Technical Reports following UANA Executive Committee Meeting

  

To:  Members of the UANA Executive Committe, Chairs & Secretaries of Technical Committees, Zone Presidents & FINA Bureau Members from the Americas
 
Re:  UPDATE from UANA May 12th meeting & National Federations affiliated to UANA
 
NATIONAL FEDERATIONS AFFILIATED TO UANA  --  The attached document reflects the excellent work of Brenda Adams, of the UANA office in Colorado Springs, CO.  All UANA National Federations were asked to provide updated and current information.  About 25 responses were received in April & May.  We will continue to follow up with the 15 NF's that have not yet provided their most current contact info.
 
NATIONAL FEDERATIONS ARE ASKED TO SEND UPDATES & CORRECTIONS TO THIS LINK  -- Changes, updates and corrections should be made ASAP by clicking on the following link:
 
TECHNICAL CHAIRS ARE REMINDED TO SUBMIT NAME OF THEIR PROPOSED ATHLETE MEMBER  -- Each technical chair has been asked to submit a nomination of an athlete member by mid June.  Nominees shall come from the NF of the chair with the exception of the Masters Committee.  Please send the name of the athlete member and their email contact information to UANA Secretary Fernando Canales ( [email protected] ).
 
2012 UANA EVENTS CALENDAR  --  Please reply with ANY CORRECTIONS of dates, spelling, event locations and with NEW dates & details for UANA Events not posted.  The following info is posted to the UANA website now, but we will update changes as soon as they are received:

MAY 2012
FINA Synchronized Swimming Judges School, Santiago, CHI May 1 to 6
 
JULY 2012
July 27 to August 12 - LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES

AUGUST 2012
XVII UANA Pan Am Junior Men's Water Polo (19U) Championship, Montreal, Canada, Aug 8-19
XVII UANA Pan Am Junior Mens Water Polo (19U) Championship, Montreal, Canada, Aug 8-19
FINA Junior World Open Water Swimming Championships - August 16-19, Welland, Canada
UANA Synchronized Swimming Championships - August 29 - September 2, Cali, Colombia
 
DECEMBER 2012
FINA Synchronized Swimming World Trophy, Mexico City - November 29 to Dec 2
 
 
2013 UANA EVENTS CALENDAR:
MONTH TO BE DETERMINED:
UANA Synchronized Swimming Championships
 
MAY 2013
III Open Water Pan American Championships - to be determined
Pan American Masters Synchronized Swimming - May 31 to June 2, Sarasota, Florida USA
 
JUNE 2013
Pan American Masters Swimming,  - June 5-8, Sarasota, Florida, USA
Pan American Masters Open Water Swimming, June 10, Sarasota, Florida USA
 
AUGUST 2013
PanAm Junior Water Polo (U17) - Men and Women - August, 2013; South America
 
SEPTEMBER 2013
UANA Pan American Junior Diving - USA, venue/city TBA
 
2014 UANA EVENTS CALENDAR: 
 
AUGUST 2014
PanAm Junior Water Polo (U19) - Men and Women - August, 2014; United States
UANA Synchronized Swimming Championships, Riverside, CA.....August 10-18 OR Sept 1-5.
 
 
2015 UANA EVENTS:
MONTH TO BE DETERMINED:
UANA Synchronized Swimming Championships
 
May 2015
IV  Open Water Pan American Championships - to be determined
 
July 2015
Pan American Games, Toronto, CANADA - July 10-26, 2015
FINA World Championships, Kazan, Russia - July 19 to August 3
 
SEPTEMBER 2015
UANA Pan American Junior Diving - one of the CCCAN Federations invited to be the host
 
REPORTS FROM THE TECHNICAL CHAIRS ARE REQUESTED ASAP  -- The Technical Chairs are reminded to provide their reports ASAP and not later than Sunday, June 3rd.  The following reports were received from Bill Hogan (UANA TSC) and Mel Goldstein (UANA Masters Committee).  All reports will be disributed to the members of the UANA Executive Committee BEFORE being posted to the UANA website. Please send any comments, suggestions and/or corrections directly to the respective Chairs, the UANA President and the UANA Secretary shortly after you have reviewed the draft version of each discipline's respective report.
 
