FINA will not be hosting its flagship meet, the World Championships, in 2018 (the meet returns in 2019 in Gwangju, South Korea), but there will still be a heavy focus on events in all aquatic sports. These events include the Short Course World Championships, Diving World Cup and Marathon Swim World Series.
The Short Course World Championships will take place in December in Hangzhou, China, while FINA’s newsletter promises an “innovative” Swimming World Cup, although it has not announced any additional details. The organization made significant changes to the 2017 World Cup, including placing limits on events and issuing direct access to finals for certain swimmers.
In diving, the FINA World Series will be held over the months of March, April and May, while the Water Polo World League resumes next week with European preliminary action, with Croatia visiting Germany and Spain at Hungary.
FINA also announced key changes to its open water professional circuits. The 10k Marathon Swimming World Cup will be re-dubbed the Marathon Swim World Series, and six stops for that circuit have been announced, with three locations still TBD.
- Seychelles (SEY) – May 20
- Setubal (POR) – June 9
- Balatonfured (HUN) – June 16
- Chun-An (CHN) – September 16
- Taiwan (TPE) – September 22
- Abu Dhabi (UAE) – November 24
The FINA Open Water Grand Prix, meanwhile, will now be called the FINA UltraMarathon Swim Series. These races vary in distance and are much longer than a traditional 10k race.
Finally, the organization announced an initiative called “FINA Aquatics Olympic Support,” which will help support federations sending athletes to World Championship-type events.
Check out the full FINA calendar by clicking here.