The Fiji Swimming federation last night (07/12/2022) officially welcomed the president of FINA, Captain Husain Al Musallam (Kuwait) and his delegates – FINA Second Vice President, Matt Dunn (Australia); FINA Vice President, Antonio Silva (Portugal); FINA Bureau Member, Josip Varvodic (Croatia); FINA Athlete Ambassador, Ian Thorpe (Australia); FINA Athlete Ambassador, Kate Campbell (Australia); FINA staff, Ahmad AL Saabi (Lebanon); FINA photographer, Alex Zsanto (Hungary) who were visiting our shores as part of their FINA Oceania visit itinerary.
The visit aims to reinforce the cooperation and mutual support with FINA’s national member federations, and to encourage national authorities to make swimming part of their education strategy, through a worldwide “Swimming for All, Swimming for Life” programme.
“I want see that swimming is part of education curriculum in all the schools because swimming gives legality, coordination, discernibility plus a budding sport for any type of sport,” said Mussallam.
“Water is important in our lives. I think in the Oceania countries and some part of the world, it lacks the real sport system, not just swimming but other sports and since we are surrounded by water, we need to make use of it in case of emergency. If you want to develop sport in any country, you need the whole country to coordinate to build up the sport then we will see an improvement on our athletes.”
Australian swimming legends Kate Campbell and Ian Thorpe who were also part of the delegation paid a visit and got the opportunity to work with some of the swimmers that were training at the Suva Olympic pool. Their presence inspired local swimmers who were present at the training session and the dinner later that evening.
FINA is sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to oversee international competitions in water sports – swimming, diving, high diving, artistic swimming, water polo, ocean swimming, and masters competitions. FINA or Fédération internationale de natation is headquatered in Switzerland.
Story by: Fiji Swimming and Fiji Times (07/12/2022)