16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022: Melbourne takes over from Kazan as host city
Photo: FINA President Husain Al-Musallam and FINA Executive Director Brent Nowicki during the virtual signing ceremony for the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022.
By George Aluo
World swimming governing body, FINA has named the Australian city of Melbourne as the new host of the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022.
The Russian city of Kazan was initially billed to host the event but was stripped of the hosting right, no thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
FINA in a press release has confirmed Melbourne as the new host of the event.
Below is FINA’s release:
FINA is pleased to announce that Melbourne, Australia, will host the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022 at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre from 13-18 December 2022.
It will be the first time that Melbourne has hosted this prestigious 25-meter event, with the state-of-the-art Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre as the host site. Set on the shores of Albert Park Lake, the city will welcome more than 1,000 athletes from over 180 countries for six days of world-class swimming action.
“FINA is delighted that the proud swimming nation of Australia will host the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) for the first time,” said FINA President Husain Al-Musallam. “Australia has a great swimming tradition and we’re looking forward to coming back to Melbourne. I am sure this will be another highly successful FINA event that provides the world’s best short course swimmers with the environment to perform at their very best. We are incredibly grateful to our hosts for stepping forward to host this prestigious meet.”
Melbourne bid to host the short course world championships after FINA removed the event from Kazan (RUS) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Australia’s “Garden City” has played host to many major aquatics events, including the FINA World Championships in 2007 and multiple FINA Swimming World Cups. Other FINA events in Australia have been the 1991 and 1998 World Championships, which were both held in Perth.
