2009 World Aquatics Championships

Last updated
13th FINA World Championships
Roma09.PNG
Host city Rome, Italy
Date(s)18 July-2 August 2009
Venue(s) Foro Italico
Nations participating185
Athletes participating2556
Officially opened by Giorgio Napolitano

The 2009 World Aquatics Championships (Italian : Campionati mondiali di nuoto 2009) or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo.

Contents

Rome won the right to stage the event on 16 July 2005 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Rome defeated rival bids from Athens (Greece), Moscow (Russia) and Yokohama (Japan).

A record 2556 athletes from 185 countries participated. [1]

FINA's decision to allow the use of polyurethane suits caused these Championships to be dubbed the "Plastic Games". [2] [3]

Venues

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Italy)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States  (USA)1111729
2Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China  (CHN)1171129
3Flag of Russia.svg  Russia  (RUS)88420
4Flag of Germany.svg  Germany  (GER)74112
5Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia  (AUS)451019
6Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain  (GBR)4329
7Flag of Italy.svg  Italy  (ITA)*41510
8Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia  (SRB)3104
9Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary  (HUN)2136
10Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil  (BRA)2114
11Flag of Spain.svg  Spain  (ESP)17311
12Flag of Japan.svg  Japan  (JPN)1214
13Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia  (TUN)1203
14Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark  (DEN)1102
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden  (SWE)1102
Flag of Zimbabwe.svg  Zimbabwe  (ZIM)1102
17Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa  (RSA)1034
18Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands  (NED)1012
19Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico  (MEX)1001
20Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada  (CAN)0459
21Flag of France.svg  France  (FRA)0336
22Flag of Greece.svg  Greece  (GRE)0101
Flag of Poland.svg  Poland  (POL)0101
24Flag of Austria.svg  Austria  (AUT)0011
Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia  (CRO)0011
Flag of Cuba.svg  Cuba  (CUB)0011
Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania  (LTU)0011
Flag of Malaysia 23px.svg  Malaysia  (MAS)0011
Flag of Norway.svg  Norway  (NOR)0011
Flag of Romania.svg  Romania  (ROU)0011
Totals (30 entries)656567197

Schedule

●Opening ceremonyEvents●Final events●Closing ceremony
July/August1718192021222324252627282930310102T
Ceremonies●●
Swimming pictogram.svg Swimming 4 4 5 4 5 5 6 7 40
Swimming pictogram.svg Open water swimming 2 2 2 6
Diving pictogram.svg Diving 1 2 2 ● 2 ● 1 1 1 10
Water polo pictogram.svg Water polo ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 1 1 2
Synchronized swimming pictogram.svg Synchronised swimming ● 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
Finals1231532244454567765

FINA Congress 2009

As is customary with the World Championships, FINA held its biennial General Congress in Rome during the event, on July 24, 2009, beginning at 9:00 a.m. [4] At this meeting, the 22-member FINA Bureau (the executive board of the IF) was for its 2009–2013 term. Per FINA rules, the Bureau then elected the Executive officers from its members (i.e. President, Treasurer and Secretary). [5]

In addition to the General Congress, Technical Congresses (TCs), or discipline-specific meetings, will be in each present discipline, as well as an Extraordinary Congress on Masters Rules. Dates for these meetings are: [4]

Note: The Technical Congresses were scheduled to be held prior to both the start of competition within the given disciple and before the General Congress. Also note: only swimming does not have competition on the date of the General Congress.

