We’re still digesting the fact that today FINA announced it would indeed be inserting a 2022 World Aquatics Championships into the calendar. As we reported, Budapest will be the host of this year’s Worlds now slated for June 18th through July 3rd, as the original event for 2022 was postponed to next year in Fukuoka, Japan.
Federations, swimmers and coaches are now weighing what this revelation means, in light of the fact that this summer already had a busy lineup of elite international events on the agenda.
For those planning on attending the European Championships, those fall just over a month after Budapest. The Commonwealth Games are also on the horizon not too far beyond that, therefore, British swimmers, in particular, will have a demanding season of racing depending on how things play out in any selection updates.
British Swimming responded to SwimSwam today, with Associate Performance Director Tim Jones stating,
“We acknowledge FINA’s latest update on the confirmation of a 2022 World Championships in Budapest, and our World Class Leadership Team is now assessing the performance, logistical and financial implications of this announcement.
“We have remarked before on the outstanding resilience and agility our athletes, coaches and staff have shown over the past two years, adapting to new and unexpected scenarios. However, we are also very mindful of the expectation and welfare challenges this now places on our athlete and staffing cohorts.
“We will be working with them to determine the best way forwards through this eye-opening sequence of top-level competition opportunities, not only between June and August of this season, but all the way through to 2025.”
We will continue to provide updates on various reactions from around the world.
A prediction – at least some in FINA will be watching closely to see whether a ‘Every year’ model, accidentally created by Covid between 2022-2025 is lucrative, and if it seems to work, pressure will grow to make this change permanent – whether like Gymnastics, which does 3 World over 4 years but normally blanks for the Worlds, or cycling, which simply does Worlds annually, even in Olympic year.
Those who argue for the ethical/social value of rarity are going to be challenged by the moneymen like never before. Athletics are facing exactly the same quandry.
Worth noting that Cycling and Gymnastics already have a Worlds and a Europeans every single year (with cycling’s track cycling winter season not totally… Read more »
I volunteered in Budapest in 2017 for 3 weeks (was there before the start of the tournament right through to after the end of it). It was an amazing experience, but the gaps in planning and organisation clearly shone through behind the scenes then, having been given a bit of a hospital pass from Mexico.
While they’ve now had the experience of hosting, I imagine this is even more of a hospital pass. A huge number of volunteers in 2017 were 16 year olds who’d been roped in as part of a school ‘community-service’ type initiative.
I have no doubt Hungary and Budapest will make it work, but it will take a lot of string pulling over the next 4… Read more »
Incidentally, I’m not suggesting 16 year olds aren’t fantastic volunteers – they were and are. I’m simply pointing out that having volunteers is a real challenge at such short notice, and we will have to see what Budapest comes up with this time.