National Federations invited to promote the “FINA World Aquatics Day”

FINA’s 207 National Member Federations were recently invited to share their ideas and suggestions for the first edition of the “FINA World Aquatics Day”, taking place in the first weekend of July 2017. This new initiative aims at celebrating Aquatics in the five continents on a specific day of the year, in which FINA’s national bodies are invited to organise dedicated events to underline the value of the FINA sport in their communities.

The main goal of these initiatives is to gather non-elite athletes – children, young athletes, occasional or regular competitors in aquatic disciplines, the masters enthusiasts –, with a common objective: to enjoy aquatic physical activity!

In many countries, this kind of events already exists; in this case, FINA suggests to associate these existing competitions to this “World Aquatics Day”, so that they can benefit from more visibility and impact. For the nations without mass events on their calendar, the possibilities continue to be immense: whether in pools (indoor or outdoor), rivers, lakes or open seas, the objective is to attract as many competitors as possible.

In his message to the National Federations, the FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione underlined that “the annual event is a chance to promote the aquatic sports on a national and international level and increase the level of physical activity on all five continents”. And Dr. Maglione concluded by saying that “thanks to the ‘FINA World Aquatics Day’, the aquatic sports’ visibility in the media and the attractiveness of Aquatics among youth will be raised significantly”.

In parallel with the staging of events in the water, many other initiatives may be organised: production of dedicated merchandising, drawing contests about this theme in the schools, issuing of a postal stamp, invitation of a local aquatic star to support the event, social media engagement, creation of mobile apps…

FINA National Federations have now until March 30, 2017 to present their proposals, so that a global programme for the “FINA World Aquatics Day” can be established and promoted.