By the Numbers | Preview to the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series 2022 Super Final

310,000 – US Dollars. That’s the prize money on the line for the Super Final. And that is in addition to the overall 257,000 USD series event prize purse of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series 2022.

3000 – Daily aquatics practitioners. Every day, the pools at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens “Spiros Louis” complex created for Athens’ hosting of the 2004 Summer Olympics is humming with aquatic activity. 3,000 athletes – from locals swimming sets to water polo teams training to artistic swimming clubs working their routines use the venue’s facilities.  

2022 – This year. After a two-year pandemic-induced break, not only is live, in-person artistic swimming competition back, so is the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final. The buzz amongst the competitors and coaches to be back again – the first time coming this past April for the second series leg at the historic Piscine Georges Vallerey venue in Paris, France – is evident everywhere in and around the pool.  

137 – Competing athletes. This includes Slovakia’s Laura Francis An Waterloos, the provisional winner for the best last name for an artistic swimmer in the field.

26.2 – Miles. In honour of Spiros Louis, the Greek water carrier who won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the Athens 1896 Olympic Games. The entire side of the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens runs along the avenue named after the fabled marathon runner.

23 – Participating nations, that is. The country rundown: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, USA, Uzbekistan.

11 – Pools. Aquatics sport is well represented across Greece. Nowhere is that more evident than in  Athens. The main 2004 Olympic venue boasts 11 pools – all of which are still very much in use today.

3 – Competition Days.  The women’s Technical Solo event kicks off the event on Friday. The 12 event Super Final will conclude on Sunday night with the crowd-favourite Gala event. A routine with no rules, the Exhibition Gala Show provides athletes one more moment to shine in an action-packed 90-second performance that really allows athletes to showcase their personalities.

FINA will livestream the competition on the Eurovision Sports Aquatics Channel.  Start lists and results can be found here.

1 – Day to go. When FINA World Championship 2019 competitor and Tokyo 2020 Greece Olympic selection Krystalenia Gialama heard her country was back in the major events hosting game, she had this to say:

“We are looking forward to welcoming the World’s best artistic athletes just a few weeks prior to the FINA World Championships in Budapest. I am more than sure that all athletes can focus all their energy on delivering outstanding performances. Save the date May 20^th to 22^nd. All the best will be in Athens.”

Just one more sleep until the Super Final is here.

Competition Schedule

All times listed are local to the competition. Athens is currently at UTC/GMT +3 hours.