The Swimming portion of the 13th FINA World Aquatics Championships was held at the Foro Italico sports complex in Rome, Italy from Sunday 26 July – Sunday 2 August 2009. It featured 40 long course (50 m) events (20 for males, 20 for females; 17 individual events and 3 relays for each gender).
The evening session schedule for the 2009 Worlds was:
Note: prelims/semifinals/finals were swum in events 200 m and shorter; prelims/finals in events 400 m or longer. For prelims/semifinals/finals events, prelims and semis were held on the same day, with finals being the evening of the following day. For the 400 m events and the 800 m relays, prelims and finals were held the same day. For the individual 800 m and 1500 m races, prelims were in the morning of one day, with finals in the evening of the next day. Preliminary sessions began at 9:00 a.m.; finals at 6:00 p.m.
Legend: <br/><span style="font-size:95%"> Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.</span>
Legend: <br/><span style="font-size:95%"> Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.</span>
The following world and championship records were set during the competition: