At Sunday, November 17th, the Sarajevo Olympic Swimming Pool hosted a unique Multiplier Sport Event, featuring a thrilling finswimming competition as part of the Mermaids for Inclusion project. Funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, this event brought together athletes from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Croatia to celebrate sports, diversity, and inclusion.
Organized by Swimming Club SPID in partnership with NGO BRAVO, this competition focused on finswimming disciplines, including the elegant and fast-paced mono finswimming. Beyond showcasing athletic skill, the event highlighted the unifying power of sports in promoting values like inclusion, gender equality, and community spirit.
By combining physical activity with social inclusion, Mermaids for Inclusion demonstrates how sports can break barriers and build a supportive community.
The morning session began with registration and a brief introduction to the rules of finswimming. This was followed by a warm-up session and inspiring keynote speeches that highlighted the importance of sports and inclusion. The competitive events that took place during this session included the 100m bifins, 50m monofinswimming, 200m bifins, and mixed relays. These events showcased the athletes’ speed, endurance, and technical skills.
During the lunch break, participants had the opportunity to engage in discussions and present their projects related to finswimming. This interactive session allowed for the exchange of ideas and the development of new initiatives.
The afternoon session continued with the remaining competitive events, including mixed relays, 50m apnea, 100m bifins, and 400m bifins. These events provided further opportunities for athletes to demonstrate their abilities and compete for medals.
The competition concluded with a closing ceremony where prizes were awarded to the top three competitors in each category. The ceremony also featured speeches from organizers, coaches, and athletes, highlighting the success of the event and the positive impact of finswimming on the participants.
Special thanks to Mr. Amel Kapo, whose meticulous planning and attention to detail have ensured the seamless execution of this event and gathered over a hundred competitors from Australia, Kosovo, BiH and Croatia. This event was more than a competition; it was a platform to promote inclusion, diversity, and the transformative power of sports. Whether you’re a swimming enthusiast, an advocate for inclusion, or simply curious to witness something new, we invite you to join us in our further projects. Let’s celebrate the power of sports to inspire change and build a more inclusive society.
MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT
The project “Mermaids for inclusion” introduces fin swimming as a method of inclusion of people with mental and physical disability and people of ethnic minorities to European society, while promoting the importance of gender equality. The length of the project is 2 years which will ensure enough time to set the foundation for fin swimming in partner countries. The specific goal of the project Mermaids for Inclusion is to establish fin swimming as a new sport in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and to use the sports environment to promote awareness raising and inclusion regarding gender equality as well as integration of ethnic and religious minorities.
This will be achieved through advanced education tools and the transfer of good practice from the participating Member States (Croatia and Greece). Sport activities are a strong means for inclusion and cohesive societies, since sport can create a healthy and supportive environment for socially vulnerable groups and local communities to meet and interact. This is especially important in the region of Western Balkans with ongoing challenges regarding the inclusion of ethnic and religious minorities. The project also aims at advancing gender equality which is a relevant topic for the whole region of the Balkans which is traditionally dominated by patriarchal gender norms. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo there is still a dominating stereotype of women’s roles being mainly family-oriented and caretaking rather than actively participating in public life and business. The project will have a great impact not only on coaches, athletes and participating organizations that will be directly involved in the project, but also on wider community and relevant stakeholders by setting a model for good practice of using sport as a means for social integration.