A major ambition within European Aquatics has come to fruition today with the launch of a dedicated website for the European Aquatics Academy.
The site – at http://eaacademy.eu – became operative from 15.00 CET and is staging its first event on the new platform from today until Sunday – an open water swimming clinic for officials and judges.
An initiative that began with the establishment of the LEN Coaching & Education Commission in May 2022, with the primary objective of fostering the growth and education of coaches, has taken form in the intervening period.
Numerous educational clinics have been held in 2023 and 2024 ahead of the establishment of a central forum of information.
The establishment of a European Aquatics Academy to establish an education and certification system for coaches, officials and other stakeholders was a key part of the EA Strategy 2024-2030.
Daniel Marinho, the EA Academy project manager, told European Aquatics:
“The new platform will have all the courses on it and will be able to spread information to all the stakeholders, namely the athletes, coaches, officials and national federations.
“The high value of the platform will be to have all these educational contents gathered in a single place.
“We are starting with the officials in this weekend’s open water clinic. In September we did a water polo clinic and in November artistic swimming, but on a different platform. This weekend’s event, which will be online only, is the first to be held on our dedicated platform.
“Next month we will have clinics for diving and swimming. For the swimming we are expecting some to be on site, but the idea is to have hybrid events so people who cannot spend so much money on travelling can attend online. Hybrid events will probably be our model.
“And the idea is to record all sessions on the site so they will be available for all in the future.
“We will have the same arrangement with the coach clinics that we carried out in the last year in co-operation with Aqua – they will be available also as recordings.
“The site will also be used to register coaches, who have to attend one seminar each year. This process will be on the platform so they can attend seminars and re-certificate themselves for the next year to be able to maintain their coaching level.
“We also have some larger aims in terms of gathering together all our educational services.”
For officials on the World Aquatics Judges list who want to officiate at any European Aquatics Championships 2025 (Senior and Junior) it is mandatory either to follow this weekend’s online Open Water Clinic.
For officials who are not on this weekend’s list but who want to become certified by European Aquatics it is mandatory to follow the Open Water Clinic (online) and pass online test afterwards.
The new site can also be accessed via the main European Aquatics site via the Development section.