Windsor Short Course World Championships On Track

Photo Courtesy: Cathleen Pruden

Peter Knowles, the executive director of the 2016 FINA Short Course World Championships slated to take place in Windsor, told the Windsor Star that the organization of the meet is on track and on budget.

“Windsor is in a good place,” said Knowles. “I was involved in 2010 in Dubai and 2012 in Istanbul … with four or five months to go, the international swimming federation was very concerned that they were not in the right place. (In Windsor), we’re right where we ought to be.”

The budget is currently set at $11.265 million for the meet scheduled to take place Dec. 7-11, just months after the 2016 Rio Olympics this summer.

“Most of our expenditure is in Canadian,” Knowles said. “The one big hit is we have to make a contribution to the cost of teams getting here. All the flight costs are in US dollars. There’s a contingency built into the budget and we’re hoping that will cope with it.”

Knowles explained during a media event on Monday that the meet will take “500 volunteers and another 200 contractors and suppliers” to pull off, but that the main priority right now is securing the 2,000 rooms that swimmers and their entourages will require during the meet.

“Accommodation and food and beverage are big challenges,” Knowles said. “We have to provide full board to these athletes. Food to a performance athlete is important. A lot of hotels we’re using don’t have full board meal capability.”

Windsor is also preparing for FINA’s annual aquatics conference that takes place in conjunction with the meet.

“I don’t think people fully understand the extent of the events that’ll be going on in Windsor,” Knowles said. “This is expected to be the best-attended conference FINA has ever had because it’s in North America. The swim championships will be going on for six days, but there’s actually 10 or 11 days of activities.”

Full Windsor Star article.

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