Team Portugal brings Madeira 2022 atmosphere to Funchal City Hall

Madeira Island started to feel the atmosphere of the World Para Swimming Championships on Thursday (9 June) when Team Portugal joined a press conference to promote the event at the Funchal City Hall. 

The event also had the participation of the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, alongside the President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation (FPN), Antonio Jose Silva, the Head of World Para Swimming, Craig Nicholson, and authorities from the Madeira Regional Government and the Funchal City Hall.

European champion Susana Veiga led the Portuguese team alongside Ana Castro, Daniel Videira, Diogo Cancela, Ivo Rocha, Jaime Catarino, Joao Campos, Marco Meneses, Renata Pinto and Tomas Cordeiro.

Madeira 2022 will be the biggest Para sport event ever to take place in Portugal. The Funchal Swimming Pools Complex has a long history of staging international events as the venue of the European Open Championships in 2016 and 2021. 

IPC President Parsons praised the organisation for hosting two major championships despite all the challenges imposed by the pandemic.

“Madeira is in the history of Para sports events and the Paralympic Movement will always be grateful for the effort made to host last year’s European Championships, a crucial Para swimming event in the preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games,” Parsons said. “Funchal and Madeira have shown great capacity to organise Para sport events.”  

The FPN President highlighted the number of athletes, nations, staff and volunteers involved in the World Championships.

“This is the most important competition we have organised,” Silva said. “There are more than 1,300 people involved and it is not simple to host such an event in the context of a pandemic and a conflict in Europe. But we look forward to a memorable World Championships in Madeira.”

Madeira 2022 will see more than 500 swimmers from 59 nations competing from 12 to 18 June.

More information about the World Championships can be found here.