World Aquatics announces a "pioneering" measure in sports to the IOC: it will provide financial assistance to retired athletes.
With the presence of the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kirsty Coventry, a fantastic swimmer who collected seven Olympic medals, and her predecessor, Thomas Bach, World Aquatics held its ordinary congress to announce the new members of its Board of Directors (or Bureau), that Beijing (China) will organize the 2026 Short Course World Championships and a “pioneering” measure in the world of sport, which aims to “lead a movement that is copied in other international federations.”
World Aquatics will create a compensation and assistance fund for all athletes upon their retirement, in order to "support them in a transition process that we know is difficult and represents a significant life change," said its president, Kuwaiti Husain Al Musallam.
We want to support them in the transition, which we know will be a big change.” Husain Al Musallam President of World Aquatics
The fund will begin collecting funds next fall with a total of ten million dollars, thanks to contributions from sponsors and contributions from the federation itself, which has celebrated its success over the past three years by organizing nine top-level events after the pandemic, and the addition of new partners such as Sony and 361, a Chinese company that will lend its name to the World Cup starting next year. "We always put the athlete at the center," the president added.
Not all swimmers will be eligible for this fund. A series of requirements must be met. Athletes from all disciplines (open water, swimming, water polo, diving, and artistic swimming) must participate in 75% of the events organized for at least four years. This is a way to ensure that the World Cups, especially, feature the best athletes possible and consistently record participation.
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"As a federation, we have set two clear goals for our vision for the future. First, to educate and promote swimming through our foundation around the world. And second, to create a compensation fund to help athletes once they leave the pool. They will receive the money when they retire," added Brent Nowicki, CEO of World Aquatics, as he officially presented the event.
Athletes will also be able to choose whether to collect their prize money on-site or send it to this compensation fund to be received at the end of their careers, as explained at a conference held in Singapore this morning in Spain. This measure is new, given the international federation's role. The governments of each country do have a series of aid plans for sporting success: in Hungary, lifetime pensions are paid for each Olympic medal; in the Balkan countries, the pension system is used, albeit to a lesser extent; and in others, such as Italy, places are reserved through the Ministry of Defense, something that Spain has recently encouraged.
The World Aquatics measure is different because it doesn't depend on results, but rather on participation. "We are pioneers and intend to lead this issue, as we did with our regulation on transgenderism in 2022," the president added. At that congress held in Budapest, and amid the issues surrounding transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who broke women's college records in the United States and sparked an uproar of protests, World Aquatics, through scientific studies, established that transgender individuals who hadn't started hormone treatment before the age of 12 would not be allowed to participate in its competitions. The measure caught on.
We intend to lead this issue, as we did with transsexuality.” Husain Al Musallam President of World Aquatics
Coventry, in fact, explained a month ago that as IOC president she must "protect women's sport" and, when asked if they would make any regulations for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, she responded: "We must do so with a scientific approach and with the participation of the international federations that have already done a lot of work in this area." A nod to World Aquatics.
Now, Coventry has listened to the decision of a federation that honored her for her aquatic past and with which she has many ties. The athlete's retirement is another key issue for federations and countries.
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In Spain, for example, athletes who competed during the Barcelona Games have launched a movement (Fair Retirement) to ask the Higher Sports Council to count those years as contributions, as they are high-level athletes and have to give up their working lives to pursue a sporting career with full guarantees. They were heard, but the process is slow.
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