Both the European and the International Federation expressed broad satisfaction at the 17th Fina World Championships final day press conference.
‘We have been enriched by unforgettable experiences!’ – started his speech Julio C. Maglione, the head of FINA. ‘Everything was simply perfect; a wonderful World Championships have been organised at fantastic venues with an unbelievable atmosphere in a magnificent country. I am certain that we will see the results of this in the statistics too, and the number of TV watchers and Internet users will confirm this as well.
This World Championships is another step forward for us and contributed greatly to the further improvement of water sports in the upcoming next years on all five continents.
‘What was the World Championships like? I would like to quote three people for whom this neither was the first nor the last time at a world championships’ – said Miklós Seszták the Minister of National Development, head of the Organising Committee.
‘Adam Peaty, the phenomenal British breaststroke swimmer said he could not even imagine a better venue than Duna Arena and more brilliant World Championships as this one was at Budapest.
According to Alan Abrahamson, member of the media committee of the International Olympic Board: starting from the venues till the transportation, from the wifi network till the TV broadcasting his expectation was way outsoared by this event. He also highlighted the ovation waves, which could be compared to an earthquake, and were heard during the Hungarian swimmers’ heats from the audience’s part.
Eventually, Jackie Smith, the head of the American NBC TV channel who is responsible for the international broadcasts, said that everything was excellent here, however, according to her colleagues, she never says such words. After all this, I would only say that we are expecting everyone at the next year’s Junior Synchronized Swimming World Championships, in 2019 at the Junior Swimming World Championships and in 2024 at the adult Short Course World Championships. To be honest, this five-year long break between the 2019 and 2024 Championships disturbs me a little, so it can happen that we will agree with FINA about the organisiation of a possible future world event…
In 2015, Tamás Gyárfás was a little bit tense in Kazan as he did not know how we would be able to outsoar that organization, as the Russian built the pool into a football stadium. I think we managed to top it: Lake Balaton was a beautiful venue for the open water swimming, the Vajdahunyad castle in the City Park provided a breathtaking view for the synchronized swimming, the Margaret Island counts as the traditional cradle for water polo and the Duna Arena is simply amazing.’ – summed it up the manager of FINA, Cornel Marculescu.
‘The greatest surprise for me was caused by the audience, who were happy when the Hungarians won and also when they did not. They provided a fantastic atmosphere for the World Championships.’
‘For me, it was an enormous privilege to take part in the organization of the World Championships’ – finished the press conference, Tamás Gyárfás, the member of the FINA Executive.