World Aquatics and the Bahrain Olympic Committee announced plans to create a new centre of excellence for aquatic sports in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in partnership with GFH Financial Group and the Bahrain Swimming Association. The partnership will see World Aquatics establish the centre at the University of Technology Bahrain.

“I am extremely excited by this partnership with Bahrain. Our bold plans for a centre of excellence here will serve as an example to the world,” said World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam. “Our high-performance athletes are at their best when they can benefit from the right mix of facilities, coaching and sports science. World Aquatics is determined to ensure that this mix is available to athletes from all our national federations. And we are delighted to include an educational component with the help of the University of Technology Bahrain.”

The plans announced today for Bahrain also include new pools capable of hosting events in five of the six World Aquatics sports: swimming, water polo, artistic swimming, diving, and high diving. The sixth sport, open water swimming, is already well-served from Bahrain’s beaches. Bahrain Olympic Committee President, HH Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is a renowned open water swimmer, having completed the 31.5 km swim linking the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Bahrain, across the Gulf of Bahrain.