FINA FAMILY"We will make Aquatics bigger and stronger!"

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)