Open water swimming at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships

The Open Water Swimming events at the 8th FINA World Aquatics Championships were swum in the ocean off Perth, Western Australia on January 6 and 11, 1998. The discipline featured 4 events: a 5-kilometer race, or "5K", for males and females, and a 25-kilometer race (25K) for males and females. It was the first time the 5K was raced a World Championships.^[1] The races featured 80 swimmers from 26 nations.^[1]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
5K	Aleksey Akatyev    Russia	55:18.6	Ky Hurst    Australia	55:24.9	Luca Baldini    Italy	55:37.4
25K	Aleksey Akatyev    Russia	5:05:42.1	David Meca    Spain	5:07:22.9	Gabriel Chaillou    Argentina	5:07:52.6

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
5K	Erica Rose    USA	59:23.5	Edith van Dijk    Netherlands	1:00:58.5	Peggy Büchse    Germany	1:01:05.8
25K	Tobie Smith    USA	5:31:20.1	Peggy Büchse    Germany	5:32:19.2	Edith van Dijk    Netherlands	5:38.06.9

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
5K	USA John Flanagan Austin Ramirez Erica Rose	2:52:12.2	Russia Aleksey Akatyev Evgueni Bezroutchenko Olga Gouseva	2:52:16.7	Italy Luca Baldini Fabio Venturini Valeria Casprini	2:52:41.6
25K	Italy Claudio Gargaro Fabrizio Pescatori Valeria Casprini	16:10:18.2	Australia Grant Robinson Mark Saliba Tracey Knowles	16:22:54.3	USA Tobie Smith Nathan Stooke Chuck Wiley	16:46:13.3

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	USA	3	0	1	4
2	RUS	2	1	0	3
3	ITA	1	0	2	3
4	AUS	0	2	0	2
5	GER	0	1	1	2
	NED	0	1	1	2
7	ESP	0	1	0	1
8	ARG	0	0	1	1
Totals (8 entries)		6	6	6	18

• FINA
• USA Swimming