852 swimmers competed in thirty-five swimming pool events at the Games, with forty-four more racing through the 10-kilometre open water marathon.
The top three teams in each relay race at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan directly booked a slot for their corresponding event at the Olympics, while the remaining thirteen vying for qualification per relay race must have attained their best time from the heats and finals at the combined 2023 and 2024 meet in Doha.
Similar to the 2020 format, swimmers from NOCs who had achieved the OCT allocated to the universality place could compete in a maximum of two individual pool events, while those without the OQT and OCT were limited to enter only one individual pool event.
Additionally, OCT places were distributed by event according to the position of the World Aquatics Rankings during the qualifying deadline.
* OQTs correspond to the time achieved by a fourteenth-place swimmer in his or her respective preliminary heat of each event at the previous Games.