Kazan 2015 Organising Committee final meeting held in Moscow

Rustam Minnikhanov noted that thanks to the well-coordinated and consistent efforts and strong team spirit of all ministries and departments the FINA World Championships were held to a high organisational standard and according to the International Swimming Federation (FINA) became the best in the history of this sporting event.

“We tried to turn these Championships into a festival of sports, global cultures and traditions,” the Tatarstan President said. “The Championships participants were provided with a bright insight into Russia, its potential and capability to host large-scale international events to the highest possible standard.”

Rustam Minnikhanov also pointed out that after the Championships Tatarstan residents’ interest (especially children and young people’s one) in aquatic sports has drastically increased. “We hope that Kazan will remain in the focus of international sporting events and will keep hosting high-profile competitions and by doing so will raise our country’s credibility as a sports nation,” the head of the republic concluded.

State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Sport of Russia, Natalia Parshikova, informed that all 5,000 members of OC workforce involved in the preparation and delivery of the FINA World Championships in Kazan will be presented with commemorative medals.

The 2015 edition of the World Aquatics Championships, which is included in the top three global sporting events, was hailed the best in the FINA history for a number of reasons. These Championships were the largest in the history both in terms of medal events (75) and the number of participating nations.  And the event's cumulative TV audience beat all records and reached 6.8 billion viewers worldwide.

The World Aquatics Championships were held from July 23 to August 9 and brought together 2,413 athletes (1,152 males and 1,261 females) and 1,495 team officials representing 190 nations of the world.

Medals were contested in six aquatic disciplines: open water swimming, synchronised swimming, diving, water polo, high diving, and swimming.

Two new disciplines – mixed duets in synchronised swimming and mixed duets in diving – made their debut at the World Championships in Kazan. The inaugural competitions turned out to be a real success. The Russian duet of Aleksandr Maltsev and Darina Valitova managed to earn gold in the mixed duet free routine event.

198 technical officials – 118 international and 80 national judges – officiated during the competitions.

The top three spots of the medals table were claimed by China, the United States and Russia respectively. Russian athletes took 17 medals (9 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze ones). The Kazan Championships featured 12 world records, 12 junior world records, 32 continental records and 19 Championships records.

The Russian national team set 1 world record, 4 junior world records and 4 national records. Four venues were used to host the FINA Worlds: Kazan Arena Stadium (swimming, synchronised swimming), Aquatics Palace (diving), Water Polo Arena (water polo) and Kazanka Venue (high diving, open water swimming).

Breakthrough technologies were applied in the preparation of the Championships venues. Most of them are unique.

The total amount of tickets that went on sale reached 464,140. The number of tickets sold for sports sessions amounted to 316,259 (78% of the total amount); 40,242 tickets (71% of the total amount of tickets) were purchased for the Pilgrim show.

Over 800 regular staff were involved in the preparation and delivery of the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan whereas the overall number of people engaged in the project totalled about 40,000 people. The biggest help came from volunteers – 2,212 people representing 21 regions of Russia and 11 foreign countries arrived in Kazan to lend their time and efforts

Around 600 media representatives and 850 broadcasters came to Kazan to provide the coverage of the FINA World Championships. The sporting event was largely promoted in social networks with the highest user engagement ratio being recorded in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Italy and Russia. According to the research data of THC Group (Kantar Media), the aggregate audience of the FINA Worlds 2015 in social networks amounted to around 1 billion users. Over 10 million people visited www.kazan2015.com, the official Kazan 2015 website; 7.8 million of these visitors were unique.

Participants and visitors of the FINA World Championships were accommodated in 26 hotels across the city and at the Athletes’ Village. The latter offered the best possible living conditions and a diverse range of meals. 2,638 people were accommodated in the Village that became a home-away-from-home for athletes for two weeks. It had been fully landscaped and provided with all necessary amenities. The best possible rest environment had been created for athletes there. 96,867 meals were served at the 1,300-seat restaurant with the overall volume of served meals reaching about 150 tonnes.

Being a hospitable host city, Kazan traditionally offered a rich cultural programme to participants and visitors of the sporting event. For the duration of the Championships, the FINA Water World Park became the centre stage of the city’s cultural life. A total of 303,150 people visited this cultural hub that featured a wide range of show programmes and contests, national farmyards representing cultures of various peoples living in Russia and Tatarstan, partners’ pavilions and other events.

Most visitors coming to Kazan attended theatres, museums and popular tourist destinations. For example, the Kazan Kremlin was visited by 123,640 tourists. The FINA World Masters Championships became another challenge for the organisers. The sporting event welcomed 2,639 athletes representing 726 clubs from 73 countries. 572 sets of medals were contested. Russian Masters athletes earned 396 medals, 159 of which are gold, 113 are silver and 124 are bronze. 

The meeting also saw a presentation of Tatarstan’s government and ministerial awards to members of public authorities of the Russian Federation.

By the Edict of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, the following persons were awarded for their valuable contribution to the preparation and delivery of the 16th FINA World Championships 2015 and 16th FINA World Masters Championships:

Medal of the Order For the Merit to the Republic of Tatarstan

Natalia Parshikova, State Secretary and Deputy  Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation

Medal of the Republic of Tatarstan For Valorous Labour

Yulia Miroshnikova, Head of the Sports Medicine Department at the Federal Medical-Biological Agency

By the Executive Order of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, the following persons were awarded the Tatarstan President’s commendation for their valuable contribution to the preparation and delivery of the 16th FINA World Championships 2015 and 16th FINA World Masters Championships:

Gennady Aleshin, Honorary Member of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) Bureau;

Irina Andreeva, Deputy Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation;

Marat Bariev, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport and Youth Affairs;

Olga Brusnikina, First Vice-President of the Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation;

Aleksey Vlasenko, President of the Russian Diving Federation;

Valery Kuzmin, Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation;

Alexey Lavrishchev, Deputy Head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation;

Mikhail Chislov, Deputy Head of the General Department of Organisation of Customs Processing 
and Customs Control at the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation.

By the ordinance of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan, the following persons were awarded a commendation for their valuable contribution to the preparation and delivery of the 16th FINA World Championships 2015 and 16th FINA World Masters Championships:

Vladimir Vasin, Advisor to the President of the Russian Olympic Committee;

Pavel Kolobkov, Deputy Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation, Deputy Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 16th FINA World Championships  in Kazan.

By the Executive Order of the Ministry of  Youth Affairs and Sport of the Republic of Tatarstan, the following persons were awarded a commendation for their valuable contribution to the preparation and delivery of the 16th FINA World Championships 2015 and 16th FINA World Masters Championships:

Alexey Bakirey, Director of the Department of State Policy in Automobile and Municipal Passenger Transport at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation;

Andrey Guskov, Deputy Head of the Sanitary Surveillance Department at the Federal Service 
for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing;

Yury Demidov, Head of the All-Russian Advanced Training Institute of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General of Police;

Alexander Danilov, President of the Russian Masters Swimming Federation.

For his valuable contribution to the development of the Masters movement and to the organisation of the 16th FINA World Masters Championships 2015 in Kazan President of the Republic of Tatarstan and Deputy Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 16th FINA World Championships 2015 in Kazan, Rustam Minnikhanov, was awarded a badge of honour of the Masters Swimming Federation.

Source: Press Office of Russia's Ministry of Sport