Moesha Johnson wins first Australian 10km gold at World Aquatics Championships
It is Australia's fifth open water world title over all distances with Johnson and Lee in the quartet that will defend the mixed team title at the Singapore World Aquatics Championships.
The water temperature was 30-plus degrees Celsius and conditions were described on social media as "human soup".
There were also two postponements for the 10km events because of water quality concerns.
Johnson, who claimed silver in the same event at the Paris Olympics, won in two hours, seven minutes and 51.30 seconds.
It is her first individual open water world championship.
She finished 4.40 seconds ahead of Italian Ginevra Taddeucci, with Lisa Pou from Monaco winning bronze.
Fellow Australian and Paris Olympics teammate Chelsea Gubecka finished ninth.
The men's race became the first final to be decided at the world titles in Singapore after the women's 10km event was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday because of water quality concerns.
The two open-water events were also postponed from Wednesday morning to the afternoon at Palawan Beach on Sentosa Island, south of Singapore, again because of the dirty sea water.
Organisers then said water samples collected on Tuesday afternoon had shown a "significant improvement" and went ahead with Wednesday competition.
"That was definitely harder than Paris. The heat, 36-hour delay, the strong currents … that was one of the hardest circumstances and open water conditions I have been part of," Johnson said.
"Since the Olympics I have tried to embrace every opportunity and race with the feeling that I have nothing left to prove … I've had back-to-back illnesses but my family and faith got me through.
"And to all those that finished today … hats off to you. All open water skills were on display today. And I am so proud of this team — we had two girls and two guys in the top 10 and that's a credit to this whole Dolphins team."
German Florian Wellbrock won his sixth open-water world championship, clocking 1:59.55.50.
He beat Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri by 3.70 seconds, with Lee 14.80 seconds behind Wellbrock in third place.
The Australian Paris Olympian beat another German, Oliver Klemet, by just 0.1 of a second to win his first individual world championships medal.
"We prepared for these conditions in Darwin and to be honest … I am just in shock," Lee said.
Nicholas Sloman, who also competed in Paris, finished eighth.
Johnson, Lee, Gubecka and Sloman are the reigning world mixed team champions.
Wellbrock also won the 10km event at the Tokyo Olympics. He was unhappy about the circumstances around the event postponements.
"That was very, very annoying. We don't understand why World Aquatics informs coaches and committees about such circumstances in the middle of the night," Wellbrock said.
Other open-water races in Singapore are also set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Water quality was a key issue at last year's Olympics, with the triathlon and marathon swimming events held in the River Seine.
After a massive project to clean up the river for the Games, heavy rain meant the men's individual triathlon was postponed by one day. All other events went ahead as scheduled.
Once she competes in her open-water events, Johnson will also contest the 800m and 1,500m freestyle in the pool at the world titles.
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