FINA – the worldwide governing body for aquatics – has been promoting their upcoming 2018 World Cup Series via their Instagram handle since July. Posts include popular faces of the event including 2017 overall Champions Chad le Clos and Sarah Sjostrom:
Controversy, however, struck when the organization used a photo of England’s World Record Holder and Olympic Champion Adam Peaty. The post’s caption reads: “Do you think you’ve seen it all? Then wait until I get back to the pool at the FINA Swimming World Cup! ???♂️ So excited to race!” @adam_peaty could be saying something like that, don’t you think? ??? #LionPower.”
Peaty has not competed in this series of competition, as he has described it as “ridiculous and embarrassing.” He then replied to the message on his personal Twitter account, briefly explaining why he has and will not compete in FINA’s World Cup circuit:
Maybe they need to put them at a time of year when people want to race aswell as 50/50 SC and LC ? https://t.co/wwjYwp0D5M
— Adam Peaty MBE (@adam_peaty) August 22, 2018
In the pool, Peaty most recently broke the World Record in his signature event, the 100 breaststroke. He raced to a time of 57.10 among numerous other quick swims at the 2018 European Championships this summer.
The 2018 FINA World Cup includes seven stops broken into three clusters. The series kicks off in Kazan, Russia, on September 7-9. All meets will run across three days (including mandatory heats) and swimmers are allowed to swim an unlimited number of individual events, however only the best 3 results will count toward the ranking/scoring.
FINA has yet to comment on Peaty’s Tweet.
The Times contributed to this report.
Lol look. Betsy Perry