FINA has opened the Center for the Development of Water Sports in Kazan, Russia signing a cooperation agreement with the Republic of Tatarstan.
The Centre will be held out of the Olympic Reserve School in the same pool that hosted the swimming World Championships in 2015.
FINA President Julio Maglione and Minister of Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan Vladimir Leonov signed the agreement together.
Maglione said,”Kazan is the sports center of Russia, we are always glad to not only come here and conduct all sorts of international competitions, but also actively cooperate with the Republic of Tatarstan as a whole. There is an excellent infrastructure here, thanks to which not only professional sports develop, but an increasing number of residents are involved in sports and a healthy lifestyle. I am confident that this project will be beneficial for all parties.”
First vice-president of the All-Russian swimming federation, Grigory Stetsyuk, indicated that the federation will provide methodological and organizational assistance in the development of the Center.
Garipova Gulnara Raisovna was named the head coach of the Center. There is currently a hiring process for an assistant coach as well.
According to FINA the aims of the Center are to provide aquatic athletes from different nations with training opportunities for competitions that fall under the FINA umbrella such as the World Championships or Olympic Games.
The Center will also be used to host training courses for both athletes and coaches under the FINA Program and FINA school. There are plans in place to host international FINA seminars as well.
While many of the benefits are for high performance athletes, local students will also be benefiting from the addition of the Center. Academy of Physical Culture, the main sports high school of the Vola region, will have active interaction with the Center as will the Sports & Tourism branch of government.
The new center in Kazan is one of several other centers around the world. Thanyapura Health & Sports Resort in Thailand currently resides as a training hub for athletes in South East Asia under the FINA scholarship programme. It’s been a center since 2015. Other centers reside in the United States and Senegal.
As outlined by FINA the objectives of the center are:
- Creation of infrastructure for training and education processes, which will help to reveal the maximum potential of each athlete
- Providing each athlete with the necessary medical supervision in order to maintain / improve health
- Organization of an educational platform for the training of trainers and officials (judges) in order to improve the level of knowledge and skills
The Five Modules Of The Development Center:
- FINA Scholarships – only for athletes. The FINA scholarship program gives you the opportunity to receive financial and technical assistance through the partial financing of FINA for one elite athlete chosen by his national federation. The scholarship helps the athlete in his training and qualification for the coming world championships
- FINA advanced training course – for coaches and officials
- FINA schools – only for officials
- FINA Trainers Certification Program
- International seminars FINA