Swimming at the 1978 World Aquatics Championships

  *   Host nation (West Germany)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	20	12	4	36
2	Soviet Union (URS)	4	4	5	13
3	Australia (AUS)	2	0	0	2
4	East Germany (GDR)	1	7	4	12
5	West Germany (FRG)*	1	2	4	7
6	Canada (CAN)	1	1	4	6
7	New Zealand (NZL)	0	1	0	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	1	0	1
	Yugoslavia (YUG)	0	1	0	1
10	Great Britain (GBR)	0	0	2	2
	Hungary (HUN)	0	0	2	2
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	2	2
13	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
	Denmark (DEN)	0	0	1	1
Totals (14 entries)		29	29	29	87

• Record(*)

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m freestyle details	David McCagg (USA)	50.24 CR	Jim Montgomery (USA)	50.73	Klaus Steinbach (FRG)	50.79
200 m freestyle details	Bill Forrester (USA)	1:51.02 CR	Rowdy Gaines (USA)	1:51.10	Sergey Kopliakov (URS)	1:51.33
400 m freestyle details	Vladimir Salnikov (URS)	3:51.94 CR	Jeff Float (USA)	3:53.42	Bill Forrester (USA)	3:53.97
1500 m freestyle details	Vladimir Salnikov (URS)	15:03.99 CR	Borut Petrič (YUG)	15:20.77	Bobby Hackett (USA)	15:23.38
100 m backstroke details	Bob Jackson (USA)	56.36 CR	Peter Rocca (USA)	56.69	Romulo Arantes (BRA)	58.01
200 m backstroke details	Jesse Vassallo (USA)	2:02.16	Gary Hurring (NZL)	2:03.71	Zoltán Verrasztó (HUN)	2:03.90
100 m breaststroke details	Walter Kusch (FRG)	1:03.56 CR	Graham Smith (CAN)	1:03.60	Gerald Mörken (FRG)	1:03.62
200 m breaststroke details	Nick Nevid (USA)	2:18.37	Arsens Miskarovs (URS)	2:18.42	Walter Kusch (FRG)	2:20.16
100 m butterfly details	Joe Bottom (USA)	54.30	Greg Jagenburg (USA)	55.26	Pär Arvidsson (SWE)	55.38
200 m butterfly details	Mike Bruner (USA)	1:59.38 CR	Steve Gregg (USA)	1:59.80	Roger Pyttel (GDR)	2:01.33
200 m individual medley details	Graham Smith (CAN)	2:03.65 WR	Jesse Vassallo (USA)	2:04.99	Aleksandr Sidorenko (URS)	2:05.29
400 m individual medley details	Jesse Vassallo (USA)	4:20.05 WR	Sergey Fesenko (URS)	4:22.29	András Hargitay (HUN)	4:27.04
4 × 100 m freestyle relay details	United States (USA) Jack Babashoff Rowdy Gaines Jim Montgomery David McCagg	3:19.74 WR	West Germany (FRG) Andreas Schmidt Ulrich Temps Peter Knust Klaus Steinbach	3:26.65	Sweden (SWE) Per Holmertz Dan Larsson Per-Ola Quist Per-Alvar Magnusson	3:26.95
4 × 200 m freestyle relay details	United States (USA) Bruce Furniss Bill Forrester Bobby Hackett Rowdy Gaines	7:20.82 WR	Soviet Union (URS) Sergey Rusin Andrey Krylov Vladimir Salnikov Sergey Kopliakov	7:28.41	West Germany (FRG) Andreas Schmidt Peter Knust Karsken Lippmann Frank Wennmann	7:33.29
4 × 100 m medley relay details	United States (USA) Bob Jackson Nick Nevid Joe Bottom David McCagg	3:44.63 CR	West Germany (FRG) Klaus Steinbach Walter Kusch Michael Kraus Andreas Schmidt	3:48.58	Great Britain (GBR) Gary Abraham Duncan Goodhew John Mills Martin Smith	3:49.06

Legend: WR – World record; CR – Championship record

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m freestyle details	Barbara Krause (GDR)	55.68 CR	Lene Jenssen (NOR)	56.82	Larisa Tsaryova (URS)	56.85
200 m freestyle details	Cynthia Woodhead (USA)	1:58.53 WR	Barbara Krause (GDR)	1:59.78	Larisa Tsaryova (URS)	2:01.76
400 m freestyle details	Tracey Wickham (AUS)	4:06.28 WR	Cynthia Woodhead (USA)	4:07.15	Kim Linehan (USA)	4:07.73
800 m freestyle details	Tracey Wickham (AUS)	8:24.94 CR	Cynthia Woodhead (USA)	8:29.35	Kim Linehan (USA)	8:32.60
100 m backstroke details	Linda Jezek (USA)	1:02.55 CR	Birgit Treiber (GDR)	1:03.18	Cheryl Gibson (CAN)	1:03.43
200 m backstroke details	Linda Jezek (USA)	2:11.93 WR	Birgit Treiber (GDR)	2:14.07	Cheryl Gibson (CAN)	2:14.23
100 m breaststroke details	Yuliya Bogdanova (URS)	1:10.31 WR	Tracy Caulkins (USA)	1:10.77	Margaret Kelly (GBR)	1:11.99
200 m breaststroke details	Lina Kačiušytė (URS)	2:31.42 WR	Yuliya Bogdanova (URS)	2:32.69	Susanne Nielsson (DEN)	2:33.60
100 m butterfly details	Joan Pennington (USA)	1:00.20 CR	Andrea Pollack (GDR)	1:00.26	Wendy Quirk (CAN)	1:01.82
200 m butterfly details	Tracy Caulkins (USA)	2:09.87 WR	Nancy Hogshead (USA)	2:11.30	Andrea Pollack (GDR)	2:12.63
200 m individual medley details	Tracy Caulkins (USA)	2:14.07 WR	Joan Pennington (USA)	2:14.98	Ulrike Tauber (GDR)	2:15.99
400 m individual medley details	Tracy Caulkins (USA)	4:40.83 WR	Ulrike Tauber (GDR)	4:47.52	Petra Schneider (GDR)	4:48.56
4 × 100 m freestyle relay details	United States (USA) Tracy Caulkins Stephanie Elkins Jill Sterkel Cynthia Woodhead	3:43.43 WR	East Germany (GDR) Heike Witt Caren Metschuck Barbara Krause Petra Priemer	3:47.37	Canada (CAN) Gail Amundrud Nancy Garapick Sue Sloan Wendy Quirk	3:49.59
4 × 100 m medley relay details	United States (USA) Linda Jezek Tracy Caulkins Joan Pennington Cynthia Woodhead	4:08.21 CR	East Germany (GDR) Birgit Treiber Ramona Reinke Andrea Pollack Barbara Krause	4:09.13	Soviet Union (URS) Elena Kruglova Yuliya Bogdanova Irina Aksenova Larisa Tsaryova	4:14.91

Legend: WR – World record; CR – Championship record

• 1978 World Aquatics Championships-results
• HistoFINA Men
• HistoFINA Women^{[permanent dead link]}