Swimming & Water Polo

Greetings!

It was nice to see and meet many of you at the MSAC pool last January in Melbourne.  Both Swimming and Water Polo competitions were excellent.  Many Swimming records were broken (Games, World, Regional, and National).  Swimming also had six new 50m stroke events that were well received and brought more excitement to the pool.  A total of 154 swimmers from 33 countries participated.  Water Polo has a new and first time ever Deaflympics team champion, Germany.  Welcome Australia, who participated for the first time and played well.  Congratulations to all Deaf aquatic athletes who competed.  Many thanks to the Deaflympics EC and staff and M2005 committee members and volunteers for a well run Deaflympic Games.

I have been re-appointed as the Technical Director for Swimming and Water Polo for the next four years.  Thank you for your support and confidence.

The last and only Deaf Swimming & Water Polo World Championships were held in 1995 in Belgium.  There were no aquatic World Championships in 1999 and 2003.  No country has proposed to host this competition for 2007.  Please encourage your National Sports Association to strongly consider submitting a bid to host the 2007 Deaf Swimming and/or Water Polo World Championships.  I am more than happy to assist with the preparations if needed.

Ireland will host a Deaf Water Polo Tournament later this month in Dublin with four countries entered.  Denmark will participate after a 56 year absence (1949 Deaflympics Water Polo Champion).  Greece will host EDSO Swimming Championships in 2006.  Hungary will host EDSO Water Polo Championships in 2006 as well.  Please let me know of any other Deaf aquatic events between now and 2009.  Again, I sincerely hope a country will come forward and bid to host the 2007 Deaf Swimming and/or Water Polo World Championships.

ICSD staff members are currently entering all Deaf Swimming World Records from 1924 to 2005 in each event.  This project looks exciting and many other projects will be coming.  Be sure to check out the Deaflympics website from time to time. At this present time of writing, the old World Records were entered up to 1949. This project is still ongoing.

Aquatically yours,

Reed Gershwind
ICSD Technical Director - Swimming & Water Polo

By Reed Gershwind