Report to the FINA TOWSC on Open Water Swimming in the Americas

November 29, 2004

Thanks to the efforts of many, the Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (UANA) formed a Technical Committee to oversee Open Water swimming in the Americas. As representatives of that group, we have prepared this informational document to serve notice to the FINA TOWSC of the recent developments in Open Water Swimming in our region.

Respectfully submitted by Sid Cassidy, Tomas Haces and Jaime Cardenas

• In June of 2004, UANA hosted the first Pan American Open Water Championships in Playa Blanca, Panama.
• 39 swimmers from 12 different countries participated
• 5k & 10K championship events were held for both open and junior divisions
• Future Championships are now scheduled to be held every other year
• 19 Federations in the Americas are currently conducting Federation sponsored National and International Championship events in Open Water Swimming
• The 1^st FINA World Championships in Open Water was held in Hawaii in 2000 and received significant television exposure
• The 2005 FINA World Championships will be held in Montreal and will feature racing in the Olympic rowing basin
• The 2006 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships will be held in the Cayman Islands
• Efforts are underway to encourage the other 21 UANA Federations to commit to hosting a federation-sponsored event – many of these countries have open water events that are not yet affiliated with their Federations
• FINA World Cup events have been regularly conducted in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States in support of FINA’s efforts to promote Open Water Swimming on the international level
• UANA appointed a UANA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee
• The UANA TOWSC Meetings in June in Panama were the first ever
• At the UANA Congress in Orlando, Florida the UANA TOWSC met for the second time and furthered plans to promote open water swimming throughout all of the Americas
• The First CCCAN (Central America and the Caribbean) Open Water Championships are scheduled in the Cayman Islands in 2005 – events in both open and junior divisions
• CONSANAT (South America) has been holding Open Water Championships since 1998 - Six federations regularly participate in events for junior division (odd years) and open division (even years)
• Many FINA Clinics for officials and coaches have been held. A Judges Certification program has been established and is underway.
• USA and Canada have been long time supporters of open water swimming with several international races being held annually for more than 50 years
• Two of the oldest and largest amateur races in the USA – the LaJolla Rough Water Swim (California) and The Miss America Pageant Swim (Atlantic City, New Jersey) have been annually held since the 1920’s and consistently attract thousands of federation registered swimmers
• USA Swimming has an age group developmental program that provides an Open Water Championship event in every zone – more than five thousand swimmers participated in federation sanctioned races in 2004