2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
- Budapest, Hungary
- Duna Arena
- LCM (50-meter format)
- Meet Central
- Preview Index
- Event Competiton Schedule
On June 5, 2022, Australia’s team for the 2022 FINA World Championships arrived in Šamorín, Slovakia for a pre-Worlds training camp. Šamorín is around 1 hour and 55 minutes of driving away from Budapest, the city in which Worlds is taking place. They are practicing at the X-Bionic Aquatic Sphere training center, which is also where the Dolphins went to train in 2019 to prepare for the Junior World Championships that were held in Budapest as well.
Australia is not the only national team to hold a training camp in Eastern Europe prior to Worlds, as the United States swim team also left to train in Rijeka, Croatia this week. Rijeka and Šamorín are around six hours apart driving distance, and 50 minutes apart flying distance.
The FINA World Championships this year are set to begin on June 18. Australia will be sending 39 swimmers and 21 coaches to the competition. Athletes qualified via their performances at the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships that happened in May of this year.
See the full Australian roster for Worlds here.
Check out some of their training shots via the Instagram accounts of multiple Worlds team members, as well the official Australian swim team account.
Above: Lani Pallister
Above: Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Abbey Harkin, Ella Ramsay (via Shayna Jack)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CedR8n1tz8g/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Above: Grayson Bell, Kyle Chalmers, Zac Incerti, Matt Temple (via Zac Incerti)
Above: Zac Stubblety-Cook (via Australia Dolphins)
Above: Meg Harris and Madi Wilson (via Australia Dolphins)
Above: Se-Bom Lee (via Australia Dolphins)
the New Zealand team is in Slovakia as well.
Think it’s about 6 coaches and the rest are support staff.
Also the Croatian camp looks more luxurious than the Slovakian one. The difference in funding is a thing.
I’ve been to both facilities (I live in Vienna, which is only 40min away from Šamorín and Rijeka is like a rite of passage for every Central European swimmer) and while Šamorín is a GREAT place to train (50m heated outdoor pool, 25m indoor, tons of space for dryland and a great weight room, huge complex and nothing around to distract you) the food is rubbish and the service is abysmal. They have a bowling alley though… and a few inspirational quotes on the walls 😀 The whole thing is funded (i.e. used as a money-laundering front) by some horse-crazy Saudi.
Shockingly… Šamorín is more expensive. Maybe they’ve cut a deal or, because it’s such a high-profile sporting facility for… Read more »
Thanks for the info. Interesting.
There’s nothing like first-hand reportage.
Rijeka is also a summer vacation paradise so more distraction there. Šamorín – not so much
We’ll just before world champs would you actually want “distractions” though or are they there to prepare for world champs ?
it would be tempting for sure. But they are pros.
I would not be that negative with the food in Samorin, SLovakia. As far as I know they do pretty well. At minimum, they fit the service level of Hilton, Marriott or similar as I have personaly experienced in Phoenix, Arizona.
https://www.x-bionicsphere.com/en/restaurants/
But for sure, it is kind of “remote” location. Aside of all possible distractions. Just pools, hotel room … and the horse racetrack. (and some more things that you could see/do there)
https://www.x-bionicsphere.com/en/entertainment-and-relaxation/activities-in-the-area/
No… the food was bad. Every time. But my dad was a chef, so maybe I’m just a snob.
I will say though that my room never looked anything like the one showed here. I don’t know what sort of dorm wing they’ve stuck them in but usually, they have very nice rooms.
LOL, yeah, looks like the Aussies are really suffering.