The Rwanda Swimming Federation has started talks with the World Swimming governing body (FINA) to help in constructing a swimming pool that meets international standards. The lack of an Olympic swimming pool in Rwanda was part of the challenges that Rwanda Swimming Federation president Pamela Girimbabazi presented to FINA president Husain Al Musallam, who, last week, concluded a two-day visit to Rwanda. The visit was also meant to explore the development of swimming in Rwanda and in particular, FINA’s top priority program ‘learn to swim for health and life’. Musallam was in the country accompanied by, among other delegates, African Swimming Confederation (CANA) President, also FINA Vice-President, Sam Ramsamy, CANA Zone 3 president Donald Rukare and World Olympic Champions Ferry Weertman and Ranomi Kromowidjojo. So far, Girimbabazi said, 60 percent of national team swimmers train from Lake Kivu and Muhazi while the rest train from local hotel swimming pools but on condition that they pay monthly access fees. She said the current conditions have affected local swimmers’ performances in international competitions due to lack of standard training before emphasizing that FINA President’s visit to Rwanda boosted the federation’s hopes of having an Olympic swimming pool established in Rwanda sooner than they expected. “Our talks mainly focused on how we can get support to get a swimming pool that meets Olympic standards because it’s a big challenge that our swimmers have had for a long time,” she told Times Sport in an interview. The federation is now preparing to submit its application to FINA in June through the governing body’s “Swimming for All – Swimming for Life”, a special programme with a goal to teach children how to swim and to promote physical activity through swimming across the globe. Girimbabazi said the talks with FINA over a possibility to establish an Olympic Swimming Pool were promising and hopes Rwanda could get one as long as they fulfill the requirements. “They told us to apply for the swimming pool and promised us that there is a chance we could get one as long as we fulfill the requirements in the bid. “His [FINA President]’s visit is an achievement for us because we wanted them to come and have a feel of the sport in our country, how far we have gone and what we need to move to another level. We hope they will be able to understand what we exactly need and how much we need it when we submit our application for the swimming pool,” she added. The federation is pushing to have an Olympic swimming pool with hopes of motivating swimming athletes in terms of preparations and performance at the international scene. FINA, however, urged them to maintain good collaboration with the government and the Olympic committee to jointly prove “maintenance capacity” of the pool once it is built in Rwanda. Musallam’s visit to Rwanda comes after Girimbabazi met him in Doha, Qatar in June last year when he was elected FINA president. She at the time invited him to visit Rwanda to have a glimpse of the sport in the country. Besides a swimming pool, the federation also presented to FINA delegates a number of swimming projects that still need support to run including support in training coaches whose number remain small compared to the number of coaches needed. “They promised more collaboration as long as we show our commitment in developing projects aimed at unearthing new talents in swimming,” she said.
