{"id":412716,"date":"2020-02-01T04:42:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T11:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=412716"},"modified":"2020-02-01T05:12:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T12:12:55","slug":"swimming-world-the-soak-week01272020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimming-world-the-soak-week01272020\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soak: Coronavirus Crisis Forces FINA To Cancel Chinese Leg Of Diving World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Soak – Swim News In Brief<\/strong><\/p>\n

Swimming World<\/i> soaks up snippets from the realm of water sports around the world in a one-stop digest updated each day of every passing week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have a snippet of news for us, let us know: editorial@swimmingworld.com<\/em><\/p>\n

The Week of January 27-February 2, 2020<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Saturday February 1<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tokyo 2020 Test Events & Other Competitions Knocked By Coronavirus Crisis<\/h3>\n

FINA<\/strong> has cancelled the Chinese leg of the Diving World Series<\/strong>, scheduled for March 7-9 in Beijing, and the World Series of synchronised swimming, scheduled for Suzhou<\/strong> from April 23-25 is also in question in response to the spread of the Coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Swimming World questions to FINA about any precautionary measures it may have taken, including any recommendations for medical checks for swimmers, coaches and others who attended two rounds of the FINA Champions Swim Series<\/strong> in China as the virus started to spread, remain unanswered.<\/p>\n

China has been forced to cancel or put off a host of sporting events due to the coronavirus epidemic, from suspending all football in the country to postponing the first badminton tournament of the 2020 world tour season.<\/p>\n

The world’s most populous country has increasingly become a powerhouse in hosting international sport in recent years but with so many events due to take place there and in other parts of Asia, the sporting calendar for the yearn many sports has been thrown into chaos.<\/p>\n

A wrap-up of others sports and events affected so far, courtesy of AFP and other news sources:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Football:<\/strong> China on Thursday suspended all domestic football and postponed indefinitely the top-flight Chinese Super League season kick-off due on February 22 in order to “carry out prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic,” said the Chinese Football Association.<\/li>\n
  • Athletics:<\/strong> The World Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed for a year. “It is with regret that we have agreed with the organisers … to postpone the event to March 2021,” the sport’s governing body said in a statement Wednesday.<\/li>\n
  • Football:<\/strong> The Asian Football Confederation announced Wednesday that home Champions League group stage games featuring four Chinese clubs would be switched to away fixtures for the first three match days in February and March. A decision on venues for each club’s three home group matches will be made at a later date.<\/li>\n
  • Women’s football:<\/strong> A women’s Olympics qualifying event between China, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia scheduled from February 3-9 in Wuhan, the disease epicentre, was moved initially to Nanjing then to Sydney. The China women’s football team were quarantined in a Brisbane hotel on Wednesday after arriving in Australia for the tournament.<\/li>\n
  • Boxing:<\/strong> A qualification event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics initially scheduled from February 3-14 in Wuhan was rescheduled for Amman in Jordan from March 3-11.<\/li>\n
  • Women’s basketball:<\/strong> Another Olympic qualifying tournament, a four-team battle for three Tokyo places between China, Great Britain, Spain and South Korea was moved on Monday from Foshan, in southern China, to Belgrade where it will run alongside another four-team group on February 6-9.<\/li>\n
  • Cycling:<\/strong> The Tour of Hainan, due to be promoted to the second-tier ProSeries this year, was scheduled from February 23 to March 1 on the southern island of Hainan. It has been cancelled “due to the health situation in the country”, the International Cycling Union said on Monday but could be rescheduled later in 2020.<\/li>\n
  • Skiing: Men’s World Cup races set for February 15 and 16 in the Chinese resort of Yanqing, the first test events for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, were cancelled and shifted Thursday to Saalbach-Hinterglemm in Austria on February 13 and 14.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Chad Le Clos Eases Into 2020 Race Season<\/h3>\n

