MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. The world’s governing body of swimming sports, World Aquatics, has decided to relocate the 2025 World Aquatics Championships from the Russian city of Kazan to Singapore, the organization's press office said in a statement on Thursday.
"World Aquatics today announced the award of the World Aquatics Championships 2025 to Singapore," the statement reads. "The World Aquatics Championships - the premier international aquatics event - brings together the six aquatic sports of swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving."
"With dates to be defined, the 2025 event will be staged in close cooperation with the Singapore Swimming Association and Sport Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth."
World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam was quoted by the statement as saying: "Singapore has everything we hope to share with our athletes: world-class facilities, proven experience of hosting events of the highest quality and a comprehensive approach to aquatic sports that runs from elite level to the community."
Vladimir Salnikov, the president of the Russian Swimming Federation (RSF), told TASS commenting on the statement that World Aquatics was considering the option of postponing the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, from 2025 to 2029.
"The issue of the tournament’s postponement has already been discussed," he said. "Now, there is a proposal to move the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan to the year 2029."
Tatarstan’s Sports Minister Vladimir Leonov told TASS that the republic’s Ministry of Sports is in permanent contact with World Aquatics about rescheduling the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan from 2025 to 2029.
"We maintain a dialogue with the international federation," Leonov said. "The World Aquatics Championships in Kazan has not been cancelled, it was rescheduled to 2029."
Last March, World Aquatics (FINA until December 2022) ruled to bar Russia and Belarus from FINA’s upcoming international swimming competitions.
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
However, at its session on January 25, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status.