The 3rd FINA Open Water Swimming World Championships were held November 26 – December 2, 2004 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The championships featured 90 swimmers from 26 countries competing in six races:

• 5-kilometer (5K) – Men's and Women's
• 10-kilometer (10K) – Men's and Women's
• 25-kilometer (25K) – Men's and Women's

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Women's 5K   details	Larisa Ilchenko   Russia	1:03:11.9	Ksenia Popova   Russia	1:03:43.8	Sara McLarty   USA	1:03:52.9
Men's 5K   details	Grant Cleland   Australia	56:52.9	Christian Hein   Germany	56:54.1	Josh Santacaterina   Australia	56:55.5
Women's 10K   details	Britta Kamrau   Germany	2:07:51.7	Jana Pechanová   Czech Republic	2:07:52.8	Lauren Arndt   Australia	2:07:53.5
Men's 10K   details	Thomas Lurz   Germany	1:54:38.0	Alan Bircher   Great Britain	1:54:44.8	Danill Serebrennikov   Russia	1:55:02.8
Women's 25K   details	Britta Kamrau   Germany	5:43:09.6	Edith van Dijk   Netherlands	5:43:09.7	Natalia Pankina   Russia	5:43:14.4
Men's 25K   details	Brendan Capell   Australia	5:05:39.6	Yuri Kudinov   Russia	5:07:05.2	Evgueni Kochkarov   Russia	5:07:59.7

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
5K   details	Germany (GER)		Australia (AUS)		Russia (RUS)
10K   details	Germany (GER)		Russia (RUS)		Australia (AUS)

• 2002 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships
• 2006 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships

• HistoFINA--Open Water: FINA's history of open water swimming events.