The FINA bureau announced the hosts for
the 2015 and 2017 World Championships: Kazan, Russia and Guadalajara, Mexico.
These will officially be the 16th and 17th versions of the World Championships,
respectively. The 2013 World Championships will be hosted in Barcelona, Spain.
Kazan, host of the 2015 Championship, is
a city of 1.1 million inhabitants that lies along Russia’s Volga River. In 2009,
it was fittingly named the “Sports Capital of Russia,” and in 2013 will have a
test run at the Summer Universiade (also known as the World University Games).
Based on present-day populations, this makes Kazan the smallest city to ever
host a FINA World Championship.
A key factor in the decision, according to All Russian Swimming Federation
President Vladimir Salnikov, is the fact that everyone in the city likes sports.
Salnikov is a former World and Olympic champion swimmer. The Russian delegation
was aided by former sprint star Alexander Popov, who himself is a 6-time World
Champion.
The Aquatics venue for the 2015 Championship will likely be built around the
in-progress “Aquatics Palace” that is being built for the Universiade. That site
will be able to hold 4,200 people, which will make it a good starting point as
one of the auxiliary aquatics venues.
Russia will have lots of practice in hosting major sporting events over the
next decade. This continues a winning streak for the country that will see the
2013 Universiade, 2014 Winter Olympics, 2018 World Cup of soccer, and now the
2015 FINA Aquatics World Championships.
