The Swimming portion of the 4th FINA World Aquatics Championships swam late July-early August 1982 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The competition featured 19 long course (50m) events:

• freestyle - 100, 200, 400, 800 (female only) and 1500 (male only);
• backstroke - 100 and 200;
• breaststroke - 100 and 200;
• butterfly - 100 and 200;
• individual medley (IM) - 200 and 400; and
• relays - 4x100 free, 4x200 free (male only) and 4x100 medley.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 m freestyle details	Jörg Woithe (GDR) 50.18 CR	Rowdy Gaines (USA) 50.21	Per Johansson (SWE) 50.25
200 m freestyle details	Michael Groß (FRG) 1:49.84 CR	Rowdy Gaines (USA) 1:49.92	Jörg Woithe (GDR) 1:50.71
400 m freestyle details	Vladimir Salnikov (URS) 3:51.30 CR	Svyatoslav Semenov (URS) 3:51.43	Sven Lodziewski (GDR) 3:51.84
1500 m freestyle details	Vladimir Salnikov (URS) 15:01.77 CR	Svyatoslav Semenov (URS) 15:05.54	Darjan Petrič (YUG) 15:10.20
100 m backstroke details	Dirk Richter (GDR) 55.95 CR	Rick Carey (USA) 56.04	Vladimir Shemetov (URS) 56.42
200 m backstroke details	Rick Carey (USA) 2:00.82 CR	Sándor Wladár (HUN) 2:01.31	Frank Baltrusch (GDR) 2:01.51
100 m breaststroke details	Steve Lundquist (USA) 1:02.75 CR	Victor Davis (CAN) 1:02.82	John Moffet (USA) 1:03.13
200 m breaststroke details	Victor Davis (CAN) 2:14.77 WR	Robertas Žulpa (URS) 2:16.68	John Moffet (USA) 2:18.54
100 m butterfly details	Matt Gribble (USA) 53.88 CR	Michael Groß (FRG) 54.26	Bengt Baron (SWE) 54.47
200 m butterfly details	Michael Groß (FRG) 1:58.85 CR	Sergey Fesenko (URS) 1:59.91	Craig Beardsley (USA) 2:00.08
200 m individual medley details	Aleksandr Sidorenko (URS) 2:03.30 CR	Bill Barrett (USA) 2:03.49	Giovanni Franceschi (ITA) 2:04.65
400 m individual medley details	Ricardo Prado (BRA) 4:19.78 WR	Jens-Peter Berndt (GDR) 4:23.02	Sergey Fesenko (URS) 4:23.29
4×100 m freestyle relay details	United States (USA) Chris Cavanaugh Robin Leamy David McCagg Rowdy Gaines 3:19.26 WR	Soviet Union (URS) Sergey Krasyuk Aleksey Filonov Sergey Smiriyagin Aleksey Markovsky 3:21.78	Sweden (SWE) Per Johansson Bengt Baron Pelle Holmertz Pelle Wikström 3:22.15
4×200 m freestyle relay details	United States (USA) Richard Saeger Jeff Float Kyle Miller Rowdy Gaines 7:21.09	Soviet Union (URS) Vladimir Shemetov Ivar Stukolkin Vladimir Salnikov Aleksey Filonov 7:24.91	West Germany (FRG) Andreas Schmidt Dirk Korthals Rainer Henkel Michael Groß 7:25.46
4×100 m medley relay details	United States (USA) Rick Carey Steve Lundquist Matt Gribble Rowdy Gaines 3:40.84 WR	Soviet Union (URS) Vladimir Shemetov Yuriy Kis Aleksey Markovsky Sergey Smiriyagin 3:42.86	West Germany (FRG) Stefan Peter Gerald Mörken Michael Groß Andreas Schmidt 3:44.78

Legend: WR – World record; CR – Championship record

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 m freestyle details	Birgit Meineke (GDR) 55.79	Annemarie Verstappen (NED) 55.87	Jill Sterkel (USA) 56.27
200 m freestyle details	Annemarie Verstappen (NED) 1:59.53	Birgit Meineke (GDR) 2:00.67	Annelies Maas (NED) 2:00.84
400 m freestyle details	Carmela Schmidt (GDR) 4:08.98	Petra Schneider (GDR) 4:10.08	Tiffany Cohen (USA) 4:11.85
800 m freestyle details	Kim Linehan (USA) 8:27.48	Jackie Willmott (GBR) 8:32.61	Carmela Schmidt (GDR) 8:33.67
100 m backstroke details	Kristin Otto (GDR) 1:01.30 CR	Ina Kleber (GDR) 1:01.47	Susan Walsh (USA) 1:02.86
200 m backstroke details	Cornelia Sirch (GDR) 2:09.91 WR	Georgina Parkes (AUS) 2:14.98	Carmen Bunaciu (ROU) 2:15.40
100 m breaststroke details	Ute Geweniger (GDR) 1:09.14 CR	Anne Ottenbrite (CAN)  Kim Rhodenbaugh (USA) 1:11.03	—
200 m breaststroke details	Svetlana Varganova (URS) 2:28.82 CR	Ute Geweniger (GDR) 2:29.71	Anne Ottenbrite (CAN) 2:33.05
100 m butterfly details	Mary T. Meagher (USA) 59.41 CR	Ines Geißler (GDR) 1:00.36	Melanie Buddemeyer (USA) 1:00.40
200 m butterfly details	Ines Geißler (GDR) 2:08.66 CR	Mary T. Meagher (USA) 2:09.76	Heike Dähne (GDR) 2:10.29
200 m individual medley details	Petra Schneider (GDR) 2:11.79 CR	Ute Geweniger (GDR) 2:13.38	Tracy Caulkins (USA) 2:15.91
400 m individual medley details	Petra Schneider (GDR) 4:36.10 WR	Kathleen Nord (GDR) 4:43.51	Tracy Caulkins (USA) 4:44.64
4×100 m freestyle relay details	East Germany (GDR) Birgit Meineke Susanne Link Kristin Otto Caren Metschuck 3:43.97	United States (USA) Susan Habernigg Kathy Treible Beth Washut Jill Sterkel 3:45.76	Netherlands (NED) Annemarie Verstappen Annelies Maas Wilma van Velsen Conny van Bentum 3:45.96
4×100 m medley relay details	East Germany (GDR) Kristin Otto Ute Geweniger Ines Geißler Birgit Meineke 4:05.88 WR	United States (USA) Susan Walsh Kim Rhodenbaugh Mary T. Meagher Jill Sterkel 4:08.12	Soviet Union (URS) Larisa Gorchakova Svetlana Varganova Natalya Pokas Irina Gerasimova 4:12.36

Legend: WR – World record; CR – Championship record

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany (GDR)	12	8	5	25
2	United States (USA)	8	8	9	25
3	Soviet Union (URS)	4	7	3	14
4	West Germany (FRG)	2	1	2	5
5	Canada (CAN)	1	2	1	4
6	Netherlands (NED)	1	1	2	4
7	Brazil (BRA)	1	0	0	1
8	Australia (AUS)	0	1	0	1
	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	0	1
	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	0	1
11	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	3	3
12	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Romania (ROU)	0	0	1	1
	Yugoslavia (YUG)	0	0	1	1
Totals (14 entries)		29	30	28	87

• HistoFINA Men
• HistoFINA Women^{[permanent dead link‍]}