The International Swimming and Aquatics Federation (FINA) and the Bahrain Olympic Committee have announced plans to establish a new center of excellence for water sports in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in partnership with GFH Financial Group and the Bahrain Swimming Federation.
The partnership will witness the establishment of an international aquatics center at the Bahrain Technology University, which will contribute to enabling elite international swimmers to access this center, enabling them to enhance their training opportunities. Development athletes will also use the new facility, receiving on-site training and educational support through World Water Sports Development Programs.
On this occasion, Hussain Musallam, President of the International Swimming Federation, said: “I am excited about this partnership with the Kingdom of Bahrain.” We seek the International Swimming Federation to provide this great support to all national federations, and we are pleased to include an educational component with the help of Bahrain University of Technology.”
Musallam pointed out that the water games are considered one of the most important games, as the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the World Water Games Budapest 2022 witnessed the representation of more than 180 countries.
“We are grateful to Bahrain and the hosts of our other development centers for their help in ensuring that water sports athletes everywhere have the opportunity to reach their true potential,” he said.
FINA has centers of excellence in Thanipura (Thailand), Dakar (Senegal), Cape Town (South Africa) and Davie (Florida, USA).
The cooperation agreement announced today in Bahrain also includes new swimming pools capable of hosting events in five of the six world class water sports: swimming, water polo, artistic swimming, diving and high diving. The sixth sport, open water swimming, already serves Bahrain’s beaches well for this purpose.
His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, is a professional open water swimmer, having completed the 31.5 km swim that connects Saudi Arabia with Bahrain, across the Gulf of Bahrain.
Bahraini swimmers have competed in the swimming competitions at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000. The new World Aquatics Center of Excellence, housed in the Box Park campus of the University of Technology in Bahrain, will serve as a new training base for the Bahrain Swimming Federation. In addition, it will be a regional office in Bahrain for Aquatics.
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