RENANG INDONESIA, November 1, 2012 MOSCOW - The 2nd FINA
World Aquatics Convention drew to a close, successfully bringing together the
entire Aquatics community and reinforcing the ties between all players -
partners, manufacturers, coaches, athletes and national federations - to bring
the development of FINA's sports to new heights.
A number of crucial topics pertaining to the Aquatics movement was discussed on
this last day: national priorities for elite sport, financial realities of
high-level sport, global markets and new technologies, new trends in coaching
and team management.
What they said about the Convention:
Peter Hurzeler, Head of Omega Timing and speaker at the Convention: "This
event is a good benefit for all the federations, it's a fantastic and important
event to know what's going on in the sport. In my talk, I explained that
swimming is the only sport where the athlete can stop his time."
The audience was surprised, realising it is a noteworthy difference. Hurzeler
added: "We have a fantastic relation with the sport of swimming because
for me it is one of the best organised international federations. Together with
FINA, we did a lot of new things; if you're looking at swimming competitions on
TV, everybody understands, it's straightforward."
Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada's CEO and National Coach, also speaker at
the Convention, said: "One of the thing we could improve is regarding the
Gold Medal clinic: for next time, we could have various parts - discussions
with successful, top-level coaches but also coaches from countries where
swimming is being developed. It would be useful because not all countries have
the same needs and means to develop the sport."
"Moreover, I was really impressed by the speakers'
commitment in their presentation and the quality of the content," he
added.
Ibrahim Wallee and Williams Kyei from the Ghana Swimming
Association also shared their opinion on the event: "For us as an
association this is one of the best kind of world events we have ever seen. We
would like to see more African countries participating; swimming is not developed
so much in Africa, especially Western Africa. We feel it is an opportunity for
everybody to come and learn, get to know the possibilities available for
developing swimming in our country, such as the IOC Solidarity
programmes."
At the end of the day, FINA Executive Director Cornel
Marculescu spoke about what we have learned from the Convention and we could
activate in order to move forward the development of Aquatics worldwide.
"We will activate internally with our various
programmes and externally, with our partners from all sides. We will also
continue to support financially the participation of National Federations to
all FINA events. We want to show the world how big is our Sport and help in the
best possible way our Stars," he continued.
Mr. Marculescu also explained that world-class performance
at FINA sporting events revolves around four clusters: sponsors and suppliers,
broadcasters and media, host cities and Olympic family.
"From now on, the FINA Gold Medal Swimming Coaches Clinic is part of the
FINA World Aquatics Convention and we will continue to strengthen this new
event."
During his closing speech, FINA President Dr. Julio C.
Malgione said: "Throughout our time here, we have covered several topics,
we got a deep understanding of the challenges we must overcome to grow on the
national, regional and international levels."
"Within FINA, we are fortunate to have incredible
athletes, committed coaches, determined National Federations and long-time
partners. Thank you all for being here and we will continue to make Aquatics
bigger and stronger!" he concluded. (fina)
