The misadventures in Sicily continue, this time it is the Master category that pays the costs
The swimming crisis in Sicily seemed to have eased and instead, a few months after our articles in which we reported a situation that was certainly not excellent, remarked by the competitive athlete Giada Marchese and then reanalyzed through the curious exodus of Sicilian athletes examined recently, we find ourselves in Sicily looking at the competition calendar dedicated to the Master sector.
The calendar for the 2023/2024 season included three Master Trophies plus the usual Regionals:
- 5 November 2023, 7th Master Swimming GP Trophy in Palermo
- 28 January 2024, Sant’Agata Trophy in Catania
- 17 and 18 February 2024, Regional Masters in Palermo
- 5 May 2024, Santa Maria delle Quaglie Trophy in Syracuse
The latter on the list was canceled two weeks before the scheduled date due to system irregularities noted by the FIN, thus canceling the last available appointment, as well as the first and only one in the long course and outdoors.
Surprisingly however, the Master population saw a Trophy published for May 26th: the 8th Master Swimming GP Trophy, organized by the Olympia Palermo company, confirmed and published in the FIN calendar on April 30th.
And this is already an anomaly compared to what is clearly reported in the FIN Master Regulations published on the Federnuoto website, which states that “Only one event can be assigned to each company, organization, group or elements attributable to the same organization.”
However, if Olympia Palermo is the only one able to offer the possibility of organizing swimming events in Sicily, it is welcome that it organizes more than one event per season.
This eighth event was not scheduled during the planning stage last year, but given the recent cancellation of the Syracuse Trophy, I wanted to give the Sicilian Masters movement another chance to compete in this year 2023/2024 – we read in a note from Enrico Lo Verde, President of Olympia Palermo – I urgently requested authorization from FIN, headquarters”
Even in this passage, however, there is something that does not add up compared to the Regulation, which says that applications for admission to the Circuit must be forwarded to the relevant Regional Committee, in this case FIN Sicily, and that said requests must not be sent to the master sector of the FIN which will not take into account any communications received.
Why was it necessary to contact FIN headquarters to resolve the hole in the tender that had been created?
Master’s life in Sicily amidst aquatic misadventures
But returning to the Master Swimming Trophy included in the competition calendar of Sicily and in any case within the FIN Supermaster national circuit, the location certainly changes from Syracuse to Palermo, but the spirit is always the same: ensuring that the movement does not die and in this the commitment of Olympia Palermo is certainly worthy.
Until less than ten years ago, trophies were contested every fortnight and there was a competition to have a pool and calendar date that best suited the needs of the organizing club.
Why is this no longer the case in Sicily today? The number of club members has dropped dramatically and the names of some Sicilian teams, especially Palermo, which until 2012 were at the top of Italy with the victory of numerous championships, have now disappeared from the radar.
The numbers also drop due to the difficulty of finding water spaces in which to train: we remember the imminent – for years now – closure of the municipal swimming pool in Palermo, which has and is causing many companies and operators in the sector to live in uncertainty.
So the decision is made to move to private facilities, or to radically change the sport. At this point organizing a Trophy without an adequate number of participants becomes difficult, very difficult also and above all due to a question of costs.
With the motivation of the increase in costs, precisely, in order to balance the expenditure, a quantity of members is needed which, de facto, no longer exists in Sicily.
And to increase the level of difficulty, the costs are also high to move within Sicily itself.
Therefore Western Sicily moves rarely and with great effort towards Eastern Sicily and vice versa. This is how the Zone trophies.
Last but not least, it is the condition that one cannot even expect an extra-regional presence due to the logistical difficulties to and from Sicily.
A trip to Sicily involves a real significant organization on the trip, because it cannot be reached easily by train or car, nor economically.
A trip to Sicily which, despite the beauties of the place, is not worth the risk.
The Master athletes registered in Sicily therefore currently have very few competitive events in their own Region and only the most ambitious seek outside the regional territory, from time to time (besides the canonical Italian Championships, European Championships and World Championships), opportunities to compete in areas different from their own.
This is undoubtedly a particular exodus, which combines sporting ambitions, tourism and many social opportunities.
We hope that things can improve, with everyone’s help and goodwill.
by Germana Mangione
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