Nordic Home Ground in Denmark at EuroSwim 2017
By: Anna Marie Birkbak
Last week in Copenhagen at The Nordic Meeting, delegations elaborated on the hopes and dreams of making the LEN European Short Course Championships a Nordic home ground. They also discussed initiatives to fully exploit the opportunities of the brand-new arena as a uniting force behind Nordic fans and swimmers.
Imagine a Nordic wave of fans and cheering in the Royal Arena in Copenhagen! How would that look? And how could the arena and spectators make all Nordic swimmers feel at home in the Copenhagen pool? These fruitful discussions took place this week at The Nordic Meeting in Copenhagen. The representatives from 8 swimming federations pooled their ideas for future use and development.
“We have a unique opportunity to transform the Royal Arena in Copenhagen into a Nordic home ground for the swimmers and fans. At the Nordic meeting we received valuable input and ideas for the event and we strongly believe that all the Nordic countries will do their utmost to promote the event to their fans and to support our initiatives to the benefit of the athletes,” says Pia Holmen, CEO of the Danish Swimming Federation.
”I look forward to a new European Short Course Championships i Denmark, and especially in the new beautiful Royal Arena in Copenhagen. These championships will be a swimming party and i look greatly foward to see the best of Europe compete against our Norwegian and Nordic swimmers. So to all swimming friends in Norway, come join the party in Copenhagen. And as everybody knows, it is great to be Norwegian in Denmark” says Cato Bratbakk. president of the Norwegian Swimming Federation.
”We are looking forward to the winters challenge when our national team swims the European Short Course Championships in Copenhagen. We are planning to send a large Swedish team to compete with the best swimmers of Europé and we hope that as many as possible are comming to cheer for our Swedish Swimmers in Copenhagen this December!” Says Ulla Gustavsson, president of the Swedish Swimming Federation.
”Copenhagen is pretty much home ground for us, as most Faroese who study and live abroad choose this wonderful city, including our international swim star Pál Joensen. Copenhagen is our capitol away from home, with about as many Faroese citizens as Tórshavn, and we therefore hope that this opportunity will be well used by the Faroese also, living here and elsewhere,” says Rókur í Jákupsstovu, president of the Faroe Islands Swimming Association.
Special atmosphere
The atmosphere is something else when large swimming championships are held in Denmark. As remembered by Finnish National Team swimmer, Mimosa Jallow: “I remember the previous European Championships in Denmark well. It was amazing in Herning 2013. It was my first SC Europeans and I smashed my PB there because the atmosphere was so powerful. That’s why it is a pleasure to race in Denmark again, this time in Copenhagen, and I am going to beat my National Records. Come and join us!”
The LEN Short Course Swimming Championships will be staged as the very first sporting event ever in the new state of the art, multipurpose arena, Royal Arena in Copenhagen. The arena has already proven its potential for great shows and concerts. The acoustics are brilliant and will for sure contribute to the special atmosphere at the event, including the idea to invite the Nordic swimmers to propose their favorite music to be played at the championships.
The first step towards these home ground dreams is therefore to invite the fans of the event. To that end, easy and accessible transportation makes the championships attractive for all Scandinavian countries. And as a base of the imagery of a Nordic pool festival it all comes down to a packed arena with a wave of Nordic flags and face paintings in the national colors.
Date: 13th to 17th of December 2017
Place: Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark
Website: euroswim2017.com
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.dk/swim
Partners of the LEN European Short Course Championships 2017: Danish Swimming Federation, Sport Event Denmark, the City of Copenhagen, Wonderful Copenhagen, the Capital Region, and the largest swimming club of Copenhagen.
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