Swim Fed Protecting Athletes Ahead of Championships in Russia

(ATR) Athletes going to the 2015 Swimming World Championships in Russia will be protected against discrimination.

On Feb. 12 the FINA bureau made a declaration to uphold a United Nations declaration "recognizing that major sport events should be organized in the spirit of peace, mutual understanding, friendship, tolerance and inadmissibility of discrimination," according to a release.

The 2015 World Championships will take place in Kazan, Russia. The country came under fire for discrimination of homosexuals in the run up to the 2014 Olympics.

A FINA spokesperson told Around the Ringsthe declaration was made "as an appeal to the participants of our events."

"We took several legal things that already existed in the world of United Nations, the IOC, and our own rules to support our appeal," the spokesperson told ATR.

Israel has been at the center of a pair of discriminatory incidents in recent years.

At the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, China, Mohammed Alirezaei of Iran did not race in his 100-meter breaststroke heat because it featured Israeli swimmer Gal Nevo, leading some Jewish organization to call for Iranian athletes to be banned from the Olympics.

Then at a 2013 World Cup stop in Doha, local broadcasts blurred out the Israeli flag during Amit Ivry’s 100-meter intermediate medley heat.

In the declaration, FINA cited Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter, the FINA code of ethics, and FINA Constitution Rule C 4, which "[prohibits] any form of discrimination against national federations or individuals," according to the release.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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