FINA has announced the competition schedule for the 19th World Championships, to be held this June and early July in Budapest. The finalization of the schedule comes less than a month after the international governing body announced the addition of the 2022 Championships.
The international swimming calendar, and frequent changes to it, has been a hot topic in recent months. The originally-scheduled 2022 championships in Fukuoka, Japan were postponed to 2023 and FINA subsequently moved the 2023 World Championships in Doha to January 2024. The Paris Olympic Games will be held in July of 2024, meaning there will be three major long course international championships in 12 months.
Competition dates:
- Pool swimming: June 18th-25th
- Open water swimming: June 26th-30th
- Water polo: June 20th-July 3rd
- Diving: June 26th-July 3rd
- Artistic swimming: June 17th-25th
The swimming competition will start on June 18th and conclude on June 25th, while the open water competition will take place between June 26th and June 30th.
The swimming competition dates will also directly conflict with the previously announced ISL Season 4 schedule. Match 3 is slated for June 18th-19th and Match 4 set for June 25th-26th, while Match 2, on June 10th and 11th, would likely conflict with national team travel plans and training camps before the championships. All three matches are scheduled for the “North America” region.
While the scheduling in the first week of competition gives maximum space before other national team events later in the year, it also creates maximum conflict with the ISL schedule.
As always, the World Championships will also feature other aquatic sports besides swimming, including water polo, diving and artistic swimming. The water polo tournament will take place June 20th through July 3rd, diving will take place June 26th to July 3rd, while artistic swimming will start on June 17th and conclude on June 25th.
Historically, swimming has taken place during the second half of the multi-week aquatic championships, though swimming will take place during the front half of the 2022 championships. FINA told SwimSwam that this was a deliberate decision with “special consideration for the training and recovery challenges of a busy 2022 aquatics calendar.”
According to FINA, the decision to hold the swimming competition during the front half of the championships was made in consultation with athletes and other key stakeholders.
Included in this busy aquatic calendar is a series of minor and continental championships, including the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and Asian Games. The Commonwealth Games will kick off on July 28th, the European Championships will start on August 11th and the Asian Games will commence on September 10th.
Excited to see Grimes at world trials. Her 1500 in season was a 16:20 in January, the fastest January swim of her career by 20 seconds! If she can shave the same amount of time that she did at trials, she can for sure go 15:30 range!
Let’s MF GO LYDIA!!! Beat Lilly again!
well i’m prepared to be emotionally unstable for the latter half of june