The Athletes Commission of the CBDA, which organizes aquatic sports in Brazil, released a statement on Monday addressing a troubling series of events at last week’s Brazilian Championships in Recife.
The Brazil Trophy is usually held at Maria Lenk Aquatic Center in Rio, but the meet was moved this year. The Santos Dumont Water Park hosted the Jose Finkel Trophy last year.
Last Tuesday, the meet got off to a rough start when a broadcasting drone hit a bird and fell into the Santos Dumont Water Park during the opening prelims session. Fortunately, no one was hurt as the swimmers competing were at the opposite end of the pool.
Later that day, 100-meter breaststroke champion Jhennifer Conceicao and third-place finisher Ana Carolina Vieria reportedly got into a physical altercation after their podium celebration. Conceicao filed a police report against her Pinheiros club teammate after the incident alleging that Vieria attacked her from behind and slammed her face into a railing.
According to the CBDA Athletes Commission, other issues with this year’s meet included an inadequate warm-down pool that exceeded temperature limits as well as a faulty scoreboard. The pool temperature was in excess of 29 C (84 F) at the meet, outside of the FINA recommended range of 77-82.4 F.
“In addition to harming the athletes’ performance, swimming was embarrassed on national television and may have lost public support and sponsors with what happened here in Recife,” the CBDA Athletes Commission wrote. “If we want to upset the main powers of world swimming, a lot needs to change and we can no longer go through situations like the ones that happened in this Brazil Trophy.”
The letter went on to add that the CBDA is behind its peers in terms of Olympic planning.
“While other teams already have their plans announced for the 2028 Olympic cycle, here in Brazil we have neither the headquarters of Finkel nor the dates of the 2024 Olympic Trials defined, preventing the planning of the final stretch of the cycle from being carried out,” the CBDA Athletes Commission wrote. “Planning, organization and respect is all we need. With that in mind, the results will certainly be even better than those already achieved by all of us.”
After the meet wrapped up, the CBDA relented on its lofty relay standards and made plans to send swimmer to all eight relays after only the women’s 800 free relay met the initial marks.
Before the meet, CBDA president Luiz Fernando Coelho sounded confident that holding the Brazilian Championships at Santos Dumont Water Park would be smooth sailing.
“Recife and the Santos Dumont Water Park were impeccable in terms of organizing competitions,” Coelho said. “This, of course, gives us the security that our main event will be played in a very good pool, with a good structure of hotels, displacement and everything that the teams need to have their best performance inside the pool.”
Check out the full statement from the CBDA Athletes Commission below:
Comissão de Atletas da CBDA publica nota sobre o #trofeubrasil2023 pic.twitter.com/HLKaxdFnoW
— Coach Alex Pussieldi (@alexpussieldi) June 5, 2023
Translated:
Dear CBDA Members,
Before exposing everything we want, it is important to make it clear that this letter does not have any criticism of the city of Recife and its residents. The city welcomed us again and it is always a pleasure to be able to have this contact with the public again, but because it is the most important championship of the semester, which serves as a selective for the main international events of 2023, some facts that occurred interfered a lot with our performances and we cannot remain silent about it.
As athletes, we live off the results we achieve. Without expressive results, all our daily efforts and everything we give up on a daily basis go down the drain.
Our contracts with clubs and sponsors depend on our results, our mental health depends on our results and the decision to continue in high performance sport for another Olympic cycle also depends on our results.
For this reason, carrying out the Trofeu Brasil de Nataco without an adequate warm-down pool, with the pool water at a temperature above that permitted by the current World Aquatics rules and with the scoreboard failing on several occasions are just a few examples of what should not be done. In addition to harming the athletes’ performance, swimming was embarrassed on national television and may have lost public support and sponsors with what happened here in Recife.
If we want to upset the main powers of world swimming, a lot needs to change and we can no longer go through situations like the ones that happened in this Brazil Trophy.
While other teams already have their plans announced for the 2028 Olympic cycle, here in Brazil we have neither the headquarters of Finkel nor the dates of the 2024 Olympic Trials defined, preventing the planning of the final stretch of the cycle from being carried out.
Planning, organization and respect is all we need. With that in mind, the results will certainly be even better than those already achieved by all of us.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond to this letter and we hope we can reach a coherent and constructive decision for the benefit of athletes and the aquatic community.
the assailant should get a 1 year ban from international swimming.
acho que existe um preconceito ibudido nessa carta pelo fato da competição ter sido realizado na região nordeste ,
On whose part?
dos atletas
o comentarista esportivo Alex puldassi fez um posto que fala exatamente da carta , no meu ver uma minoria de atletas fazendo reclamação pô nada , seus resultados na natação foram abaixo do seus tempos ,não e a piscina e a temperatura que fizeram isso. as estalacoes são as mesma do Marie nostrum e atletas de elite não reclama aí vem uma minoria reclamar ,cbda era pra levar era só atletas e revezamento com tempo exigindo na minha opinião de um amante da Natação mundial
Seems like a lot of unrelated items. I don’t think having the site selected for 2024 trials would have prevented a cat fight after a medal ceremony.
Still you would expect the date and location of the trials to be known at least a year in advance.
A proper warm down pool for a meet of this calibre seems like a reasonable expection.
And pool every day at 29 degrees is also unaceptablr