PR 50 - FINA Bureau meeting

Barcelona (ESP), July 16, 2013 – Three days before the Opening Ceremony of the 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona (ESP), the FINA President presented his report to the Bureau and highlighted the following topics:

- Present status of FINA with high profile of Aquatic sports around the world, increase of FINA’s development programmes, and the healthy financial situation of our International Federation;

- The consolidation and stability of the FINA calendar: in Barcelona, FINA will decide on the hosts of the 2019 and 2021 FINA World Championships, for which interest has been received from Gwangju (KOR), Budapest (HUN), Baku (AZE) and the United Arab Emirates;

- Concerning the organisation of the 15th FINA World Championships, FINA is expecting the highest standard of competition in outstanding and iconic venues (especially for Diving events), where over 2300 athletes representing a record number of 181 National Federations have been entered. For the first time in the history of these Championships, High Diving is included in the programme;

- Related to the visibility and exposure of the Championships, the Host Broadcaster TVE will transmit the signal in High Definition of all events, to over 210 territories and FINA is expecting to raise the previous figures on cumulative TV viewers – 3.5 billion from each of the past editions in Rome 2009 and Shanghai 2011;

- Following a study carried out by the University of Otago (NZL), in collaboration with FINA, the IOC and the International Triathlon Union, it has been established that the maximum temperature of the water for FINA open water events shall be 31° Celsius. This rule will now be presented at the Technical Open Water Swimming Congress, taking place on July 17 also in Barcelona;

- Allocation of the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in 2015 (Singapore, SIN) and 2017 (Budapest, HUN);

- FINA has approved the Curacao Swimming Federation (CUR), replacing the Netherlands Antilles Swimming Federation.

“FINA is very proud of its consolidated position and the World Championships as one of the most important and appreciated sport events in the world”, considered the FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione at the end of the meeting.