Melbourne Confirmed As Host Of 2022 Short Course World Championships

Giusy Cisale contributed to this report.

Melbourne, Australia is the new host of the 2022 FINA Short Course World Championships, a source confirmed to SwimSwam Thursday.

The Australian city was rumored to be the event’s new host last month, but FINA made the move official on Thursday.

Melbourne replaces the previous host of Kazan, Russia, which was stripped of hosting rights by FINA due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Australia was among the nations that declared it would not compete at the 2022 Short Course World Championships if it remained in Kazan.

The dates for the championships are reported to be December 13-18, 2022. The Kazan event was originally scheduled for December 17-22.

FINA also stripped Kazan of hosting rights for the 2022 World Junior Championships, which will now take place in Lima, Peru, in August.

This will be Australia’s first time hosting Short Course Worlds, though the nation has successfully played host to three editions of the Long Course World Championships in 1991, 1998 and 2007, the latter coming in Melbourne.

Melbourne has also played host to five FINA World Cup meets from 2000-01 through the 2004-05 season.

After a multi-year stretch that saw very little international competition in Australia, there will now be a few different marquee swimming events down under later this year, with the Duel In The Pool slated to make a triumphant return in Sydney this coming August.

At the last edition of the Short Course World Championships last December in Abu Dhabi, Swimming Australia opted not to send a full team, and after Kyle Chalmers pulled out with an injury, Holly Barratt was the lone Australian representative at the meet.

Barratt raced five events and made a pair of finals, placing seventh in the women’s 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke.

At the 2018 edition of SC Worlds in Hangzhou, China, Australia won 11 medals, including a pair of gold medal triumphs from Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 200 and 400 free.