#360view: Everything going swimmingly as FINA moves forward

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  • Britain's Tom Daley is among a host of diving stars in Dubai this week.

    The relationship between UAE Swimming and FINA, the world’s governing body for aquatic sports, is probably the fastest growing partnership in international sport at the moment, with Dubai essentially at the heart of that bond.

    Each year, a new international event is added to the UAE aquatics calendar and it all started some five years ago when Dubai inaugurated the Dh1.1 billion Hamdan Sports Complex (HSC) by hosting the World Short Course Championships in 2010.

    The venue is a stunning facility and has been dubbed my many world and Olympic champions as one of the best on the planet.

    Since 2010, Dubai has gone on to stage everything from Swimming World Cups, World Junior Championships, Water Polo World League Super Finals, Diving World Series, the Asian Swimming Championships, and even a synchronised international meet.

    The biggest sign of the strengthening relationship between the UAE and FINA perhaps came just last week when Abu Dhabi hosted the Marathon Swimming World Cup – a 10km open water race.

    FINA had not held an open water race in the UAE since 2010, when American swimmer Fran Crippen drowned in a race in Fujairah, sparking controversy surrounding the event organisation. But over four years later, open water swimming has returned to the Emirates as FINA feel confident about turning a new leaf.

    With experience now in hosting all the disciplines that are part of the World Aquatics Championships (swimming, open water swimming, diving, water polo and synchronised swimming), it was only a matter of time before the UAE chose to stage FINA’s biannual extravaganza, and officials yesterday revealed that an Emirati bid is currently being prepared for either the 2021 or 2023 edition.

    FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu yesterday recalled how sceptical many people were when Dubai was about to host its first Diving World Series leg in 2012. He said: “They asked me ‘why do diving in Dubai, in Dubai there is no diving?’

    “But after three events already organised in Dubai you will see how many young children have taken up diving and how the sport has developed here.”

    Indeed the number of swimming-related academies that have popped up in the UAE over the past few years is staggering and the HSC is finally being utilised year round.

    Both Dubai and FINA have an important thing in common – that is their constant eagerness for change and development.

    Compared to other sports bodies, FINA have probably been doing the most to move forward. While other sports may rely too much on tradition, FINA have introduced brand new events like mixed relay races, high diving, and now mixed synchronised diving – which featured for the first time in the World Series opening leg in Beijing last week and will be on display in Dubai this weekend.

    The Diving World Series has attracted almost $2 million in sponsorship money from Chinese companies NVC and Hosa – a figure FINA admit they never would have imagined to be associated with that discipline.

    While we are yet to see Emiratis star in the pool, this relationship between FINA and the UAE Swimming Federation appears to make sense and it is one that should ultimately produce local champions.

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