The next World Swimming Championships, organized in Fukuoka, have been postponed once once more, from May 2022 to July 2023, due to “the pandemic situation and the measures currently in force in Japan”, announces the International Swimming Federation ( Fina) in a statement on Tuesday. The Japanese organizers made the request a week ago to Fina because the health situation in Japan remains very complicated. And the possibility that it would improve by May remained too slim.
Initially, these Worlds were scheduled for the summer of 2021, but they had been postponed for the first time following the Tokyo Olympics were postponed by one year from 2020 to 2021. Consequently, the following World Championships, scheduled for Doha, will take place in January 2024, six months before the 2024 Olympics.
Swimming will therefore experience two World Championships disputed six months apart, July 2023 then January 2024. A sporting aberration.
On the other hand, the European Long Course Championships in Rome, scheduled for August 11 to 21 in the Italian capital, are not in question.