LEN has started 2023 with a flurry of
activities, with Officer, Bureau and Executive Meetings as well as meetings of
the LEN Technical Committees meetings (running from January to February).
LEN President Antonio Silva said:
“Our new Executive Director Patrice
Coste has wasted no time in introducing new working methods and procedures,
ably supported by a new team, which adds new skillsets and experience to the
team that was in place. In addition, we are in the middle of a busy timetable
of meetings with all LEN’s Technical Committees and Commissions, who will be
able to finalise and present their plans for 2023 at the next Bureau meeting.”
In summary below, you will find the
key activities of the LEN Office and Bureau since the Christmas period.
LEN Bureau
The most recent meetings of the LEN
Bureau took place on 18 December and 24 January online, both hosted by the
newly appointed General Secretary Noam Zwi with support of the LEN office.
Key decisions or actions are:
Bureau Members received an update on
the progress of the LEN action plan, with a detailed summary report of actions
achieved since the LEN Bureau elections of February 5 2022 (as well as new actions
to come) now being finalised to be sent to federations.
Bureau has confirmed the LEN Awards
nomination and voting process for 2022 Athletes of the Year, with a new public
part of the vote to be revealed to encourage public and media interest in the event.
(Editor’s note: at the time of writing, just 1 day after opening the public
vote, there have been 15,000 responses to the awards on the LEN website, a very
encouraging sign of engagement from fans and stakeholders.)
After a rigorous selection process,
the Bureau accepted the nomination of members of the new Technical Open Water
Committee. This will be chaired by Andrea Prayer (ITA), while the Vice chair is
Danielle Keller (DEN) and the Secretary Volkan Unutmaz (TUR).
After analysis of 6 applications to
fill a vacancy as member of the Technical Diving Committee, Georgia Fyrigou
Consolo (GRE) was selected. Pending the appointment of a new chair of the
committee, Anna Sorokina (UKR) continues to serve as interim chair.
Bureau also approved a recommendation
to set up a new Diversity and Inclusion Commission, chaired by Sarah Keane
(IRL). The additional members of the commission, as well as the road map and
project plan for 2023 will be revealed later.
Regarding the Technical Water Polo
Committee, Bureau approved a recommendation to include Aysem Ylimaz Ozalp as a
new member and the following women candidates as members as part of the
commission for women water polo:
- Revital Cohen (ISR)
- Rita Dravucz (HUN)
- Stavroula Kozompoli (GRE)
Up to date details of all LEN
Committees, Commissions and sub commissions can be found here:
LEN Committees and Official Documents
- LEN - European Aquatics
Bureau approved a number of
recommendations from the Technical Artistic Committee including:
•
Change of 4 reserves in team free and team tech, to 2 reserves: (More
unified with World Aquatic rules).
•
Nomination of a Difficulty Technical Controller or DTC: (This aligns
with AQUA (new acronym for World Aquatics) rules and ensures LEN competitions
can run as smoothly as possible. LEN will create a list of criteria and
eligible officials).
•
Introduce digital diplomas for finalists (To be more eco friendly).
•
LEN AS Trophy: Calculate scores in order to have the highest results and
be in line with AQUA rules.
The next LEN Bureau meeting has been
confirmed as an in-person meeting on 10-12 March at the Gloria Sports Arena in
Antalya, Turkiye.
New LEN Executive Director meets
counterpart at World Aquatics (AQUA)
President Silva and Patrice Coste
were in Lausanne in January 11 for an introductory meeting with AQUA President
Hussein and CEO Brent Nowicki.
Amongst the topics discussed were how
to better coordinate the overall events calendar moving forward, how AQUA and
LEN could co-operate on joint CSR initiatives (for example the energy saving
webinar and Learn to Swim project and Convention planned for 2023).
It was agreed that there would be a
co-ordinated effort to seek alignments between both organisations, from the CEO
position down to the different functional areas.
LEN Technical Committees update
LEN staff, officers and committee
members have been busy in January and February as all Technical Committees and
Commissions are meeting, with the aim being to prepare a detailed plan for 2023
to be approved by the Bureau.
The new LEN Executive Director
Patrice Coste is taking part in all meetings to give him an opportunity to
build relationships and to outline the new management style and operating
system for the LEN Office that he is now in place.
Summaries of each committee meeting
are being published on the LEN website, but the following key actions of
meetings held to date are:
Technical Artistic Swimming Committee
Members were pleased with reaction to
the LEN Clinic on artistic swimming held at end of 2022 – with a high
participation (143 Attendees from 29 Feds) and positive media coverage.
New World Aquatics’ rules will need
to be implemented at LEN Events, which means updating LEN rules. The TASC made
these corrections which have now been approved by the Bureau for Elite and
Juniors.
New promotion ideas include creating
new video content “I do Artistic Swimming because” with athletes (male &
female) or explaining the sport in 2-3 minutes which could be used as templates
for other disciplines. TASC aims to have more promotion of Male athletes in AS
to boost awareness.
Technical Water Polo Committee
Committee Members summarised the
activities, challenges, and learnings to date from the 2022-23 European Club
season. They also received detailed reports from the organising committees of
the 2022 LEN European Championships in Split and the 2022 U19 Men’s
Championships in Podgorica.
Information was also given about the
TWPC activities in matters related to Referees and Delegates as well as tests
carried out on WP rules. In addition, there was discussion about a new proposal
for National and Club rankings for the sport.
