FINA says goodbye to Dubai for hosting the "2013 World Championships of Swimming"

Dubai will host the 2010 FINA Short Course Meters World Championships but will drop hosting the 2013 long course event. Lot of fluff in this press release as to why. I have a feeling the 2013 FINA World Championships of Swimming are pretty much a bad investment at this point in that Phelps or Dara Torres will be retired and it will also be an Olympic off year as well.

I think swimming is about to go through a challenging time. Though eradicating the tech-suits got us all talking about the swimmers again rather than the suits, I think the sport of swimming would need that sort of revenue and controversy to stay topical, relevant, and produce more economic opportunities for the sport.

Here is the FINA Press release in full:

FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione recently discussed preparations for the 10th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), Dubai 2010 with members of the Dubai Higher Organising Committee.

FINA expressed its appreciation for the tremendous amount of work completed by the Dubai 2010 organising committee and the progress made in the construction of the Dubai Sports Complex. Furthermore, it is expected that the 10th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) from December 15-19, 2010 in Dubai will be a great success.

The project for the 15th FINA World Championships 2013 was also reviewed and in a mutual agreement, FINA and the Dubai authorities decided that Dubai would not go forward with the organisation of these championships.

Both Mattar Al Tayer, Deputy Chairman of the Higher Organising Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, and President Maglione reaffirmed that Dubai has opted to concentrate on developing grassroots interest in swimming rather than go forward with another championships for elite athletes in three years.

“Our vision from the start was that hosting the 2010 World Championships would leave a legacy that would benefit residents in Dubai and throughout the UAE. Our goal after the championships is to encourage wider use of our new aquatic complex by the people who live here”, Al Tayer said.

“We believe that, at this stage, it is of paramount importance to further improve the impact of the aquatic disciplines in this Middle East region before staging a FINA World Championships with our five sports. The UAE authorities will certainly do their best to accomplish this goal and the first step towards achieving it will be the organisation of a very successful FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in December”, considered FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione.

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