Swimmer's Daily

  • Following the declaration of World Health Organisation that the current COVID-19 outbreak has now reached a worldwide pandemic status, the recently-created FINA Taskforce held its first meeting (by videoconference) to consider the impacts of the current situation with regard to the health of our athletes by assessing the risks of hosting forthcoming FINA competitions. A number of significant decisions were made to postpone or cancel events. FINA’s overriding concern at this challenging time is to proactively safeguard the health of all event participants, and also to safeguard public health in general.

    In addition to the outbreak itself, government restrictions and guidance on events and travel as well as recommendations of the World Health Organisation and the International Olympic Committee have been considered carefully by FINA’s COVID-2019 Taskforce. FINA has also been in discussion with the host federations and committees involved, to which FINA remains deeply grateful for their efforts to further Aquatics.

    Consequently, FINA would like to inform that the following event changes have been agreed:

    Olympic Games Qualifying Events



    March 8-15 – Trieste (ITA) – OG2020 Women ‘s WP Qualification Tournament
    The competition has been already postponed to May 17-24
    The taskforce will review the situation on April 20

    March 22-29 – Rotterdam (NED) – OG2020 Men ‘s WP Qualification Tournament
    The competition is postponed to May 31-June 7
    The taskforce will review the situation on April 30

    April 21-26 – Tokyo (JPN) – Diving World Cup
    IOC and Tokyo2020 will make a decision in collaboration with the Taskforce as necessary

    April 30-May 3 – Tokyo (JPN) – Artistic Swimming OG Qualifying Event
    IOC and Tokyo2020 will make a decision in collaboration with the Taskforce as necessary

    

Olympic Test Events in April
    Swimming
    Water Polo

    IOC and Tokyo2020 will make a decision in collaboration with the Taskforce as necessary

    Diving World Series

    March 20-22 – Kazan (RUS)
    The competition is postponed to September/October 2020

    March 27-29 – London (GBR)
    At this stage, OC still wants to hold the competition. The FINA Taskforce will wait for further information from the British authorities, and will review the status of this event on March 16, 2020.

    Water Polo

    Water Polo World League Men and Women
    The competition is postponed to September/October 2020

    Artistic Swimming World Series

    March 27-29 – Hurghada (EGY)
    This competition is postponed to a further date not yet determined

    April 3-5 – Alexandroupolis (GRE)
    This competition is canceled

    April 10-12 – Budapest (HUN)
    This competition is postponed to a further date not yet determined

    April 17-19 – Kazan (RUS)
    This competition is postponed to a further date not yet determined

    April 23-25 – Suzhou (CHN)
    This competition is canceled

    Schools, Coaches Clinics, Development programme
    All schools and clinics to be held until the end of March 2020 are postponed. FINA schools and clinics to be held in April and May will be reviewed by the Taskforce, which meets regularly.

    At present, the Olympic Qualifying System for Tokyo 2020 remains unchanged. Should any changes become necessary, they will be determined in collaboration with the respective FINA Technical Committees and agreed with the IOC. Should changes be required, these will be communicated at the earliest available opportunity.

    According to discussions with the World Health Organisation, the risks of swimming in chlorinated water is considered to be of low risk for COVID-19 viral transmission. Please exercise good health hygiene (i.e. hand washing and avoid large gatherings).

    The FINA COVID-19 Taskforce will meet again on March 16 to further reassess the situation concerning the impact of the virus on the FINA calendar of events.

    FINA would like to reiterate its thanks to all those supporting aquatics athletes around the world. FINA would also like to express its thoughts and sympathies for all those affected by the pandemic.

    Press release from FINA

  • The annual “Daredevil Run” will get under way for the 10th time Friday afternoon from Zoo Lake in Johannesburg with the men in just swimming costumes gearing up to start the race at 3PM and returning at 6PM. The exciting awareness campaign sees thousands of men from across the country take to the streets – dressed only in swimming costumes – during afternoon peak hour traffic, all in the name of raising awareness about prostate cancer. For more on this run we are joined by David Lucas, who is a prostate cancer survivor and Andrew Oberholzer, the CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation as well as Zenzile Mogoba who is the communications manager at Hollard Group.

  • Every year, the Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival in Vermont brings swimmers from around the country to participate in a winter swim competition in frigid waters. Local swimmers Laurie and Amy Craigen went up this year with a group from the L Street Bath House in South Boston to join the tradition. They joined Jim Braude to talk about what drove them to take the plunge.

  • Dear friends,

    Given the current situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading throughout the world and the new guidelines given by the swedish government and Public Health Agency, the Swedish Swimming Federation have decided to cancel  this year´s edition of Malmsten Swim Open Stockholm.

    We are of course very sorry for this decision, this Olympic year was in all ways going to be something extra, both for your teams, all spectators and tv-viewers, but also for us in the Swim Open Organization team. We were all excited for some awsome days in Stockholm together. But we will have another go next year, on the 8-11 of April 2021 – Save the date!

    See swimopenstockholm.se

     

    eriksdalsbadet photo
    Photo by N Stjerna

  • Following the lockdown of basically everything non-essential in Denmark, including swimming pools and swim club activities across the nation, the Danish Swimming Federation has decided to now cancel the 2020 Danish Open, which doubles as the Danish Olympic Trials for Tokyo 2020.

    ‘We understand that this raises many thoughts and concerns, and must emphasize that we are in close contact with both FINA, the Danish Olympic Committee (DIF) and Team Danmark to give Danish swimmers the opportunity to qualify for the international championships this season – not least the Olympics’

    Read svoem.org (in Danish)

     

     

  • It’s hard to comprehend how popular the sport of diving is in Mexico. Two of our diving coaches, Head Coach Chava Sobrino and Assistant Coach Joel Rodriguez, competed for Mexico at the Olympics. Hear from the duo as they explain what it’s like to be a diver representing Mexico.

  • A lifeguard shortage in Clearwater could force the city to cut back on swim classes.

  • In the wake of the global corona-virus outbreak and the various restrictive measures the respective countries implement in Europe, LEN has decided to put its upcoming water polo competitions on hold. This includes the second leg of the women’s Euro League quarter-finals, the men’s U19 European Water Polo Championships qualification tournaments and the 11th round of the men’s Champions League.

    Given the current situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading throughout Europe and the implementation of stricter and stricter containment measures decided by various governments, LEN has taken the decision to put the below water polo competitions on hold.

    Women’s Euro League, Quarter-finals, 2nd leg
    The four games planned for 28 March 2020 are on hold and will be rescheduled for a later date. Consequently, the LEN Trophy Final 4 (scheduled: 17-18 April) and the Euro League Final 4 (24-25 April) will most likely need to be staged on a later date too.

    U19 European Water Polo Championships, qualification tournaments
    The four qualification tournaments planned for 3-5 April 2020 in Istanbul (TUR), Netanya (ISR), Manchester (UK) and Malta (MLT) are on hold and will be rescheduled for a later date, possibly in mid-May.

    Champions League, preliminary round, Day 11
    The eight matches scheduled for 10-11 April 2020 are on hold and will be rescheduled for a later date, as well as the postponed match from Day 10 (Ferencvaros HUN v Pro Recco ITA) and the second leg of the Euro Cup semi- final between Eger (HUN) and Brescia (ITA).

    LEN will assess the most appropriate new dates for these competitions. At the same time it continues monitoring and evaluating the situation and will take the necessary steps if further measures will be needed to unconditionally safeguard the health and safety of the athletes, coaches and all others involved in the events.

    Press release from LEN

    waterpolo photo
    Photo by Mynde Mayfield