Published on August 29th, 2017 | by Guest

Innovation from FINA for the World Cup in swimming in 2017!

In the swimming world, summer began with news that caused no small sensation. Recently the international Federation of Water Sports (FINA) has announced the most important changes in the rules of conduct of the World Cup in swimming this year.

Are changes always for better?

It all started with released online teaser of the World Cup this year. Among other things, you can notice these words in the video: “Winners of the Olympic Games and World Championships automatically advance to the finals.”

This sentence was confirmed on paper in the position of FINA. However, there was no information about whether it concerns only athletes who stood on the podium in Rio or those who will make it in Budapest. There was no information whether these rules only concern certain distances (i.e., the privilege of skipping the preliminary heats, for example in the 50 freestyle, will apply only to the winners at this distance) And if such a rule is not confined to a particular competition, what will happen if 8 winners of the Olympic games and World Championships participate in such a competition? And what sense will bear the morning’s preliminary heats for the other participants, who certainly have fewer chances to go to the finals? At the moment, there are more question than answers….

The ingenuity of officials FINA did not stop at these changes. The most important changes:

25 – maximum number of distances at one event. This means that the same competition will appear only twice in a single cluster of the World Cup (instead of three as it was before this time);

Financial awards for each event will be shared among top 6 athletes (3 900 $ will be divided among 6 top sportsmen). The financial award will be given in relay events, and the total amount of payouts in 2017 will be more than 2 million US dollars;

4 – the maximum number of individual events for the athlete at each stage;

Changes to the rules of television;

The introduction of additional advertising companies with typical athletes.

The award ceremony at the end of each day will be held in the form of the Parade of Champions.

One of these amendments provoked a strong reaction from Katinka Hosszu. The iron lady has consistently dominated in the overall women’s standings of the World Cup for the past 5 years. And this was possible thanks to the incredible number of starts of an athlete at each stage, where in most cases, Hosszu was on the podium and earned decent money.

Katinka Hosszu: “Innovations from FINA??! A maximum of 4 individual starts for an athlete at one competition of the World Cup??! Congratulations, you’ve made everything possible in order not to make me swim and not to win more this year…and nothing more. “The changes received positive feedback from the athletes and coaches — but no one has ever asked us…And that is why swimming is still an amateur sport”.

Guide FINA explained that this innovation is an attempt to partially equalize the chances of the best athletes and make the fight for the final prize even sharper. In addition, the international federation convinced that the innovations will attract more world stars of sailing to participate in the World Cup.

The first stage of the World Cup will be held this year in Moscow. Best swimmers of the planet will be transported to the Russian capital immediately after the end of World Champion of water kinds of sport. In 2016 Belarus was presented in the World Cup only by Alexandra Herasimenia (2 stages and 2 awards) and Paul Sankovich who passed all 9 stops and won 28 medals. Perhaps this year the national team will delight us with an even greater number of Belarusian athletes in the world swimming series, the new award-winning and impressive results…

Tags: 2017, FINA, innovation, swimming, World Cup