4 years ago
These are the athletes who look more at home in water than on land. Whether it’s swimmers powering through the pool and breaking records in the process or divers defying gravity, aquatics is liquid gold.
Aquatics is a core sport of the Commonwealth Games and two disciplines will feature on the Glasgow 2014 sports programme – Swimming and Diving.
Swimming
Swimming is an extremely demanding sport to compete in and intensely exciting to watch. A fraction of a second or one fierce exhalation can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Swimming has featured in every Commonwealth Games programme since it began in 1930, with both male and female athletes competing. The Swimming competition will take place at the Tollcross Aquatic Centre’s 50-metre pool over six days of the Games. There will also be integrated medal events for Para-Sport athletes.
Venue: Tollcross International Swimming Centre [East End]
Watch out for: Australia has been the most successful Swimming nation in the history of the Games, rivalled only by Canada and England. Recent Games have seen Scotland, South Africa and New Zealand bridging the gap to claim a coveted medal. Now watch the next group of talented swimmers emerge.
Diving
In Diving, everything counts in the battle for points – the starting position, the take-off, the dive itself and the crucial finish.
A dive may only last a few seconds, but it requires great skill and nerve.
Glasgow 2014’s Diving competition will take place across four days in the refurbished Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh. This is the same historic venue that hosted the Aquatics events for the 1970 and 1986 Games.
World-class male and female divers will compete in individual and synchronised events from both the 3-metre springboard and the daunting 10-metre platform. Individual athletes will also contest the 1-metre springboard competition.
Venue: Royal Commonwealth Pool [Satellite, Edinburgh]
Watch out for: The Commonwealth Games Diving medal tally has been dominated by Australia, Canada and England. However, in Melbourne 2006 and Delhi 2010, Malaysia emerged with medals of each colour. Could we see another nation challenge the big three in Glasgow?
International Federation: Federation Internationale de Natation http://www.fina.org
International Paralympic Committee: http://www.ipc-swimming.org/
