Swimming Will Not Be Integrated Into Multi-Sport Programme At 2022 European Championships
The programme for the 2022 European Championships has been announced with confirmation that swimming will not be incorporated into the multi-sport event to be held in Munich, Germany in August of that year.
Instead, the aquatics will be held as an independent event at the Foro Italico, Rome, from 11-21 August – the exact same dates as the European Championships which mark the 50th anniversary of the Olympics in Munich where Mark Spitz won seven gold medals.
It will be the second edition of the European Championships as a multi-sport event after it was first held in Glasgow, Scotland, and Berlin, Germany, in 2018.
Aquatics was on the programme at Tollcross, Scotland, on that occasion and it was hoped they could still be integrated despite governing body LEN having announced in December 2019 the 2022 Europeans would be held in the Italian capital with the pool in the Bavarian capital apparently not meeting LEN facility requirements.
Discussions were held with LEN but an agreement could not be reached and with the added complication of coronavirus, time ran out to integrate aquatics.
While the likes of Adam Peaty and Sarah Sjostrom – and perhaps even Federica Pellegrini – will compete in the pool in Rome, roughly 4,400 athletes from 50 countries will take part in nine sports in Munich.
On Thursday beach volleyball, canoe sprint, sport climbing and table tennis were added to athletics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon to complete the programme.
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Ostia will hold the open water events with high diving set to make its continental showpiece debut with iconic Rome landmarks such as the Vatican, the Colisseum or the Castel Sant’Angelo being considered.
It will be the first time in 39 years that Rome plays host to the continental showpiece when the East German swept the board in 1983, winning every single swimming title.
Each year it stages the Sette Colli, a three-day competition in June which always attracts a quality field, and in 2009 hosted the World Championships when an astonishing 43 world records were set at the height of the shiny-suit saga.
Pellegrini became the first woman to swim the 400m freestyle inside four minutes when she stopped the clock in 3:59.15 ahead of Jo Jackson and Rebecca Adlington, both of Great Britain.
Pellegrini also broke the 200m world record in 1:52.98, a mark that stands today, and she was afforded treatment more akin to a rock star, her name chanted every time she appeared.