FINA World Championships – Fukuoka, Japan
FINA have today announced that the World Championships, originally scheduled for the summer of 2021 in Fukuoka, Japan, will now instead take place from May 13th-29th, 2022.
The change comes amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which continues to majorly disrupt the international sporting calendar. FINA has made the decision after speaking with the involved parties; TV sponsors, the city of Fukuoka, the Japanese Swimming Federation, organising committees, athletes and coaches.
This is an about-face from earlier comments by FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu, who when asked in March about the possibility of a 2022 World Championships said “no, no, no, no, no, no,” in response.
While it was certainly not unanimous, the loudest chorus of athlete voices were in favor of a 2022 World Championships. The FINA Athletes’ Committee sent out a survey to athletes to gather their input as part of the decision-making process.
This also clears room in the calendar for the European Championships to be moved to 2021: a decision that was given by the head of the host Hungarian federation last week but disputed by LEN.
The relative dates, in May instead of the originally-planned July-August dates, will allow other competitions that wish to continue in 2022 to do so with less conflict: events like the Commonwealth Games, European Championships, and Pan Pacific Championships.
FINA has not indicated any plan to change the dates of the 2020 Short Course World Championships, with Swimming Canada announcing that they’re still targeting that date in September for their national team. FINA has also still not published a plan for the 2021 World Junior Championships, which never had announced dates or a host.
The World Aquatics Championships include the disciplines of swimming, open water swimming, water polo, diving, high diving, and artistic swimming (synchronized swimming).
The press release also announced that the FINA World Masters Championships will now be taking place across the Japanese island of Kyushu from May 31st-June 9th 2022. Fukuoka is the largest city on the island with a population of 1.6 million. The island also includes major metropolises of Kitayushu (940,000) and Kumamoto (740,000)
The postponement of the Olympic Games to next year has caused a lot of events to be pushed back as they would otherwise clash with the Games. Other recent event changes include the 2020 European Aquatics Championships, the 2021 Commonwealth Youth Games, and the cancellation of all 2020 European Junior Aquatics Championships.
Press Release in Full:
Following consultation with the city of Fukuoka, Japan Swimming Federation, organisers, athletes, coaches, technical committees, TV partners and sponsors, FINA is pleased to announce that the FINA World Championships in Fukuoka (JPN), initially scheduled for the summer of 2021, will now take place from May 13-29, 2022.
“After liaising with the relevant stakeholders and receiving feedback from them, we have no doubt that the decision taken will provide the best possible conditions for all participants at the Championships. We look forward to witnessing the world’s best aquatic athletes from around the world competing in the city of Fukuoka (JPN) in 2022,” said FINA President Dr Julio C. Maglione. “At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, FINA hopes the announcement of these dates will allow for some clarity in planning for all concerned.”
The FINA Family would like to thank the authorities of the City of Fukuoka, the Japan Swimming Federation, Organising Committee of the FINA World Championships, and all our partners for their commitment and support in reaching this decision.
Moreover, the FINA World Masters Championships will take place across the island of Kyushu (JPN), from May 31-June 9, 2022.
Why has world championships never been in the United States? It makes no sense. It would be great for the development of the sport.
its a very good question that has received many answers on this forum in previous years if i remember well
Starting from 2022 I would like to see the World Championships revert to a four year cycle just as it was up to the mid 90’s. It would give the WC’s the now or never quality that you see in the Olympics. It’s also clear there isn’t much interest from potential hosts and so we end up with WC’s staged in many second order cities like Kazan, Gwanju, Fukuoka etc. In non-Olympic and non-WC years ie. every second year you could have the European Championships and the Pan Pacs(which used to be held every second year not that long ago) as the prime meet. I could live with that.
and the cold take of the day is awarded to…
lol
So does this mean World Trials 2022 will be In late March/Early April? Interesting to see how college and high school coaches prepare for that.
Yes- with 5 years of events, you have to slot in all the trials around the world as well!
I wouldn’t be shocked if they use 2021 OTs as a way to determine that team
Makes sense. So the shorted “quad” will look like this (hopefully):
2021 Olympics
2022 Worlds
2023 Worlds
2024 Olympics
+ 2025 Worlds, thats 5 years in a row 😮
My only question with all this is how is the selection for the 2023 world championships going to go for the US? Is it going to be determined a year out before like always using the pan pacs again?
I’m sure they’re working on that now that they know 2022 is going to happen. But, seems the simplest solution is to just have a Trials meet in 2022 and 2023.
If they can figure out how to monetize World Championship Trials events the way they have the Olympic Trials, then this change was bound to happen eventually anyway. This might have just forced that change.
Common sense prevails! Gonna use today’s date and go buy a lotto ticket
It’ll be a busy year for some countries with Commonwealth Countries having Worlds, Comm Games and Pan Pacs/Euros.
Will they not shelve Pan Pacs? It’s a swimming only meet to give the US an international meet in non-Worlds and Olympic years. Moving Worlds makes it a bit redundant.
That leaves just the Brits tripling, and some will miss out Euros I expect.
It could be the final nail in the coffin for Pan Pacs as China never show much interest, Japan will have Fukuoka to concentrate on and Australia will focus on the Commonwealth Games which they take very seriously.
The British swimmers will focus on a CG hosted in England in July 2022 and GB will probably send a B team to Rome a month later for the Euros.
Not to mention the US can just put on an incredible nationals meet on their own. Pan Pacs unfortunately probably out sooner rather than later
I can certainly see 2022 Pan Pacs being shelved but I wouldn’t book its burial plot just yet. CommGames future remains less than secure and UK remains one of the most heavily hit by COVID, both in terms of cases and economically. Whilst 2014 in Glasgow was successful, there are likely to be higher priorities for public expenditure than for “circuses”:.
This also gets to another point re CG; Birmingham has had to step in after Durban was forced to back out. Which countries and cities are now willing to host them ? NZL hasn’t hosted since Auckland in 1990 and hasn’t pursued a bid since. CAN’s last was Victoria BC in 1994 and since then, its been smaller… Read more »
If the Brits have any sense in selecting teams then it makes sense to send a junior team to Euros and the seniors to Worlds and Commonwealths.
Allow the US into the commonwealth games you cowards
I’m not sure that the U.S. has any interest in joining the Commonwealth. In fact, there was a fairly substantial war around 250 years ago where we fought specifically to not be part of the Commonwealth.
Well I mean…it’s not like the other countries had a nice little time with the UK
It’s just a matter of time before every country will be part of the ‘Commonwealth’.
The Crown vs the Yankees, Part 3. I could dig it
Not to mention the Asian games. Assuming none of them get canceled, That’s a quadruple for Singapore, and a triple for lots of different countries
Also, any word on what is going to happen to world juniors or WUGS?
I personally feel like it’d be optimal for world juniors and WUGS to happen in 2021 as having everything in 2022 will be quite chaotic. Having them in 2021 will allow those who don’t qualify to the Olympics have a chance to compete at an international level.
What about this year’s SC Worlds?
As of now there has been no postponement/cancellation of SC Worlds. It appears that FINA are aiming for a Sep/Oct timeframe to resume competition, so in the meantime are rescheduling events that were meant to go ahead this summer and those that now clash with the new Olympic dates.