Russia’s Kazan may host 2031 World Aquatics Championship — sports official
KAZAN, February 26. /TASS/. The Russian city of Kazan is being considered to host the 2031 World Aquatics Championship, Vladimir Leonov, the sports minister of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, told TASS on Monday.
Kazan was set to host the 2025 World Aquatics Championship, but the event was postponed indefinitely due to sanctions regarding Russian sports imposed over the country’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
"Our championship was not cancelled, but postponed," Leonov told TASS. "The international federation already made a decision to hold the 2027 World Aquatics Championship in Budapest, while the next tournament in 2029 is scheduled to be hosted by Beijing."
"We are in discussions about holding this tournament in 2031," Leonov added.
In February 2023, the world’s governing body of swimming sports, World Aquatics, decided to relocate the 2025 World Aquatics Championships from the Russian city of Kazan to Singapore.
World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam was quoted as saying at that time: "With dates to be defined, the 2025 event will be staged in close cooperation with the Singapore Swimming Association and Sport Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth."
Prior to World Aquatics ruling in March 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations on February 28, 2022, to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments.
IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
On July 26, 2023, the IOC extended invitations to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris to 203 National Olympic Committees. Russia and Belarus did not receive invitations. The IOC explained later that there was no deadline regarding the issue of Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation.
