Comment | The European Swimming Championships were a complete joke

Finland achieved a statistically valid result at last week’s European Long Course Swimming Championships in Belgrade. Veera Kivirinta took silver in the 50-meter breaststroke, and in addition, the blue-and-white swimmers collected eight final places.

Behind the result that sounds great, there is a harsh fact: the European swimming championships were quite tough.

Of the five countries that collected the most medals at the European Championships held two years ago, only Hungary was present (and Britain with the B team).

No Italy or Holland was seen in Belgrade. Among the individual swimmers, the starting ball did not include, for example, the Swedish women’s top swimmers or the wholesale winner from Lithuania Ruta Meilutytää.

European the best swimmers competed at the same time in Rome and Chartres.

The French championships were organized in the French cathedral city, and in the “eternal city” the traditional Sette Colli event was held, with the participation of top class bucketers from outside Europe.

Swedish Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom swam in Rome in the 50-meter freestyle with the top time in the world statistics, with which he would have wiped the floor with the entire final team of the European Championships.

The standard of Sette Colli’s games was so high throughout that he would not have succeeded in many sports during the medal races of the European Championships.

The Finnish success would have been significantly weaker in the European pool in Belgrade if all the top swimmers had participated.

The swimming association board member, Yle expert Ville Kallinen gives a civilized assessment of the real level of Europe.

“When you put your emotions aside and think coldly objectively, it is very likely that Kivirinta would not have been standing on the medal ball if Sweden Sophie HansonMeilutyte and two tough Italians would have been there.”

According to an expensive estimate, also young swimmers Lunch Kasvion, Ada Hakkarainen and by Leonie Tenzer places in the finals would very likely have remained a dream if the majority of the continent’s top swimmers had competed in Serbia and not somewhere else.

“Similarly in the 50-meter backstroke Fanny Teijonsalo taival would have ended in the semi-finals and not Mia Pentti would have progressed from the preliminaries to the next round.”

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“When I organize the games at that pace, the international federations don’t think about the sporting value of the games, they swim after the money”

Why are the swimming competitions held one after the other?

In the corona years of 2020 and 2021, the value competitions were not held, but their organizational mechanisms were in place and state aid was obtained. Therefore, after the pandemic, there have been enough competitions at the WC and EC level.

Previously, the long-distance World Championships were organized every other year, but now they are held every year: 2022 in Budapest, 2023 in Fukuoka, 2024 in Doha and 2025 in Singapore.

Today In 2016, the long-distance World Championships were held in February in Qatar, and in July the Olympic medals will be competed for in Paris.

When the European championships were squeezed in between, it becomes crowded, and it’s no wonder that swimmers aiming for the Olympic Games missed the Belgrade Games Matti Mattsson’s ways.

“When I organize the games at that pace, the international federations don’t think about the sporting value of the games, they swim for the money,” says Kallinen.

Correction 26.6. 2:56 p.m.: Veera Kiviranta is in the main photo of the story, not Ida Hulkko as previously reported.