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]

Results

Men

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

Women

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

Team

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
5K   details	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   details	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

Medal standings

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

References

• FINA ^{[ dead link]}
• USA Swimming ^{[ dead link]}