FINA announced on April 6 the cancellation of every single world series meet that was left on the schedule for the rest of the season. Three stops in Greece, China and the U.S. had already been cancelled previously, while three other stops in Egypt, Hungary and Russia had been postponed to “a further date not yet determined.”

This decision was anticipated and is absolutely unsurprising given the current situation across the world. Only the Super Final was still standing on the calendar at this time, while the Madrid stop had been put “on hold” after the Spanish Federation suspended its entire sporting calendar indefinitely.

The French Open, first and now only meet of the series, barely happened normally from March 6 – 8 before the COVID-19 pandemic exponentially grew all across Europe, and only about a week before France implemented a nationwide lockdown.

Below are the events that are now cancelled:

• March 27 – 29: #2 in Hurghada, Egypt
• April 3 – 5: #3 Hellas Beetles Cup in Alexandroupoli, Greece (previously cancelled by the Greek Federation)
• April 10 – 12: #4 in Budapest, Hungary
• April 17 – 19: #5 in Kazan, Russia
• April 23 – 25: #6 China Open in Suzhou, China (previously cancelled)
• May 29 – 31: #7 Spanish Open in Madrid, Spain
• June 12 – 14: #8 Synchro America Open in Rochester, Mich., U.S.A (previously cancelled by the U.S. federation)
• June 19 – 21: Super Final in Windsor, Ont., Canada

FINA also mentions that the Olympic Games Qualification Tournament is “postponed, [with] place and dates to be confirmed.” The event was originally pushed back to June 2020, but it is now presumably postponed until next year as the Olympic Games have been rescheduled to start next summer on July 23, 2021, in Tokyo.

Article by Christina Marmet

Cover photo by Deepbluemedia.