European Aquatics Swim Safe Awards 15 Federations, Including Russia, At EA Swim Safe Conference

Before the European Aquatics Championships started earlier this month, the organization held their “Swim Safe” Conference, and they awarded 15 member federations on the opening night of the conference.

The EA Swim Safe Conference started on August 7th, and opened with the European Aquatics President, Antonio Silva, stating “This is a very important milestone for European Aquatics and for our Swim Safe programme.”

“Each year in Europe we have more than 20,000 drownings — many involving children between three and 14 years old.” He continued, “Here in Paris we are awarding certificates to national federations who have entered the Swim Safe Programme.”

Fifteen of the reported 19 federations that have been fully certified were in attendance at the gala dinner on the opening day of the conference and received their certificates: Georgia, Norway, Malta, Lithuania, England, Ukraine, France, Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Scotland, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, and Russia.

European Aquatics has been one of the most firm organizations when imposing sanctions on Russia and Belarus, and, despite the relaxing restrictions worldwide, they still required athletes to race under neutral designations rather than their national flags.

The rest of the conference featured presentations from Olympic champion Sharon van Rouwendaal, along with federation leaders, and Slovenian actor and reserve military officer Lotos Vincenc Sparovec.

Sparovec was a club swimmer in his youth and fell off a merchant ship in the Atlantic Ocean and had to swim for hours before he was rescued.