Top swimmers from around the world will make waves during the seven-stage FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup 2008 series starting this weekend in Belo Horizonte (BRA). And like in 2007, fans can access World Cup coverage of the finals via free LIVE streaming on the FINA website.



This renowned 25m competition steadily attracts some of the biggest names, who push their fitness and endurance to the limit to garner top-ranking performances each week. If successful, they win international acclaim and a cut of more than US$1,1 million in prize money for World Cup competitors (see Rules on www.fina.org for details).

This weekend, the talents of Beijing Olympic champions Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia (gold 1500m free medallist), and Brazilian hero Cesar Cielo Filho (men's 50m free gold medallist) will be on-hand, as well as Sweden’s Therese Alshammar (women's 2007 World Cup winner) and Stefan Nystrand, the Americans Randall Bal (men's 2007 World Cup winner) and Tara Kirk, Australia’s Christian Sprenger and Sophie Edington, Evgeny Korotyshkin (Russia), Mandy Loots (South Africa) and more.

Host cities for 2008 are the same as in 2007, although the order of meets has been altered. After the Brazil stop from October 10-12, the circuit goes to Durban (RSA) from October 17-18, Sydney (AUS) from October 25-26, Singapore (SIN) from November 1-2, Moscow (RUS) from November 8-9, Stockholm (SWE) from November 11-12, and the concluding meet in Berlin (GER) from November 15-16, 2008. This is the second year the World Cup calendar has been compacted to fit seven meets into a period of just five weeks in October-November. The new format allows athletes to stay focused on performing well during the Series at-hand, thus heightening the competition and the media attention it receives.

The new scoring system of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup is based on points given in accordance with the value of performances registered in the FINA Points Table (updated July 1, 2008). The best performer of the meet receives 25 points, the second 20, and so on, with additional points awarded for a World Record and double points awarded in the last leg of the circuit (see Rules & Regulations for details). This system allows the suspense about the outcome of the overall World Cup to linger until the final meet.

This major, elite-level competition – often the setting for world record performances - has been a success for nearly 20 years. Don’t miss the passion from this fall’s FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup 2008 by tuning in from around the world via LIVE streaming on www.fina.org.