FINA President Husain Al-Musallam attends the opening press conference of the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary on June 17, 2022. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
SINGAPORE, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Now is the time for Asia to host major sporting events, thanks to the financial stability and willingness of society in the region, World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam told Xinhua on Thursday.
The 2025 World Aquatics Championships will be held in Singapore, World Aquatics announced on Thursday. This means that the world's premier international aquatics event will be staged in Asian countries for three years in a row from 2023.
Tang Qianting (C) of China in the women's 50m breaststroke semifinal at the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022, in Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 17, 2022. (Photo by Hu Jingchen/Xinhua)
Japan's Fukuoka will host the 20th World Aquatics Championships in July this year. This tournament was originally scheduled to be held in 2021 but was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions.
The 21st World Championships originally scheduled for summer 2023 was then rescheduled to take place in Doha in February 2024.
"When you want to host an event, you definitely need financial stability, the platform of the market, the willingness of society and authorities to contribute, to support within society," Al-Musallam told Xinhua.
Goalkeeper of Team Greece Emmanouil Zerdevas in action during the men's water polo final at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Jianli)
"Now, it's time for Asia, because of the economy. The impact is important as well as the market, the support from the authorities of the Asian countries to host international events."
Al-Musallam mentioned the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, as well as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. "All these big events were held in Asia for the reasons I mentioned."
But he added that when market stability and public support for hosting sporting events come back in other regions of the world, big events "definitely will be going there".
Xie Siyi and Wang Zongyuan of China in action during the diving men's synchronized 3m springboard final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, July 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Xu)
At the end of last year, aquatic sports' international governing body also changed its name from FINA to World Aquatics.
"The reason is very simple. It's to unify the different six disciplines within the aquatic family together and make it become one," said Al-Musallam.
"FINA is related to swimming only in the French acronym, but aquatics is not only swimming, it's about swimming, water polo, open swimming, diving, artistic swimming and high diving. We will find the whole family under one umbrella, united by water. Of course there will be positive impact for the organizing committee, making life easier for them in marketing."
Team Spain in the team free routine match of artistic swimming at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Xu)
In recent years, World Aquatics has increased the prize for its major events by a big margin thanks to various sponsorships. Al-Musallam said that while rewarding elite athletes is part of their strategy, they are actually allocating a bigger budget to the development of the sport.
"You cannot just focus on elite athletes but forget the pyramid," he said. "Our priority is that swimming can play an important role in ensuring the health of the society, and also to reduce the amount of drownings around the world. There are so many kids drowning in all parts of the world. So this is our vision, apart from taking care of elite athletes." ■