 
MASTERS TECHNICAL REPORT TO THE UANA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE  --  May 12, 2012
 
Preparations for the 2013 UANA Pan American Masters Championships in Sarasota, Florida, USA are on schedule.  A June 1, 2012 launch of the event website is planned. The website will provide information about securing a US Visa as well as entry and hotel information for Swimming, Synchronized Swimming, and Open Water. 
 
It has been the desire of the UANA Masters Technical Committee to also provide a UANA Pan American Masters Championships for Water Polo and Diving.  The committee through its Chairman has been working with the US Water Polo and US Diving governing bodies to work out the logistics for the inclusion of these two disciplines in our 2013 event.  As of the date of this report the proposed dates for those competitions have not been announced.
 
The UANA Masters Technical Committee has proposed an Athlete Representative be appointed to the UANA Masters committee.  By unanimous vote a nomination for this position has been put forth to the UANA President Coaracy Nunes Filho and to UANA Secretary/Treasurer Fernando Canales. 
 
Any Masters swimming federation wanting to submit a proposed rule change to FINA,Masters Rules should send the proposal to UANA Secretary Treasurer, Fernando Canales ( [email protected] ) and also to FINA Bureau Member Margo Mountjoy ( [email protected] ) by September 30th.  The proposed rule change will then be submitted to FINA prior to the deadline in late November.  The rationale, rather than one federation submitting a rule change, the proposed rule change will come from a unified UANA representing 40 Federations from the Americas.
 
Respectfully Submitted by:
                  Mel Goldstein, Chair
                    [email protected]
                  UANA Masters Committee
 
 
TECHNICAL SWIMMING COMMITTEE REPORT TO THE UANA EXECUIVE COMMITEE  --  May 12, 2012
 
Report Overview:       
     UANA Technical Officials List # 2
     Debriefing of the Guadalajara 2011 Pan Am Games
     UANA Junior Swimming Championships
     2015 Pan American Games in Canada
 
1. UANA Technical Officials List # 2
 
    During the last quadrennial the committee established the first UANA Technical Officials List of Referees and Starters.  54 Referees and 27 Starters where approved on that first UANA Officials List.
 
    Nominations have been requested from each zone federation for the UANA Officials List #2 which will be effective from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015.
 
    In keeping with the deadline of May 9, 2012, we have now received the nominations from all federations with 3 Referees and 2 Starters listed from each country.
 
    It is from this listing of some 83 Technical Officials from the 4 UANA Zones that we select officials for senior deck assignments for the Pan American Games and other continental competitions.
 
2. Guadalajara 2011 PAG – Swimming
The Guadalajara Pan Am Games were a tremendous success and a very exciting competition.  For those of us there every day, the spectator stands were filled each morning and evening for swimming, and the cheering never stopped from the very first race in preliminaries to the last event of Finals.  We are most grateful and thanks go to the Mexican Swimming Federation and Organizing Committee members for a job well done. There were, however, 2 major problems in the preparations leading up to the Games:
 
A.  Scheduling the event to a 7-day competition:
 
    Initially there were discussions on the number of days for the swimming program, (an 8-day event or 7-day) as well as the scheduling the “Order of Events” each day.
    In order to accommodate potential long distance swimmers who might also be representing their countries in the Open Water event at Puerto Vallarta, the order of events was amended to move the 800/1500 freestyle pool events to the middle of the week in the swimming schedule.
    Subsequent to that the local Organizing Committee came back with a request to have the swimming program a 7-day event to accommodate Open Water swimming.  This was done.
 
B.  Limiting swimmer entries:
 
    The major problem prior to the Competition was limiting the Entries and meeting the quota of 256 swimmers allocated by ODEPA.
    Eventually the number of 256 was increased by 14 extra swimmers to bring the total to 270 entered.
 
Fortunately, both of these problems were resolved prior to the opening of the Games, which is a credit to the Organizing Committee in Guadalajara and the UANA Technical Swimming Committee.
 
