Swimming: Mexico withdraws as host of 2017 world championships

Swimming: Mexico withdraws as host of 2017 world championships

The Mexican city of Guadalajara has announced it has withdrawn as host of the 2017 World Swimming championships because of financial problems.

Guadalajara organisers said they could no longer afford to stage the event, which costs around $100 million, after the Mexican government announced recent budget cuts.

Guadalajara's withdrawal comes just over a week after the Canadian city of Edmonton pulled out of the race to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games, citing the drop in worldwide oil prices.

Jesus Mena, the director of the Mexican National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport, said in a statement that he had informed swimming's world governing body FINA of Guadalajara's pullout. "After reviewing the budget, we have determined that we must inform FINA that Mexico cannot host the world championships," Mena said.

Guadalajara was awarded the world championships in 2011 after FINA picked the 2015 and 2017 hosts at the same time. The Russian sports city of Kazan was awarded the 2015 championships while Hong Kong, which also bid for 2015 and 2017, missed out.

Swimming's world governing body has since awarded the 2019 world titles to Gwangju, South Korea and 2021 to the Hungarian capital Budapest but has not yet said who will replace Guadalajara.

The United States, swimming's most successful nation, has never hosted the championships and officials said they had no plans to bid for 2017 because of the costs, even though hosting the titles could boost Boston's chances of being selected as the host for the 2024 Summer Olympics, which will be decided in 2017.

"We would love to host a long course world championships in the United States, but the economic requirements make it impossible for us to seriously consider," Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming Executive Director, told Swimming World. 

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