    Chad le Clos<\/strong>, who this week spoke about his anger over events in the 200m freestyle at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (see entry below:\u00a0‘I was too aggressive in my approach & I paid for it in the end’ – Chad le Clos<\/em>), kicked off his 2020 race program with wins in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly on the first morning of finals at the second leg of the South African Grand Prix at the Stellenbosch University Swimming Pool.\u00a0The morning after clocking 2mins over 200m butterfly before withdrawing from that final, he swam 50.76 in the 100m free, after 50.00 in heats, and 23.98 in the 50 ‘fly.<\/p>\n

    Erin Gallagher took the 100m butterfly and the 50m backstroke, in respective times of 59.40 and 30.12.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Results in full<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Michael Klim: today, swimming is ‘a\u00a0mindfulness practice … health, wellness, wellbeing’<\/h3>\n
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      Michael Klim – Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia<\/p><\/div>\n

      Aussie swim star Michael Klim<\/strong>, who will enter the International Swimming Hall of Fame this April<\/a>, has admitted that he’s a bit of a fish out of water in open water.<\/p>\n

      Klim\u2019s company Milk and Co is sponsored the World Swim Series event on Noosa\u2019s Main Beach this week. He told reporters:<\/p>\n

      \u201cI\u2019ve had a bunch of 14 and 15-year-olds swim past me. I don\u2019t try and pretend that I am going to be competitive. Aussies are swimming mad. Swimming is our favourite pastime.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Just what that means was one of the topics of “Swimming Culture” research undertaken by Shane Gould<\/strong> on her way to becoming a Doctor of Philosophy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      For Klim, when it came to comparing the pool to open water, it was chalk and cheese:<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere are a lot more tactics involved. The course is different and people are drafting, so it has become similar to cycling.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      These days, the meaning of swimming for Klim, who retired from racing six years ago, is:<\/p>\n

      “A mindfulness practice. It\u2019s part of my health and wellness and wellbeing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Friday January 31<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

      \u00a0‘I made French swim history – but I want people to remember me as a good person, simple and always myself.” – J\u00e9r\u00e9my Stravius\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      J\u00e9r\u00e9my Stravius<\/strong>, 31, says he feels like a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders in the wake of announcing his unexpected retirement from racing this week (see earlier entry in this week’s Soak).<\/p>\n

      Asked in an interview with Jean-Baptiste Renet at L’Equipe<\/em><\/a> today, to sum up his emotions, Stravius said:<\/p>\n

      “Relieved. Sure of myself, certain of my decision and like a huge weight has been lifted. I was not in a hole but the situation weighed on me: I felt like I was in a bubble that imprisoned me and prevented me from being myself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      The interview concludes with Renet asking the 2011 World 100m backstroke champion and Olympic 4x100m free champion if he feels “armed” for life after swimming? Says Stravius:<\/p>\n

      “I’m not trained in anything (else) and I’m sure I won’t be a coach but I think I have the weapons to build a solid project. I feel able to do interesting things as an entrepreneur.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      In swimming? “I always have one foot on the edge of the pool. At first I wanted to erase my past, I really did not want to hear [about swimming]. But I think that young people entering the sport still need help – and I’d love to help.”<\/p>\n

      The love for what he excelled in had abandoned him during the past year, Stravius tells Renet, spending time with his team-mates in the pool at Olympic Nice<\/strong> the thing that still “made me smile, not passion and pleasure of swimming”. He had “a weariness of the atmosphere, the mood of my sport. I did not feel particularly supported by the federation (French swimming federation, FFN).”<\/p>\n

      Pressed by Renet, Stravius explains: “Today, if you are world champion, it’s ‘we will support you 1000%’. ‘If you have to prove yourself, we’ll wait until you do before you get any support’.” He learned to rely on his own resources, said the swimmer, and had been “very disappointed by some individuals and clubs”, that driving him to move to Nice from Amiens after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games”, a move that “lost me a lot financially”.<\/p>\n

      \"Gian

      Jeremy Stravius – Photo Courtesy: Gian Mattia Dalberto\/Lapresse<\/p><\/div>\n

      Stravius said he had enjoyed his time at Olympic Nice with coach Fabrice Pellerin<\/strong> and described his experience and relationship with the coach as “very good”, Pellerin “a calm personality who speaks truth thoughtfully”.<\/p>\n