 
3. UANA Junior Swimming Championships
It has long been identified as important for UANA to establish a Championship in the swimming discipline. The major problem presented has always been that there is already a very crowded swimming calendar.
   
President Coaracy Nunes Filho met with and requested the new UANA Technical Committee Chairperson to proceed to organize a UANA Junior Swimming Championship.  This was strongly supported by the Technical Committee chair Bill Hogan.
 
UANA TSC Proposal to the UANA Executive for Consideration:  
    We recognize that full zone participation is absolutely necessary in order for the UANA President and his Executive to seek out and secure potential sponsorship opportunities.
    The UANA Junior Swimming Championship could be held during a less busy time of the year to avoid a congested swimming events calendar (December 2012 or January 2013)
    All federations could send their National Junior teams, their regional or club Junior teams, their high level Junior all-star teams, or the like.  In this way, all 4 zones from the Americas would be represented at this first UANA Junior Swimming Championships.
    The TSC Chairperson recommends that the event could be similar to and mirror the meet format and age groupings of the FINA World Junior Championships.
    It would also be a good opportunity for the Continental Federations to share their expertise by conducting training Clinics for both Coaches and Officials prior to and in conjunction with the 1st UANA Junior Swimming Championships.
 
 
4.  Toronto 2015 PAG – UANA TSC Recommendations
These recommendations for 2015 are being proposed by the UANA TSC having in mind the best interest of the Swimmers, the inclusion of as many swimmers as possible in such a great event as the Pan American Games, and we hope at no extra cost to UANA or PASO/ODEPA.
 
Recommendations to the UANA Executive Committee for support and approval:
 
A.   INCREASE SWIMMER QUOTA  (TSC Recommendation)
Increase the quota to 300 swimmers for PAG 2015 (from the current quota of 256.  I refer you to the UANA Congress Minutes of October 17, 2011: 
 
Mr. Ivar Sisniega addressed the General Assembly with these words:  “The UANA President indicated for future Games, more room needs to be created to make adjustments to the quotas.”
 
This quota increase has been requested before, has the support of previous UANA presidents, and each of the last 3 PAG have ended up adding on swimmers to the quota to accommodate each country’s concerns.  It makes sense, therefore, to have a quota that is both reasonable and workable, without having to make adjustments and changes for each PAG a few weeks before the Games start as in the past..
 
Guadalajara 2011 was 6-day event (270 swimmers – quota was 256)
Rio 2007 was a 6-day competition (285 swimmers – quota 256)
Santo Domingo 2003 was a 6-day event (261 swimmers – quota 231)
           
    Increasing the quota brings more opportunities to the smaller countries in UANA
           
    Increasing the quota brings exposure to more swimmers from each country, especially the smaller countries of the Americas.
 
*** SOLUTION:  INCREASE THE SWIMMER QUOTA TO 300 SWIMMERS
 
B.  LIMIT THE TEAM SIZE (TSC Recommendation)
Presently each country can enter 52 athletes (26 males & 26 females)
           
TSC Proposal:  The maximum number of athletes for each country shall be 36 swimmers
 (18 males & 18 females)
                           
Larger countries are limited to dropping just 8 males and 8 females (from 26 to 18)
This increases greatly the number of spots open to smaller countries
 
In 2015:
 
    Canada (as host) is permitted under the present rules to send a full team of 52 swimmers to the Pan Ams 2015 without all swimmers having to meet the qualifying standard.
 
    USA always sends a full team (44 in Guadalajara & 46 in Rio 2007)
 
    Brazil as Olympic host in 2016 will send a full team (38 in GDL & 42 in Rio 2007)
 
    Venezuela and Argentina normally send 25 & 20 swimmers respectively. 
 
    Mexico  sent 28 swimmers to Guadalajara.
 
