The Ukrainian Swimming Federation, which in the last few years have made huge strides organizationally, has made public its desire to host both the 2018 European Championships as well as a future stop of the FINA World Cup.
At a press conference today, First Vice-President of the Swimming Federation of the Ukraine (FPU) Dmitry Kachurovskii announced some of the conclusions of an executive committee the week before, including their intent to bring more big-time meets to the Ukraine.
“One of the strategic objectives of the Federation is an active engagement with the international swimming community. One outcome of this work should be to hold the 2018 European Championship,” he said.
He also said that future plans included bidding for the World Championships.
The Ukrainians have improving depth in their swimming organization, but have gone two-straight Olympic Games without a medal. That’s as compared to the 7 in the three previous games since achieving independence from the Soviet Union. There is some promising youth headed toward the 2016 Rio Olympics, where Kachurovskii hopes the team will receive a boost in motivation if Ukraine wins this bid. 20-year old sprinter Andrii Govorov and 18-year old Daryna Zevina, the defending World Short Course Champion in the 200 back, should both be entering their primes around 2016.
The federation, though they lack the type of large permanent facility to host this event, like the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Kachurovskii pointed to the fact that many major meets are now hosted inside basketball or hockey arenas, and that he felt as though that would be a good option for the Ukraine.
