AMMAN —
Jordan Swimming Federation director, Ali Al-Nawyeseh, said that the sport of swimming in Jordan is unevenly distributed among class lines, and that it faces a number of other obstacles.
اضافة اعلان
Speaking to the
Jordan News, Al-Nawyeseh said: “Swimming is poorly spread out due to a shortage of swimming pools and beaches, and swimming pools at schools are only limited to a number of private schools,” adding that swimming is an “expensive sport.”
The technical director of the national swimming association has previously said that the association has analyzed the obstacles that face the sport, which included the sport not being very popular in Jordan and a lack of female participation.
“We have received data from several studies confirming the problem of a lack of training places, as well as accepting students not on the basis of their athletic excellence, in universities,” he said.
He continued: “We have tried to find a way to cooperate with the American University based on their flexible educational system, which does not conflict between education and training, which many countries are doing. We have reproduced this experience and started to apply it, but it has not been successful for many difficult reasons.”
He added that the association has worked to encourage a generation of young people to take up swimming through university scholarships.
“There are swimmers like Khader Bagleh, Amr Alwer, and Mohammad Al-Bdoor; we have swimmers, but they must travel abroad to work on themselves, because the education circumstances do not allow them to continue their training,” he said.
When asked about the requirements the sport needs to develop, he said: “We need an official swimming pool, with an emphasis on spreading the sport and expanding the support base through the upgrading of clubs and cooperation with schools, we’ve been through a first regiment of good swimmers, and there’s a big gap from the first generation.”
Nawyeseh added that the most striking difficulties facing the sport include a lack of public swimming pools and that the ones Jordan does have are not equipped with heating systems for the winter. The Kingdom also lacks a special test to evaluate those wanting to become athletes at the university-level.
He also touched on the damage caused by the pandemic on the sport of swimming, which “was probably the last sports sectors allowed to return to its normal activities after the long closure.”
He went on to say: “We can make an Olympic swimmer. The project is not difficult. There are three swimmers in the making (Khader Bagleh, Amr Alwer, and Mohammad Al-Bdoor). They must have their chance. There are also a number of emerging swimmers in the
Olympic preparation stage, and without the pandemic, we would have achieved better results.”
Read more Sports
.jpg)
.jpg)
