Swimming FINA Short Course World Championships 2018

[heywoodu 15,145]

Third world title for Kromowidjojo in Hanghzou, 4th in the 50 free  (plus a boatload of medals in relays) 

[heywoodu 15,145]

I like how teenager Breno Correia is doing the anchor leg after three almost-centenarians

 

[thiago_simoes 1,423]

I love it how the beginning of South Africa's anthem sounds like tribal music.

[MHSN 3,621]

On 13/12/2018 at 09:39, thiago_simoes said:

An Iranian swimmer won his heat and I got curious because we basically never hear about swimmers from Iran... Then I checked the results of the Swimming events at the Asian Games and Iran has never won a medal there. Even Cambodia has won medals at the Asian Games, so what the hell happens with Iran?

 

that's simple . swimming is a big sport (I mean relatively big comparing to other individual sports) in most countries while in Iran nobody cares much about it. the general opinion is we are weak in this and we will never win medal in this sport. I mean sport ministry always speaks about how important are these 3 sports (athetlics, Swimming and Gymnastics) and how we should care more about them but in reality those 3 sports always had low budget, and almost zero media attention here.

 

we had some better results from 2005 to 2010 (in 2008 for the first time Iran actually qualified a swimmer for the Olympics and didn't receive a Wild Card) and also almost won a medal at 2010 Asian Games. (4th place finish which is our best ever result in  swimming) there were some hopes for improvement but then a disaster happened to our swimming federation which annulled all those improvements and we went back to the stone age. building something good takes years but destroying it is much easier. our current swimming federation focuses more on Water Polo as they believe in short term we only have medal chance in this and 2018 Asian Games proved they are not wrong. they also have long term plans for swimming though but I'm not optimistic.

 

by disaster I mean the "president" we had for a short period in 2010. (less than 2 years) that guy was crazy stupid like Trump but without his money ! he was that bad even when the government later fired that guy FINA didn't say a word (even though that was very clear government intervention) but even FINA was OK that guy leaving. fortunately for the humankind he is in jail now for another crime he committed later.

[Federer91 2,797]

Short course is such a B event, it's not even funny anymore. Dressel probably won 10 medals only in relays. He may have a hard time in naming in what he competed at this event. 

[heywoodu 15,145]

Turns out Kira Toussaint didn't miss the WCH due to sickness, but because of a positive doping test.

[thiago_simoes 1,423]

Em 17/12/2018 at 09:03, MHSN disse:

that's simple . swimming is a big sport (I mean relatively big comparing to other individual sports) in most countries while in Iran nobody cares much about it. the general opinion is we are weak in this and we will never win medal in this sport. I mean sport ministry always speaks about how important are these 3 sports (athetlics, Swimming and Gymnastics) and how we should care more about them but in reality those 3 sports always had low budget, and almost zero media attention here.

What a shame. Looking at the build of most weightlifters from Iran, I wonder how many great talents in the field part of athletics are denied a chance because of lack of investment. How many hammer/discus/javelin throwers and shot putters could have arisen from the country? Even a little investment does wonders for a sport. Look at what happens in artistic gymnastics: Iran only really cares about one event (men's pommel horse) and in a very short time gymnasts from the country earned three bronze medals at the Asian Championships, one bronze medal at the Youth Olympics (and this is HUGE), and a fourth place at the Asian Games.