“Solidarity Games” multidisciplinary international competitions in swimming, artistic swimming, and diving finished in Kazan having embraced three stages – “World”, “Sport”, and “Legends” from 19 July to 16 December 2022.
A total of 3,058 participants, among which are the athletes and team officials, including 453 foreigners, have visited the sports venues in Kazan. They represented 31 countries: Russian Federation, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Laos, Madagascar, Mongolia, Namibia, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Serbia, Syria, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tonga, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Montenegro, Ecuador, and South Africa.
The Solidarity Games participants contested for 582 sets of medals. Throughout the competitions, athletes set dozens of national records for juniors and adults, several European records in different age groups, and at the second stage, the Russian swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov bettered the world record in the 50m backstroke.
Master classes for young athletes were given by the Olympic champions in artistic swimming Svetlana Romashina and Aleksandra Patskevich, as well as by the two-time Olympic diving champion Dmitry Sautin. The gala concerts featuring artistic swimming stars from Russia and foreign countries were the cherry on top of the Solidarity Games along with the star swim held with the participation of famous athletes and commentator Dmitry Guberniev.
“All three stages of the Solidarity Games were full of spectacular performances by the Russian and foreign athletes, fans from all over the world will for long remember the competitions. I would like to extend special thanks to our foreign guests, thanks to whom Kazan and Russia have hosted another beautiful sports festival!” the Russian Minister of Sport Oleg Matytsin noted.
Solidarity Games were held under the aegis of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Sport of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Swimming Federation, Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation, and Russian Diving Federation.