World Water Safety

INTERNATIONAL LIFE SAVING FEDERATION
Gemeenteplein 26 – 3010 Leuven – Belgium
Tel: +32 16 896060 - E-Mail: ils.hq@telenet.be - Web: http://www.ilsf.org

To the ILS Member Organisations
To the ILS Board of Directors
To the ILS Commissions and Committees
To the ILS Team and Technical Officials
To the ILS Clubs, Competitors and Participants

Subject: announcement about the rescheduling of LWC 2020

Leuven 26 April 2020

Dear friends,
You have all been informed by our letter of 19 March 2020 about the postponement of the 2020
Lifesaving World Championships (LWC 2020) which was due to be held in Riccione, Italy. Indeed,
due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), such a decision was inevitable. Thisletter details the agreed solutions following the postponement.
Rescheduling of the 2020 Lifesaving World Championships
1. The ILS discussed alternative solutions with the Italian Lifesaving Federation (FIN) and with thehost of the LWC 2022. Both agreed with the proposed plan, which is to move the LWC 2020 to2022, to keep the LWC 2024 at the Gold Coast, Australia and to plan the LWC 2026 in Agadir,Morocco.
2. On 25 March, the ILS issued a postal ballot to the ILS Board of Directors asking them to agreewith the above plan. After the constitutional deadline of 30 days, the ballot was closed on 25 April
2020. The ILS Board of Directors voted in favour of the above plan.
3. It was agreed to postpone the LWC 2020 to 2022 and not to 2021. The reasons are:
• There is much uncertainty regarding the continuing spread of Covid-19.
• It is not likely that a medication or a vaccine will be available for at least a year to 18 months.
Until that time, continued movement restrictions will likely still be in force in 2021.
• There is already a crowded global sporting calendar in 2021 because so many events arebeing rescheduled to the second half of that year.
• Many ILS Member Federations are already reporting that their income streams have been
seriously affected. It will take much of 2021 to recover their losses and they will not be able
to afford to travel to an LWC that takes place in 2021.
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There is also another major ILS event in 2021, namely the World Conference on Drowning
Prevention. The Conference will take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka in early October 2021.
The host federation, Italy, also needs time to recover financially from the economic effects of
the Covid-19 pandemic so that it can deliver the rescheduled events.
If an LWC event was rescheduled to 2021, and 2022 was maintained in Morocco, there could
be an adverse impact on both events as participants may not be able to afford to attend bothevents in relatively quick succession.

4. After discussion with the FIN, the LWC 2022 will now take place in Riccione from 16 Septemberto 2 October 2022.
5. The ILS Elective General Assembly and associated meetings planned to be held at LWC 2020
will now be held prior to the ILS World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2021 in Colombo SriLanka in early October 2021.
6. The following steps will now be taken:•••

The LWC 2020 will be rebranded to LWC 2022.
In the coming days, we will write to all Federations and Clubs that booked accommodationand that paid entry fees and inform them on the agreed procedures.
In the next month, the ILS will confirm the arrangements that will be put in place regarding
the re-registration of participants for LWC 2022, including:o all deadlines for reconfirming existing bookings,o making new bookings,
o entering details into the competition system.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the ILS Event Director John Martin MBE
at j.martin@ilsf.org

Yours sincerely

Graham Ford AM
ILS President

Dr Harald Vervaecke PhD
ILS Secretary General2