      The proudest moment of his career was the historic 2011 two-golds World-title triumph he shared with teammate Camille Lacourt but his most emotional moment was taking silver n the same event two years later because of the closeness he felt and support he received from the France team. “I was not alone and away from everyone on the team, like it was in Shanghai (2011)”.<\/p>\n

      Asked how he would like to be remembered, Stravius said: As an approachable person, strong, simple, someone who listens to people.” He had devoted his time to the French team, to the youth team and to parents and in helping France get to a better place in the pool. And none of what he did was at all costs:<\/p>\n

      “You can win and be an asshole! I want people to remember that I have made history in French swimming but that sounds a little boastful … I also want people to remember me as a good person, simple and always myself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Future Dolphins On Show in Aussie Event Camps<\/h3>\n
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      Queensland teenager Thomas Neill is amongst a host of youngsters joining the Australian Dolphins National Event Camps. Photo: Swimming Australia.<\/p><\/div>\n

      Australia\u2019s National Event Camps, starting in Brisbane this week will see a host of new faces joining the Dolphins elite squad members.<\/p>\n

      Brisbane teenage, Thomas Neill<\/strong>, who has been catching the eyes of senior coaches already this summer, has joined the likes of Rio Olympian Jack McLoughlin in Vince Raleigh\u2019s Distance Group at Chandler.<\/p>\n

      Neil has been one of the stars of the Australian Age Championships who won silver in the 1500m at last year\u2019s Junior World Championships.<\/p>\n

      The Damien Jones-trained sub-15min boy for 1500 will be just one of several up-and-comers including Bronte Job, Elizabeth Dekkers, Gabby Peiniger, Josh Edwards-Smith, Meg Harris, Mollie O\u2019Callaghan<\/strong> and Natasha Ramsden<\/strong> amongst others who have been targeted by National Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The Camps will continue in earnest through February on the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Adelaide and Canberra.<\/p>\n

      From the Olympic Realm:<\/h2>\n

      Big EPO Bust – Bank Account Trail To ‘Large Number’ of Cheats, Say Spanish Police<\/h3>\n

      A doping ring that sold EPO<\/strong>, the blood-booster, to athletes both locally and abroad has been smashed by Spanish police. Spain\u2019s Civil Guard said the 850 syringes of EPO<\/strong> they confiscated from the raid is the largest haul of the substance in Europe. Police are investigating six people in Barcelona and C\u00e1diz for suspected crimes against public health, money laundering, belonging to a criminal organization, theft and social security fraud.<\/p>\n

      Police are now analyzing the information from bank accounts located in Austria, Slovakia and Cyprus associated with the ring that they believe will lead them to \u201ca large number of both Spanish and international athletes from different disciplines and all levels of competition who used these substances to improve their physical capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

      According to police investigations, the ring is composed of citizens of Serbia and Spain who they say spent 10 years illegally trafficking EPO to athletes via various websites in different languages to athletes. One of the suspects worked for the clinic in the southern city of C\u00e1diz, where the ring is alleged to have illegally obtained the EPO by falsifying legal orders for patients and then stealing them from the clinic.<\/p>\n

      Post-Nassar, USA Gymnastics Has A Phoenix Plan – Not Everyone’s Happy<\/h3>\n

      USA Gymnastics<\/strong> has filed a plan to emerge from bankruptcy and provide $215 million in settlement funds for victims of the disgraced sports doctor. The national governing body says that it would also give victims the option of pursuing lawsuits and collecting any judgments from its insurance policies.<\/p>\n

      Hundreds of young athletes came forward with accusations that Larry Nassar<\/strong><\/a>, a doctor who worked in various capacities for USAG, Michigan State and the U.S. Olympic team, molested them under the guise of providing medical treatment. Nassar is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to charges of sexual assault and possession of child pornography.<\/p>\n

      Aly Raisman confronts Nassar in court and calls out her federation ‘guardians’:<\/strong><\/p>\n