Canada Artistic Swimming (CAS) continues to monitor and follow the advice of local and federal government bodies including our national and provincial health advisories as well as staying up to date on the various states of emergency and other measures imposed provincially and locally around the country in attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Given the current status and trajectory of the virus in Canada, it has become impossible for the organization to safely host the 2020 Canadian Championships, scheduled for Quebec City, May 4-9. Effective today, this event is cancelled.

This has been a difficult decision, but CAS continues to be committed to following all of the recommended guidelines and measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 and maintain the health and well-being of the participants both in our sport and of Canadians in general.

We would like to sincerely thank our organizing partners Natation Artistique Québec and Québec Excellence Synchro for all the work they had already put into preparing for this event.

CAS’s executive and volunteer leadership team would also like to take this opportunity to recognize the initiative taken by our provincial Members, and the many individual registrants who have conducted such a positive and engaging social media campaign since the self-isolation and social distancing requirements began.  CAS is truly amazed at the creativity and resilience demonstrated by our participants.

As the next few weeks and months unfold, CAS will continue to support initiatives around the development of the sport, our coaches and our athletes to maintain active interest and to use this unprecedented time to promote tasks and activities that can be done virtually.  Like our Members and registrants, we hope that swimming pools and programs will be back to normal soon.

In the meantime, we will also continue to work with our Members to support the continuity of our organization infrastructure by sharing experiences and detailed information connected to the various stimulus packages currently being offered by our respective governments.

A brief Q and A related to the cancellation of the 2020 Canadian Championships is below.

We wish all of our Members and participants continued good health and safety through this challenging period.

Because of all the uncertainty around the spread of COVID-19, it’s impossible to predict when teams would even be able to get back in the water to start training. Certain provinces have already confirmed pool closures until May 1, others are hinting at June 1 and beyond. Because of this, it’s impossible to schedule with any kind of certainty an event that wouldn’t run into next season.

Hosting a national championships takes a lot of preparation and can’t be improvised in just a few weeks, but we are already investigating various possibilities that could be put in place to connect the artistic swimming community, virtually or in person, if the occasion presented itself. We will be consulting with coaches and members of the Canadian artistic swimming community about these opportunities and will keep you informed in the coming weeks.

All official hotels as recommended on the event page (Hotel Universel, Travelodge, Hotel Quartier & Laval University Residences) have confirmed that they would accept cancellations with no penalties. Please make sure to contact them now to confirm your cancellation.

This depends on the airline and the type of ticket booked, but in general full refunds are only offered on higher class fares. Air Canada is currently offering 100% credit on all their flights with no penalty fee, including those booked in the lower economy fares, which can in a lot of cases be used in the next 24 months. WestJet also offers 100% credit to a travel bank, but is currently not offering this on flights that depart after April 30. It appears a pretty safe bet that they will change this eventually, so our suggestion would be to wait until they do. 

We expect to be able to release this information before the end of April