Elite Swimmers To Be In First Wave Back To Work Safely As Swimming World Feels Its Way Back To The Water

Elite swimmers will be among the first wave of athletes allowed to return to training in controlled environments across Europe. Britain and Germany have indicated that swimmers such as Adam Peaty, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, Florian Wellbrock and Sarah Koehler may be back in full training later this month, while Italian national team members will be back to regular work from Monday and Hungarians already have 69 swimmers training at the Duna Arena in Budapest and at Lake Balaton.
The keenness of national-team programs to reach for revival and get their best back in the water as soon as possible speaks to the calendar – the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will now take place from July 23, 2021 – and the difference in global experience brought on by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, both within and between nations.
Chinese swimmers have been taking part in national-team training for the past month, Australians, such as Olympic 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers, are making their way back , while in the United States the picture is mixed and complex, coach Mark Schubert turning Mission Viejo into Pe-Mission Viejo with a safety plan submitted and approved by local authorities pertinent to local circumstances and conditions. In some parts of the wold, swim training has never really stopped. Others are locked in at home with no access to water.
Revival is awaited like rain in dry season.
Advice about how best to make a safe return to pools includes that published on Swimming World, courtesy of the Pool Management Group and the British Swimming Coaches Association, while the American Swimming Coaches Association has been running webinars on ‘safe return’ and compiles guidance on its website.
The Australian Institute of Sport has just released a “Framework for Rebooting Sport”.
The message far and wide is “we must get back”, coupled with “safely” and “elite swimmers first”. Safety means different things in different circumstances and conditions, Schubert’s Nadadores swimming in 18 short-course lanes, with one swimmer per lane, outdoors. Many programs are indoors and venues much smaller and tighter.
Germany will decide on Wednesday whether to give the green light for elite centres to open up in controlled conditions, while in Britain high-performance centres such as Loughborough, home to Adam Peaty when he’s not in his new garden pool, and Bath, home to Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, will be level-one programs who get to go back to work first as British sport re-opens, it was agreed on Friday.
There will be no decision in Britain until at least May 7, when the Government and its advisers are due to announce a timetable towards easing Britain’s lockdown.
Sports leaders and UK Sport met UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden yesterday and heard the message that there will be “no return until it’s absolutely safe to do so”.
A spokesperson for Dowden’s department said:
“We held an initial, constructive meeting with medical representatives from a number of professional and elite sports bodies, government and PHE to step up planning on what may need to be done so that athletes could return to training, when it is deemed safe to do so.
“This would be ahead of any return to competitive top-level sport which would only happen when medical experts advise that this can be done safely. Discussions with the sports bodies will continue on this.”
Proposals from a working group led by the UK Sport chief executive, Sally Munday, will form a part of the strategy for rebooting sport. However, it is understood that all involved accepted that loosening the rules for sport would not happen in isolation from the rest of society. More meetings ahead, along with hope of revival.
Chlorine kills germs and viruses its pretty much bleach. Let them swim. If anything no changing in locker rooms. Throw on shorts and go home no hanging around, swim and leave
Allie Jon they would need to swim 2 metres apart not easy unless you have a huge pool and few swimmers and chlorine would only stop surfaces not people being infected very tricky to organise all this
The virus is only killed on the surface. If you are infected, the virus is on the inside. Those without symptoms can spread it. Also, 60 thousand people have died in the US, why make this worse?#
Jean King no, not easy and important to understand the difference in circumstances and conditions program to program, pool to pool… blanket bans upset people but blanket returns without understanding are potential killers … we all know this
Nathan Gersten you make a Point related to that made by Jean in these comments … and my answer there. There is a World of difference between allowing 8 elite athletes into a pool on highly controlled circumstances and ‚opening up‘ programs full of families and dozens upon dozens, not to mention 100s of kids… there‘s a way to go to get to that in many parts of the world and some will be able get out sooner, some later … the nature of the C-beast. As you Note, nothing should be done to make it worse where that can be avoided.
Allie Jon
Chlorine has not been proven to kill Covid-19.
We don’t know enough about Covid-19..
the composition of cleaning bleach and pool chlorine is different. Besides you have spray the bleach on the surface and let it sit there for a few minutes to kill bacteria or viruses. It takes chlorine at least 15 mins to kill germs in a pool with no movement.
Allie Jon exactly – 0.04% of deaths in the world have been 17 and under kids.
I know they could spread it to others, or the coaches or facility workers could spread/catch it – but at some point we all have to go back into the world….
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/
Ronna Frndz well good thing chlorine is in water 24 hrs a day lol
Come on Australia – we need to get our swimmers back in too!
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Seems a bit unfair to the other competitors in the uk training in clubs, there are swimmers ranked no1 in the country in clubs that will not get to train as they are not at a centre!
Chinese swimmers have been taking part in national-team training for the past month.
So the country that started it all. Hmmmm…
To me it’s all or nothing. In the US we’re not a country of preferential treatment. Those that are most vulnerable should shelter in place. Just my opinion..
Paul Poitevent some are already training. https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/under-watch-of-mark-schubert-and-strict-guidelines-mission-viejo-back-in-the-water/
Must be nice unfortunately in the states we aren’t so lucky
Hopefully USA Swimming elite swimmers are next to return to training. Yes chlorine does kill the virus. With my club we got about 3 elite swimmers and a 8 lane pool with starting blocks no social distancing problems here. Allowing just elite swimmers like pro series, USA National team and trial qualifiers to train will be low risk because its a small group.
https://www.usms.org/fitness-and-training/articles-and-videos/articles/coronavirus-and-swimming-what-you-need-to-know
Let’s get all swimmers back in the water. Yes they are elite and representing their countries but there are college swimmers who represent their schools and high school swimmers trying to get recruited for college who need to get back in the water too.
? USA Swimming comes soon
Marianela Vargas Laura Carballo Sayão
So much fear!! Shame on the media!! Open up pools.
How about our governing body state exactly what an “elite swimmer” is so that ALL coaches and teams follow the same protocol. If not then the coaches and teams should be fined.