Under the “Universality” rule, in Guadalajara there were about 20 countries that were  permitted to enter 2 swimmers without qualifying. (1 male & 1 female)

These totals account for close to 200 swimmers (based on an average of 45 swimmers each for Brazil, Canada, and the USA) plus the numbers for Venezuela, Argentina, & Mexico.  Add on some 20 “Universality” entries from a number of federations, and the total is 220 with only 36 open spaces for all other countries. (Quota = 256)
 
        *** SOLUTION: LIMIT THE TEAM SIZES TO 32 SWIMMERS PER TEAM
 
C.  UNLIMITED NUMBER OF SWIMS: (TSC Recommendation)
The TSC recommends that once a swimmer achieves a qualifying time into the competition, that swimmer can enter any number of events that they wish to participate in.  (But keep the present rule that only 2 swimmers per country can move on to the Semi-Finals or Finals)
 
Rationale:
    Morning Preliminary Sessions are very short (sometimes less than 1 hour which is not good for spectators or sponsors)
 
    Most events have only 3 heats or less (often less than 20 swimmers per event)
 
    Finals can become too predictable with so few swimmers in each event
 
    Gives much more exposure to swimmers from all countries
 
    Swimmers swim more events rather than just 1 event they qualified for.
 
    No extra cost increase to UANA or ODEPA
 
        *** SOLUTION:  UNLIMITED NUMBER OF EVENTS FOR SWIMMERS
 

D.  MEET FORMAT: (TSC Recommendation)
    Semi-Finals & Finals for 200m Events and under.  (For Rio 2007, FINA recommended a “Semi-Finals & Final” format, not “A” & “B” Finals)
    Heats & ‘A’ Finals (400m and up)
     800m/1500m events Time Finals with slower heats in the morning and the fastest seeded heat at night (only 2 swimmers per country can be seeded into the fastest heat at night)
    Relays will be swum with both Preliminaries and Finals
    No stroke 50’s; no 800m Free (men); no 1500m Free (women)
    Events Order & Time Standards will be determined by the UANA TSC for PAG 2015
 
 
E.  SELECTION PROCESS:
            The UANA TSC will establish a “Priority” system for swimmer entry into PAG 2015:

            Host Nation – set the maximum number of entries (preferably 32 athletes)

            Set the “A” Standard for athletes to achieve for entry into the Games

            Set a “B” Provisional Entry standard from which the UANA TSC will prioritize and select swimmers to bring the total number of swimmers to the quota maximum established by ODEPA

            Select “Relay Only” swimmers of 2 per nation

            Select “Universality” entries by nations who have no qualifiers (one male & 1 female)

            Rank the balance of entries according to the FINA point ranking system to meet the remaining opening spots available.
 
TSC Recommendation:  Establish a process to reduce the number of swimmers if the quota provided by ODEPA is exceeded.
                   
    The Selection System should follow the system FINA used for the London Olympic Games
                   
    ‘A’ Standard Qualifiers automatically qualify for the Pan American Games 2015
                   
    An Invitation System for ‘B’ standard qualifiers
                            
    Host nation swimmers and all swimmers based on “universality” are protected
                           
    “Relay Only” swimmers are protected
                            
    The balance to be ranked according the FINA Point score from their entry time.
                   
    Close entries a minimum of 90 days before the beginning of the swimming competition (May 2015)
                            
     This allows time to provide each federation with the final approval of each entry
 
                  Respectfully Submitted by: 
                Bill Hogan - Chair
                  UANA Technical Swimming Committee

 
PROPOSED DATE FOR 2015 UANA CONGRESS  -- The date of Monday, July 13, 2015 - Toronto, CAN  Please offer your suggestions for alternate dates for the 2015 UANA Congress to the UANA President and Secretary.
  
UANA WEBSITE IS UPDATED DAILY  --  A great deal of NEWS and new information is posted daily to the new UANA website at this link:  https://www.teamunify.com/Home.jsp?_tabid_=0&team=uana
 
DATE OF 2013 UANA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & TECHNICAL CHAIRS MEETING  --  UANA Secretary Fernando Canales is requesting suggestions you might have for the dates, city and or country location and format of the next edition of the UANA leadership meeting.  Although this topic was briefly discussed towards the end of our May 12th meeting, it is imperative that suggestions via email are submitted to Fernando Canales ( [email protected] ) ASAP so that we can properly prepare for the next meeting.