paul Biedermann

Paul Biedermann is a German swimmer from Halle and a former 200 and 400 metre freestyle long course world champion. He also holds the long course and short course world records in these events.-Career:...

, has been largely pointed to as providing Biedermann a significant advantage and allowing him to break Ian Thorpe's 400m world record as well as in defeating Michael Phelps in the 200m freestyle. Michael Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman

Bob Bowman (coach)

Bob Bowman is an American swimming coach, who is the coach of Michael Phelps. From 2005-2008, he was the head coach for the University of Michigan men's swimming & diving team, replacing Jon Urbanchek; as well as the head coach for the club team based at the school: Club Wolverine. He was the...

, pointed out, "It took me five years to get Michael from 1:46 to 1:42 and this guy has done it in 11 months. That's an amazing training performance. I'd like to know how to do that." Last year, Biederman was only ranked 9th in the world in the 200 m freestyle and 21st in the world in the 400 m freestyle.