About Funchal 2016

The island of Madeira, Portugal will host the 2016 IPC Swimming European Open Championships © • Visit Madeira

About Funchal 2016

The 2016 IPC Swimming European Open Championships will be held in Funchal, on the island of Madeira, Portugal from 30 April - 7 May.

Featuring around 450 athletes from 50 countries, the event is organised locally by the Portuguese Swimming Federation (FPN).

It will be the last major competition ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and is being run as an Open to give athletes as many opportunities as possible to qualify.

The city of Funchal

Funchal is the island capital, housing around 45 per cent of Madeira's 270,000 population and sits in a natural amphitheatre-shaped valley on the coast.

Madeira itself is famed for outdoor activities such as hiking and watersports and is also a well-known holiday destination, offering beaches, scenic marinas, museums and restaurants.

The competition pool

The fully accessible EUR 25 million Complexo Olimpico de Piscinas da Penteada was opened in 2004 in the heart of Funchal. The complex is set over an impressive five floors and includes an Olympic sized competition pool, a diving pool, a 25m pool and a training pool.

The venue hosted the 2005 Multi-nations Youth Meet and most recently the 2015 Winter International Masters Open. It is located in the cultural heart of the city next to the University of Madeira, the Congress Centre, regional library and public archives.

History of the IPC Swimming European Championships

2014 – Eindhoven, the Netherlands

Eindhoven 2014 saw around 400 athletes from nearly 40 countries compete at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium.

Ukraine topped the medals table, this time with 37 golds, 29 silver and 28 bronze. Whilst Russia won more total medals with 95, they just lost out with their gold medal total of 34, 32 silver and 29 bronze. Great Britain were third with 30 wins, 27 silver and 16 bronze.

Ukrainian Yevheniy Bohodayko left as the most decorated athlete with seven titles and two silver, whilst Great Britain’s Steph Slater was the most decorated female swimmer having won gold in all seven of her events.

2011 - Berlin, Germany

The 2011 IPC Swimming European Championships in Berlin, Germany, involved more than 440 swimmers from 36 countries.

During eight days of highly competitive action 59 European records were broken, 31 of which were world records.

Yevheniy Bohoydako’s haul of 10 medals helped Ukraine top the overall medal table once again. In total his country took home 41 gold, 37 silver and 28 bronze medals. Great Britain finished second with 83 medals, just beating Spain to third with their gold medal count of 26.

The growth in swimming talent across Europe was underlined by the fact that 31 out of the 36 countries that took part won at least one medal.

2009 - Reykjavik, Iceland

A total of 24 world records and incredible 73 European records were broken at the Laugardalslaug swimming complex in the Icelandic capital.

Great Britain topped the medals table with a total of 94 medals including 18 gold, to beat Ukraine in second and Spain in third.

German Kirsten Bruhn was one of the most successful athletes of the competition, winning all her events and setting a new world record in 100m backstroke S7 with a mark of 1:23.63 minutes.

Contact

To contact IPC Swimming, please email ipcswimming@paralympic.org

To contact the Organising Committee of Funchal 2016 please email Mariett Matias mariett.matias@fpnatacao.pt

For media enquiries and information, click here.