With a mission to cultivate talent both on and off the competitive aquatics field of play, recent and current aquatics athletes, who have competed in top-tier aquatic events such as the World Aquatics Championships, World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m), World Aquatics World Cups and the Olympic Games, are invited to apply for a paid six-month internship.

If you competed at any (or two, or all!) of the mentioned events and want to be a part of World Aquatics mission to enhance our sports through our development activities and sports events, we have a programme tailor-made to help jump-start your career transition, from competing as an elite athlete to working in the sports industry.

Incredible Time in the World of Aquatics

We’re in the middle of an incredible cycle of events here at World Aquatics. For the first time, we are holding the World Aquatics Championships (which were recently completed in Doha, Qatar), the Olympic Games in Paris, France, and the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest, Hungary.

These global championship events come in addition to numerous World Cups and age-group events across our six sports – swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming, and high diving – that will complete our 2024 competition calendar.

Wide Range of World Aquatics Activities and Initiatives Beyond Competitions

World Aquatics also oversees some ambitious projects that aim to enhance athlete development pathways across our 210 National Federations and 5 Continental Associations. We are also in the process of launching some great new initiatives aimed at enhancing the aquatics fan experience at our events while also pushing sustainability measures across all our actions and activities. 

Whichever aquatic sport you excelled in, World Aquatics wants to tap into your talents to help us deliver the biggest and most exciting aquatics events to cap off this most ambitious year and help us deliver on creating an even better 2025.

What Life as a World Aquatics Intern is Like | Class of 2023 Alum Jamie Yeung

Swimmer Jamie Yeung's journey with World Aquatics began in 2023, following a distinguished career representing Hong Kong, China at events such as the World Aquatics Championships – Gwangju 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Notably, she balanced her athletic pursuits with academic excellence as a student-athlete at the University of Michigan, earning both a bachelor's degree in economics and a master’s degree in management.

“The World Aquatics internship was an ideal transition programme for me and proved that it’s never too late to change the trajectory of what you want to do for a career. After the Tokyo Olympics and finishing up my master’s degree, I started in consulting, but I missed that passion that I had in the pool while competing and wanted to see if there was a way to bring what I’ve done in and out of the pool together into my professional career.

“At World Aquatics, the emphasis of the athlete internship experience was on getting to work within various departments,” added Yeung. “From helping to put on global competitions to sports marketing to seeking ways to develop and improve the six sports for our 210 national federations shares differences, but all contribute to the overall success of World Aquatics. Through the internship, I got to see how all this works behind the scenes.”

Today, Jamie Yeung holds the position of Marketing Coordinator at World Aquatics, blending her passion for swimming with her professional role.

BEST EFFORTS | WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Wherever you are, this is a great opportunity. Take it. Be original, be yourself and show us your love and knowledge for aquatics sports. To put yourself in the candidate pool, it’s as simple as sending World Aquatics your CV alongside a letter expressing your interest in the internship. Don’t delay; we hope to hear from you today.

WHAT WILL YOU DO? You will work directly with the World Aquatics team at our headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. With the opportunity to work with almost ten departments at our organisation, you will get a holistic look at what it takes to oversee our six sports for the betterment of health, life and sport.

Following the first months working with various departments, you may be chosen to specialise and work more in-depth with certain projects, with the potential to travel to some events.

WHEN WOULD YOU THE DATE? We have a bit of flexibility on the starting date. We look to have the next intern start in September 2024 (six months in duration) with another intern starting in March 2025 (six-month internship).

WHAT ARE THE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS? With English as the official working language at World Aquatics, applicants must have full professional working proficiency in English or be a native English speaker. Another requirement is holding, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree.

HOW DO I  APPLY?  To apply, please send your CV and cover letter expressing your interest in the internship (500 words max) to hr@worldaquatics.com. For more information about what it's like working for World Aquatics, check out our Careers Page. 

Start Dates | September 2024 or March 2025

In your application, please note about whether you would be available to start in September 2024 or March 2025 – or whether both start dates would work for you.

Timing counts, both in competition and in the hunt for an intern position. Applications must be received before 31 May 2024. Interviews for the September internship position will take place in June 2024.