Swimsuit controversy

In March 2009, [6] based on urgings from its membership, FINA had begun an attempt to implement limits to high-tech swimsuit construction that were seen by members of the swimming community as adding buoyancy, stability, speed and endurance. These efforts began after suit introductions in early 2008, and led to a May 2009 declaration by FINA on limitations to suits and a list of approved suits for competition. [7] Following this, suit manufactures were given time to adjust their various products which had not been initially approved. In June 2009, FINA ruled on these, and subsequently was forced into backing off the suit restrictions it had named in March [8] presumably on fear of suit (although FINA still was sued by some manufacturers, such as TYR). The net effect was that leading into the 2009 World Championships, most restrictions on suit make-up were not in force. This situation also led to rule changes being passed by both FINA's Technical Swimming Committee (on July 23) and the General Congress (July 24) [9] placing restrictions on suits. However, these rule changes were not to go into effect until 2010, and there had been some attempts to delay this implementation (the impression from the General Congress was that the rules would be in effect on January 1, 2010; however, the FINA Executive Director was quoted a few days later as say the date within 2010 was unclear and may mean April or May). [10] Subsequently, on July 31, 2009, the FINA Bureau (the Board of the organization), solidified the implementation date as January 1, 2010. [11] [12]

As a result, due to the believed benefit from the suits, some called these Worlds the "Plastic Games". [2] [3] These materials, which include polyurethane, have been claimed by some quarters to be performance enhancing. This claim can be seen to be supported by the 43 World Records set in this meet [13] and by the fact that meet records were lowered in 38 of 40 events, with the 2 events not with new meet records occurring on the last day (in the previous 2 Worlds, "Championships Records" were bettered in 24 (2007) and 19 (2003) events). In particular, the Arena X-Glide swimsuit, worn by German Paul Biedermann, has been largely pointed to as providing Biedermann a significant advantage and allowing him to break Ian Thorpe's 400m world record as well as in defeating Michael Phelps in the 200m freestyle. Michael Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, pointed out, "It took me five years to get Michael from 1:46 to 1:42 and this guy has done it in 11 months. That's an amazing training performance. I'd like to know how to do that." [14] In the previous year, Biederman was only ranked 9th in the world in the 200 m freestyle and 21st in the world in the 400 m freestyle. [15]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ PR52 - 13th FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - Record of participation in Rome (ITA) from the FINA website (www.fina.org); retrieved 2009-07-13. Archived 2009-09-08.
  2. 1 2 Amy Shipley (August 3, 2009). "More Questions Than Answers at Swimming World Championships". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  3. 1 2 KAREN CROUSE (August 3, 2009). "Redefining Fast at the 'Plastic Games'". The New York Times. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
  4. 1 2 FINA Calendar: July 2009 Archived August 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine j, from the FINA website (www.fina.org) retrieved 2009-07-06.
  5. ↑ FINA Bureau page from the FINA website (www.fina.org); retrieved 2009-07-06.
  6. ↑ PR21 - FINA Bureau Meeting Archived April 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine published by FINA on 2009-03-14; retrieved 2009-08-12. Archived 2009-09-08.
  7. ↑ PR37 - FINA Commission for Swimwear Approval published by FINA on 2009-05-18; retrieved 2009-08-12.
  8. ↑ PR46 - FINA Executive Meeting / Swimsuits Archived October 9, 2015, at the Wayback Machine published by FINA on 2009-06-22; retrieved 2009-08-12.
  9. ↑ FINA General Congress Archived April 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine report issued by FINA, on 2009-07-24; retrieved 2009-08-12. Archived 2009-09-08.
  10. ↑ Shipley, Amy (2009-07-29). "FINA Says Suit Ban Could Be Delayed". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  11. ↑ PR59 - FINA BUREAU MEETING Archived September 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine (FINA Press Release 2009-59), published by FINA on 2009-07-31, retrieved 2009-08-12.
  12. ↑ Roberts, Jacob (2017). "Winning Skin". Distillations. 2 (4): 8–15. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  13. ↑ "Swimming's fabric unravels with suit farce". 2009-07-29. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  14. ↑ Nicole Jeffery (July 30, 2009). "Michael Phelps boycott threat over suit war". The Australian. Archived from the original on August 1, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2009.
  15. ↑ Amy Shipley (29 July 2009). "At Worlds, 'It's Not About the Swimmer'". The Washington Post . Retrieved 29 July 2009.
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