LEN Postpones 2020 European Aquatics Championships; Considering August or 2021

LEN, the European governing body for aquatic sports, has announced the postponement of the 2020 European Aquatics Championships. The event, which includes pool swimming, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and diving, was scheduled to be held May 11th-24th in the Hungarian capital.

The European water polo championships were held in January with the Hungarian men and Spanish women taking the titles.

LEN president Paolo Barelli supported the proposal of the organizing committee to move the event in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic which has hit his home country of Italy harder than anywhere else in Europe. The group has proposed a schedule of August 17th-30th, which is after the current proposed Olympic Games, which are presently still scheduled for July 24th-August 9th.

“After consulting with our stakeholders, we’ve set a tentative date for the championships, 17-30 August” President Barelli said. “However, at this stage it’s difficult if not impossible to plan with a definite time frame so we agreed with the Hungarian organisers to reassess the situation in late May or early June to see if we can confirm these dates as official ones.”

Barellis says that LEN will consider staging the championships in 2021 if the coronavirus situation does not stabilize in the coming months. The multi-discipline European Aquatics Championships, which includes long course swimming, have been held in all even numbered years since 2000. As of now, 2021 is scheduled to be a short course European Championship year, with Kazan, Russia having been awarded the bid. That hosting duty is up-in-the-air anyway as the World Anti-Doping Association has recommended that Russia be stripped of all international hosting rights through 2024. Russia is appealing that sentence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“Our common commitment and priority is to protect the health of the athletes and give them the best possible conditions to compete in a safe environment and, at the same time, celebrate a great Aquatic event, something Hungary has always delivered with excellence” Barelli said.

“We all wish to see packed stands in the Duna Arena,” said Dr. Tunde Szabo, who is an Olympic silver medalist in swimming and the Minister of Sports in Hungary. “The magical atmosphere created by the fans has become a trademark of the aquatic events in Budapest – the participating athletes deserve to enjoy that once again. And of course they also deserve the chance to have quality preparations before the big events since nowadays it’s almost impossible to train properly. Indeed, few have been hit as hard as the competitors in aquatics where pool-preparations would be a must.”

The LEN Congress and European Masters Championships have also been postponed by this decision. They were scheduled to be held alongside the European Championships.

This decision comes after essentially every major Olympic Trials and national championship meet in Europe was postponed or cancelled. While many nations were planning on the European Championships as a final Olympic qualifying opportunity, this postponement would give nations more flexibility in rescheduling their home trials meets if the Olympics proceed as planned this summer.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Hungary only has 73 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, with 2 individuals having recovered and 1 having died. Those are among the lowest numbers on the European continent.