Swimming

Greetings

Trust you had a pleasant summer and had the opportunity to swim.

2011 World Deaf Swimming Championships
Recently, I traveled to Coimbra, Portugal and I was well received and hosted. I had the opportunity to meet with three members of the local organizing committee. I am pleased with their hard work and appreciate their knowledge and experience with swimming.

Training and competition will be held at Olympic Pool Complex of Coimbra. The complex is very clean and modern. Both competition (50m) and training (25m) pools are indoors. The complex is located in the new part of the city and there is a large shopping mall conveniently located across the street.

Coimbra is approximately 200 kilometers north of Lisboa. The weather was very nice and sunny during my visit. The city of Coimbra sits along a river with hotels and restaurants that serve decent and variety of meals. The old part of the city is fascinating with its narrow alleys and shops.

I have posted a video clip describing my site visit. The schedule and regulations will be announced this winter. Please check their website for more information and forms.

Reminder – preliminary entry forms are due by 29 October 2010.

Future Events
ICSD is accepting bids for the 4th World Deaf Swimming Championships in 2015. The deadline to submit an application is 31 July 2013.

Many swimmers have expressed a strong interest in an international short course (25m) swimming competition. Please consider hosting this event in 2016.

FINA has a new and growing discipline, Open Water. This event has been well received globally and is now on the Olympic program. For those interested in Open Water competition, please let me know so I can tally and add this event to our Deaflympic program if there are enough deaf participants.

Yours in swimming,

Reed GERSHWIND
ICSD Technical Director - Swimming