The President of the International Swimming Federation, Hussein Al-Musallam, who was elected to this post on June 5 at the FINA Congress in Doha (Qatar), and the Honorary Life President of FINA, Julio Maglione, visited Kazan today. During the visit, they visited the Kazan Palace of Water Sports, as well as the Volga Region University of Physical Culture and Tourism, where a working meeting was held on the preparation of Kazan for the World Aquatics Championships in 2025.
At the Palace of Water Sports, Hussein Al-Musallam got acquainted with the work of the FINA Water Sports Development Center. In an interview with journalists, he noted:
- This is my first visit as president of FINA, which I was elected just 2 days ago, on Saturday. For us, Kazan is a special place that plays an important role in the development of water sports in the world… Kazan is certainly ready for the World Aquatics Championships, and we have no questions about that. Time is moving forward, perhaps there will be some new technologies that can be implemented. That would be great.
- This visit confirms our good relations with the International Federation of Water Sports,-the press service of the Directorate of Sports and Social Projects quotes the Minister of Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan Vladimir Leonov. - We have already presented our plans for 2025 to the FINA management. Unlike in 2015, we are going to create a sports park, a cluster, and implement a large project to create a multifunctional arena to host swimming competitions there.
At the end of the tour of the Aquatics Palace, the new FINA president took part in a meeting with Tatarstan athletes, winners and prize-winners of the recent Russian Diving Championship. Among them are students of the Volga Region University, Russian champion Nikita Schleicher and silver medalist Alexander Belevtsev.
Denis Pimankov, director of the autonomous non-profit organization "Center for Sports Training", which for the past five years has been holding the final Mad Wave Challenge competitions in the Burevestnik pool, with the participation of more than 700 young swimmers from all over the country, took part in today's events related to the visit of the President of FINA. Recently, the CSP and the Volga Region University signed a cooperation agreement involving, among other things, medical and biological support of sports events with the involvement of the university's structural divisions.
- I told the president of FINA that already today in "Burevestnik" there are training camps for children of 12-16 years with the scientific and methodological support of the university's educational and scientific center. I believe that the work of the FINA center, which is based on the university facilities, and our projects with children are links in the same chain. Our activities are aimed at attracting applicants to our sport and to the possibility of studying at the Volga Region University through the competitions held in Kazan. I am sure that the current visit of the FINA president will spur a new wave of interest in Kazan, its sports facilities and sports university.
Vladimir Salnikov, President of the All-Russian Swimming Federation, sees the visit of the FINA President to Kazan on the third day after the election as a sign that water sports in the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan will receive a new impetus for development:
- Kazan has become a home for the Swimming Federation. The 2015 World Cup was recognized as the best in the history of the event-both in terms of the preparation of all structures, and the fact that the installation of swimming pools was carried out for the first time in a football stadium. All this created a special atmosphere and presented swimming in a completely new way. But it's been 10 years since then. And in 2025, it is planned to create a sports cluster, the construction of new swimming pools, including closed ones - for high diving. That's impressive. All the major competitions are registered here, so the development is increasing, I am sure there will be new interesting projects, including the expansion of the FINA center. I am sure that this center can serve as a standard for other centers in the world.
The visit of the FINA President continued at the Volga Region University of Sports, where the guest of honor was given a tour of the educational and laboratory building of the university.
- I really liked this educational complex, and the university as a whole - the location, technical equipment, conditions created for the best use of sports facilities,-said Hussein Al-Musallam after the tour. - I was particularly impressed by the fact that the university facilities were not built for one event - their versatility. And of course, I am very pleased that swimmers and jumpers from all over the world are placed and trained here!
The main goal of the FINA Development Center is to create the most favorable conditions for the effective disclosure of the potential of athletes representing countries with minor national achievements in swimming, as well as to provide an opportunity to improve their results in preparation for the World Championships and the Olympic Games.
The topic of expanding cooperation between the Volga Region University and the FINA Development Center based at the university facility was also raised during the meeting. The acting rector of the University, Rafis Burganov, told the president of FINA about the possibilities of the university in the field of sports education and science, noted that the Volga Region University is ready to act as a center for creating a unified educational program for FINA foreign athletes:
- We said today that we are ready to provide physical education and sports education to participants of FINA programs. In this regard, we are ready to consider any forms of interaction that FINA will offer to create a joint educational program. Practice shows that there should not be many such educational centers, but they should have a good infrastructure and a good educational program. Tatarstan is the third region in Russia by the number of students. We have thousands of foreigners studying here. We have extensive experience in using various forms of learning and it is no accident that we have shown you the audience from which we can lead you to implement your educational programs online around the world. And since we already have experience working with FINA, I suggest that we become a Coordinating Center that will prepare standard educational packages so that the quality of training is the same everywhere.
Hussein Al-Musallam agreed that the proposal of Rafis Timerkhanovich opens up good prospects for joint work. According to Burganov, the next step towards the implementation of the project should be the formation of the "terms of reference" - the parameters of educational programs that will form the relevant divisions of FINA.
