Ligue Européenne de Natation (LEN) President Paolo Barelli reassured all European National Federations today that the 2021 European Aquatic Championships will indeed proceed as planned.
Postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the multi-discipline LEN European Championships are moving ahead for May 10th-23rd at Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary. This is almost exactly one year after the original dates of May 11th-24th, 2020. The event includes championships in swimming, diving, open water swimming, and synchronized swimming.
“The European Aquatics Championships in Budapest will be the first international European top event in swimming, diving, artistic swimming and open water swimming since 2019 and it offers a great testing opportunity for all our athletes before the Olympic Games.”
President of the Hungarian Swimming Association, Sandor Wlader, stated, “As usual, we enjoy the full support of the Government. The meeting of our strategic decision-making group has just finished. We have Sport Minister Tunde Szabo, State Secretary Balazs Furjes and Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony on board and they all agreed that the Europeans should go ahead but we have to take the utmost caution as the pandemic is far from over.”
One thing might be missed, however: the magical atmosphere in the Duna Arena, created by the local fans.
The first week of the championships from 10-16 May is to see the diving and artistic swimming competitions in the Duna Arena and the open water swimming events in the nearby Lupa Lake, while swimming action is scheduled for 17-23 May in the arena.
Great news – but seems like odd timing 2 months before the Olympics
That’s pretty standard timing for this meet. For a lot of smaller nations without big formalized trials (and for other nations looking for a ‘last chance meet,’) they often serve as a final Olympic qualifier event.
Thanks, Braden — I stand corrected
It’s always been that way in an Olympic year. And then two years after that it’s usually in August.
I remember in 2016, when Laszlo Cseh swam a 1:52.91 in the 200 fly at this meet, said he wasn’t close to fully rested, then went 1:56.2 in the Olympic final in 2 months.
That Is….. AWSOME!!!!