As Canada Artistic Swimming evaluated its competition hosting conditions earlier this spring, it determined the organization would not be able to host the 2021 FINA Junior/Youth World Championships scheduled to take place in Quebec City on August 21-30, 2021.

The competition, which was to be hosted in partnership with the provincial federation Natation Artistique Québec and the local organizing committee from the Quebec Excellence Synchro club, had already been postponed from its original 2020 dates and was slated to welcome over 500 participants from around the world.

“With so much ongoing uncertainty around COVID-related international travel and quarantine restrictions, we determined it was no longer viable to host the event in Canada in 2021,” said CEO Jackie Buckingham. “While we were truly saddened to advise FINA of our decision, we continue to be committed to putting health and safety of athletes, officials and volunteers first and could not risk an untenable situation.”

The decision was made and communicated with enough time for FINA to appoint a new host city, in the hope that there might be one in a better position to welcome international participants. Today, FINA has announced that the event will be postponed again until 2022.

“The fact that all international travel quarantine rules are still in place in Canada as of today confirms our decision was the correct one. While much of the world is now open to hosting in-person events, Canada unfortunately has not yet reached this stage. We’re very much looking forward to working with FINA again to ensure a successful – and long-awaited – 2022 edition of these World Championships,” added Stéphane Côté, Director of Events and Communications.

“We recognize this is a disappointment for our athletes who had hoped to compete this year on home soil, but we are hopeful that there will be many other opportunities. We thank all of the international athletes and coaches for their adaptability in these challenging times and hope to see them soon“, said Chief Sport Officer Julie Healy. “We’d also like to thank FINA for its continued support, as well as all of our hosting and funding partners for their invaluable guidance and flexibility.”