Details were also presented about the
system of competition for LEN club competitions as well as proposals for the
calendar of LEN club competitions for 2023/2024.
The Committee also finalised the LEN
Referees School project for 2023 and continues to provide ongoing support to
the LEN Office and OC on all details related to the qualifying system and Finals
of the next edition of the European Water Polo Championships.
Finally, the Committee used the
opportunity of the meeting to carry out the draw for the European U17 Water
Polo championships. The qualifying matches will take place from 17-19 March.
Technical Masters Committee
The LEN Technical Masters Committee
(TMC) met in Prague, from 20-21 January, to reflect on a “hugely successful”
Roma 2022 European Masters Championships and to set out ambitious plans for
future growth.
Representatives from each of the
masters’ aquatic disciplines were present in the Czech Republic and able to
contribute to the wide-ranging discussions.
The Committee reviewed the LEN
Masters rules as well as the results of the committee’s working groups,
discussed how the committee could be better connected with the Masters in
Europe and laid out road map for the future.
Many new and exciting ideas were
presented, and the committee members agreed to contribute to the increased
progress of Masters within LEN.
The Technical Masters Committee
meeting in Prague also saw Harold Mattla officially take over as Masters’
Recorder, succeeding Frantisek Sthol, who managed the registry for the last 32
years.
•
An introductory meeting of the new Technical Open Water Committee takes
place on February 2.
•
The Technical Swimming Committee meeting takes place on February 4.
•
The Technical Diving Committee and High Diving Committee meetings will
take place on February 17.
LEN Events Update
Aachen expresses interest to be host
for Junior Diving
Aachen (GER) has expressed interest
to be the host for the Junior Diving championships – which would complete the
2023 LEN Calendar of events. A site visit to the possible host has been
arranged for February 23. The site visit for the Diving event incorporated into
the 2023 European Games in Poland will take place immediately afterwards.
A site visit is taking place in
Dublin, Ireland, on February 2-3, to prepare for the first edition of the U23
Swimming championship in August.
LEN made a site visit to Funchal to
prepare for the Junior Artistic Swimming championships which takes place on
August 2-6.
Water Polo update
The draw for the qualification
tournaments for the 2024 European Water Polo Championships Women and Men, which
will take place between 23-25 June 2023, is being planned for the period 20-23
March 2023 once regulations and hosts have been identified.
The next site visit for the Men’s
Champions League Final 8 in Belgrade has been scheduled for February 21, 2023.
Marketing/Sponsorship/Broadcasting
LEN’s new Marketing and Broadcasting
Agents Com’over has hit the ground running.
They have delivered a concise marketing strategy plan, which has been
approved by the LEN Officers and, with input from other LEN staff, are updating
important LEN documents which will be ready by February 17.
These include:
•
Marketing guidelines
•
Commercial presentation
•
Broadcast and Media guidelines
•
Event site visit guidelines
The start of the year was also the
right occasion for the marketing team to re-initiate contacts with our key
sponsor partners to anticipate an action plan for 2023.
Malmsten on January 24
Our long-lasting partner for racing
lanes and water polo fields is trusting our cooperation.
The renewal of the contract for an
upcoming cycle is under process. After a first 2023 touch point, a visit is
planned mid-February in their headquarters in Sweden for finalization of the
agreement and establish the next steps in our collaboration.
Fluidra on January 31
After a year and a half of
partnership, our swimming pools and accessories partner is interested in the
consolidation of the collaboration. The first meeting of 2023 was the occasion
to expose feedback from previous months and reinforce future working methods. A
follow-up meeting is to be held by the end of the 1st trimester of 2023.
In the coming weeks, meetings with
the rest of the current partners as well as new prospects are planned, to
secure strong foundations for our marketing programme and to help with its
implementation at upcoming LEN events.
LEN Corporate Activities
LEN Learn to Swim Road Map for 2023
The first detailed report of the LEN
Learn to Swim Committee was finalized and distributed in January to
federations.
By the end of February 2023, a
proposed Road Map of actions will be finalised for presentation to the LEN
Bureau in March.
Working closely with World Aquatics,
LEN plans to organise a Learn to Swim Convention in Q3 2023 bringing together
different stakeholders including European, and other federations as well as
representations of governments and NGOs.
The final objective is to create a
lobbying group (with support of the European Platform for Sport Innovation
EPSI) to promote/recommend European guidelines. These would include LTS
programmes as part of educational programmes throughout Europe.
By March 2024, a presentation to the
relevant office of the EU will be made as will applications for funding from
UNICEF, UNESCO, or other organizations.
Energy saving Webinar set for
February 13
LEN can confirm that after
consultation with its member federations, a Webinar dedicated to the issue of
pool closures and restrictions caused by the energetics crisis will take place
on February 13, in partnership with the European Platform for Sport Innovation
(EPSI) and with the full backing of World Aquatics.
The Webinar will focus on the
following topics:
. Lobbying/communication strategy from a
European and National perspective to address the energy crisis.
. Addressing funding options including
Life programme/Horizon/Innovation Funds/EU Investment Bank.
. Ways to share knowledge and best
practice amongst the LEN family.
More details of the webinar, which is
expected to be 2 hours long, including access points, agenda and speakers will
be circulated in the coming days by the LEN Office.
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