Most of the World’s National Swim Teams are only a team during major international competitions. As the level of coach and facilities around the world begin to rise, swimmers become increasingly spread out across the globe. Beginning today (or tomorrow, depending on your time zone), many of the globe’s World Championship squads will begin assembling for final pre-World-Championship training, tuneups, and tapers. For most countries, this means traveling somewhere much closer to the native time zone, to begin adjusting from jetlag.
Singapore, a tiny country at the very Southeastern tip of mainland Asia, has become a very popular destination for teams travelling to train in Asia, not in the least because they happen to share a timezone with Shanghai (and the rest of China). The country is also viewed as a clean, safe, cosmopolitan metropolis that is able to provide a comfortable and familiar environment from athletes around the world.
The Canadians took off this afternoon and will converge 15 hours later in Singapore sometime tomorrow. The Australians too are preparing to depart, though their journey will be significantly shorter (no more than 8 hours for most). The French too will be bringing their group to Singapore for some last minute adjustments, as well as several publicity options.
The pre-training camps in Singapore have almost become an event within themselves, and are akin to baseball’s spring training. They offer fans a great opportunity to mingle and mix with some of the best athletes in the water in a more casual setting.
Other big-name teams include the Italians, the Swedes, and the South Africans, each of whom are lined up for several medals in Shanghai.
A full list of teams who will be in Singapore:
Swimming
Australia
Bahamas
Canada
Cayman Islands
Czech Republic
Faroe Islands
France
South Africa
Sweden
Switzerland
Iceland
Italy
Lithuania
Finland
Water Polo
Australia
Croatia
Germany
Spain
Serbia
Hungary
Diving
The Philippines
Indonesia
Brunei
Hong Kong
Macau
Sweden
Also in town will be several World Championship waterpolo teams (including the powerhouse Hungarians) for a pre-Worlds mini-tournament, and several World-Class divers will also be on hand for a three-day prep competition. The star of that event will be Sweden’s Anna Lindberg, who is the European Champion on the 3-meter.
For a full schedule of events in Singapore, click here.
As for the Americans, they will assemble on July 11th in either Los Angeles or San Francisco to travel for 9-days in Australia. They were previously slated to be headed to Osaka, Japan, but changed that plan after the horrendous earthquakes that struck that country. The British squad, who used the same base in their leadup to the Beijing Olympics, still plans on training in Osaka.
By the way, the Singapore schedule looks a lot of fun.
Americans gathering at LA or SF to travel to Australia (wah??) before still having to fly to China…. huh???
I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for it (the Japan earthquake, I know), but it just seems very odd.
Well, they are the pros, so I trust them.
Good luck to all the swimmers!
yeah, I forgot about Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur might even be better than Singapore as the facility is at least as good and more quiet.
Yeah, i read from several US team members tweets that they are going to Australia (east coast)
This does not make sense as east coast australia (I assume brisbane) is at least 4.5 hours earlier than Shanghai, and the travel time Brisbane-Shanghai is around 10 hours if no stop over.
But I guess singapore is out of option as the facility might already be too crowded with other teams converging there.
Hong Kong would have made a better option though.
Ireland is going to Malaysia, which is moderately better than Australia. It’s a shame that the even with the meet being held in a country as huge as China, these teams can’t use CHINA as a training camp! If the meet was in the United States, there would literally be hundreds of options for training camps, even if some teams wanted to go to Canada.
The Americans are not training in Osaka… after the earthquakes there, they re-assigned their training camp to Australia (I know it doesn’t seem to make sense, but they made a quick decision after the events in Japan in the spring, USA Swimming did not want to “wait to see what happens”, they went right to work with backup logistics). Then will go to Shanghai.
Well huh, hadn’t seen that in a release anywhere. I know for a fact the Brits have said they’re still going to Osaka.
Given your credentials, I guess I’ll have to take your word for it though ;-)!