Madeira 2020 competition dates confirmed

World Para Swimming and the Madeira 2020 Local Organising Committee (LOC) have confirmed the dates for the European Open Championships in Portugal. 

The competition will take place from 16 to 22 May at the Penteada Swimming Complex in Madeira Island’s capital Funchal.

The Europeans were initially scheduled to May last year but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although rescheduled to 2021, the competition retained the original name Madeira 2020.

As an Open Championships, athletes from outside Europe will also have the chance to compete at Madeira 2020 making it the biggest Para swimming event before the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in August.

This will be the sixth edition of the Euros and the second to take place in Madeira following the 2016 European Championships – which were also an Open event and served as preparation for the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

Madeira 2020 will have the same competition programme of the last edition of the World Championships which took place in London, Great Britain in 2019. The programme also includes all events which will be held at Tokyo 2020, plus two new individual events and 3 mixed relay events

The European Open Championships will not only provide opportunities for athlete to qualify for the Paralympic Games but will also be a key classification opportunity before the Tokyo 2020 classification deadline.

Classification is set to take place from 13 to 15 May. 

National Paralympic Committees will have until 26 March to submit their entries through the Online Entry System.

A plan outlining the guidelines to be followed during the championships due to COVID-19 will be distributed to participant nations during April 2021. The plan follows the direct restrictions and recommendations put in place by authorities of the host nation.

The European Championships took place for the first time in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2009. Dublin, Ireland hosted the last edition in 2018 with more than 500 athletes from 40 nations.

Ukraine topped the medals table at Dublin 2018 with 106 medals (33 gold, 44 silver and 29 bronze).