LUSANNE, Switzerland, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The World Fina World Federation (FINA) plans a new pattern of 16 world records in one year.
Xinhua News Agency reporter Shan Lei and Zhou Xin.
2023 is a year of major changes in the world of swimming, with 16 swimming world records broken in one year, and changes in synchronized swimming scoring rules have caused a sea change. In a recent interview, Perry Mero, director of the FINA Sports Department, introduced the changes in the international swimming scene this year and was full of confidence in the future of world water sports.
In 2021, Hussein Al-Musalam became the new president of FINA, and he quickly reformed the individual international sports organization, one of which was the change of the FINA name to FINA in 2022. In addition, due to a variety of factors, the World Swimming Championships will be held every year from 2022 to 2025. After the 2022 World Championships in Budapest and Fukuoka 2023, the World Championships in Doha in February next year are getting closer, and Singapore is stepping up preparations for the 2025 World Championships.
Now people seem to have a feeling that the World Swimming Championships have become a year, but they are not. We were unable to organize the competition as originally designed during the pandemic, which made no sense for both the event sponsors and the athletes. So we've shrunk the schedule for the last two years of the World Championships, and it feels like it's going to be a year," Mero explained.
Actually, since Musalam was elected president, we have reduced the number of games," Mero said. According to Mero, the Swimming World Cup has been reduced from eight to three per year, the Diving World Cup has been changed from six to three, and synchronized swimming has changed from nine to four. "Our philosophy is to go from smaller to bigger to better. Smaller races, shorter schedules, and slowly transformed into big races and schedules, and finally better for swimmers. ”
Now it seems that the shortened schedule seems to have stimulated the performance of the athletes. According to reports, in 2023, a total of 11 world records in women's, 3 men's, 1 medley and 1 short course swimming in the world will be broken, not counting 10 world records in 2022. The impact of the pandemic is being erased, the potential of athletes is being tapped, and more and more young swimmers are reshaping the world swimming landscape, which is exactly what FINA wants to see.
To be honest, the impact is all positive and positive, and the success of these competitions has raised the image of FINA and allowed the world to see the new situation in international swimming," Melo said.
It's not just swimming, synchronized swimming has changed dramatically this year. In 2022, FINA decided to revise the scoring method for synchronized swimming to make the scoring system more transparent, clear and easy to understand. In addition, the addition of male synchronized swimming at next year's Paris Olympics will transform the sport from artistic to technical.
"You can't rate art from 1 to 10, so there's always been a misconception about grading synchronized swimming, which is too subjective," Mero said. So we decided to change from subjective to objective. If the body is required to be in this position and to meet this height standard, then as long as there is a deviation and it is not in place, points will be deducted. Synchronized swimming is now more and more like diving. "We want to create a more dynamic sport, and I think the future of the sport will require more speed and power, which will be a challenge for athletes," said Terin Kuss, head of FINA press department. ”
At the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in February, there will be six events: swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming, open water and high diving. At present, five of these events have become Olympic sports, and only high diving has not yet entered the Olympic family. FINA is also actively promoting the inclusion of high diving in the Olympic Games in the future, but they are already looking for new water sports, and beach water polo is one of the emerging sports that have entered FINA's vision.
Just like the early days of 3x3 basketball, beach water polo is going through the same evolution. We want to give the audience a better understanding of the sport and more exposure to it. At the moment the sport is growing very fast and we are very bullish on it," Melo said.
Next year's Paris Olympics will be the best test for international swimming, and perhaps more world records will be on the Olympic stage. (ENDS).