When I arrived in finswimming I discovered that the archives of international competitions were at best fragmentary. So I decided to complete them and make them available to our sport. They have never been published till now.
Who am I?
I am Basil Grammaticos. I have been involved in finswimming since 1979 after a decade spent on underwater activities. I have been a member of the french finswimming commission as technical director from 1984 till 2001. In 1985 I joined the CMAS finswimming commission. I stayed in the commission till 2001, the last four years, from 1997 to 2001, as president. I lost the 2001 elections (a story better not be told) and retired from all administrative activities, in France and abroad. Since 2005 I am member of the CMAS Apnea commission (now Free Diving).
In 2018, after a few years of peripheral activity in the domain of masters' finswimming, I decided to rescind my decision of not investing myself in the administration of finswimming and I accepted a position in the CMAS Finswimming commission in order to promote the masters' activities.
I have been a swimmer since 1979 with national titles both in Greece and in France, member of both national teams. However after 2001 I distanced myself from finswimming although I continued training. It was only in 2014, already a master of V4 category, that I decided to go back to competition. Several national french titles followed. I am currently (2019) world champion over several distances in the Masters' V4 category, titles accompanied with several world records.
My contributions to finswimming
Normally I shouldn't have to write this paragraph. However, given that I have been away from the international finswimming arena for more than 15 years and fearing that the people's memory is rather a short-term one, I decided to write this short, and by far non-exhaustive, reminder.
I have signed several research articles on finswimming, most of them published in the (CMAS) Finswimming Manual, edited by K.H. Kerll (CMAS vice-president at the time) and printed with the financial assistance of the International Olympic Committee.
One important thing in every sport is its history. When I joined the Finswimming commission I realised that was something dealt with off-handedly. One topic where this was particularly true were world records. No history of world records existed. With my colleague in the commission, later president, Ms. L.-A. Rundblad, we did a detective's work and managed to compile the list with the world records' evolution. Unfortunately during the tabula rasa post-2001 period the list was lost and so finswimming will never have a complete history of world records.
One thing that I consider as a major contribution to our discipline was my decision, as president of the commission, to homologate the new monofins. Invented by E. Andronov, this new monofin did have its share of problems. However I felt that it did have a great potential, something confirmed by the spectacular improvement of performances. I do not regret this decision, although it was an argument used against me in the 2001 elections.
During my mandate in the commission I had the occasion to propose several new distances. Not all have had the same fortune. The 50 m SF is here to stay. However the 800 m IS for women, which established the parity between the two sexes, disappeared together with that for men. (Probably the 400 m IS will follow). The 4x2 km relay in open waters is also a proposal of mine. (But the mixed relay is an old soviet proposal from 1987). Speaking of new events I cannot refrain from commenting on the 20 km. It was a bad choice, being excessively long. A distance of 12 km would have been more appropriate.
There is also something else which could have been a major thing but which did never reach the international milieu and which after one or two seasons died out also in France. I am talking about dorsal swimming. (I am, on purpose, not using the word, backstroke since the latter implies an action of the arms). Had this style been adopted it would have opened the possibility for interesting relays, but I am afraid it is too late.
The blog
Reconstructing the archives has been a long a tedious job. They were photographed long ago and I gave away the originals. In what follows you will find the pdfs of the World and European championships as well as those of the World Games. Some results will be missing (in particular the 1972 Europeans). Also the quality is what it is and cannot be improved. Do not forget that the "originals" were photocopies of other photocopies and thus already of bad quality.
You can download freely the archives but it is understood that if you use them, you must give proper credit. To make things clearer, any use of the documents originating from this blog should give explicitly a link to this site.
Who am I?
I am Basil Grammaticos. I have been involved in finswimming since 1979 after a decade spent on underwater activities. I have been a member of the french finswimming commission as technical director from 1984 till 2001. In 1985 I joined the CMAS finswimming commission. I stayed in the commission till 2001, the last four years, from 1997 to 2001, as president. I lost the 2001 elections (a story better not be told) and retired from all administrative activities, in France and abroad. Since 2005 I am member of the CMAS Apnea commission (now Free Diving).
In 2018, after a few years of peripheral activity in the domain of masters' finswimming, I decided to rescind my decision of not investing myself in the administration of finswimming and I accepted a position in the CMAS Finswimming commission in order to promote the masters' activities.
I have been a swimmer since 1979 with national titles both in Greece and in France, member of both national teams. However after 2001 I distanced myself from finswimming although I continued training. It was only in 2014, already a master of V4 category, that I decided to go back to competition. Several national french titles followed. I am currently (2019) world champion over several distances in the Masters' V4 category, titles accompanied with several world records.
My contributions to finswimming
Normally I shouldn't have to write this paragraph. However, given that I have been away from the international finswimming arena for more than 15 years and fearing that the people's memory is rather a short-term one, I decided to write this short, and by far non-exhaustive, reminder.
I have signed several research articles on finswimming, most of them published in the (CMAS) Finswimming Manual, edited by K.H. Kerll (CMAS vice-president at the time) and printed with the financial assistance of the International Olympic Committee.
One important thing in every sport is its history. When I joined the Finswimming commission I realised that was something dealt with off-handedly. One topic where this was particularly true were world records. No history of world records existed. With my colleague in the commission, later president, Ms. L.-A. Rundblad, we did a detective's work and managed to compile the list with the world records' evolution. Unfortunately during the tabula rasa post-2001 period the list was lost and so finswimming will never have a complete history of world records.
One thing that I consider as a major contribution to our discipline was my decision, as president of the commission, to homologate the new monofins. Invented by E. Andronov, this new monofin did have its share of problems. However I felt that it did have a great potential, something confirmed by the spectacular improvement of performances. I do not regret this decision, although it was an argument used against me in the 2001 elections.
During my mandate in the commission I had the occasion to propose several new distances. Not all have had the same fortune. The 50 m SF is here to stay. However the 800 m IS for women, which established the parity between the two sexes, disappeared together with that for men. (Probably the 400 m IS will follow). The 4x2 km relay in open waters is also a proposal of mine. (But the mixed relay is an old soviet proposal from 1987). Speaking of new events I cannot refrain from commenting on the 20 km. It was a bad choice, being excessively long. A distance of 12 km would have been more appropriate.
There is also something else which could have been a major thing but which did never reach the international milieu and which after one or two seasons died out also in France. I am talking about dorsal swimming. (I am, on purpose, not using the word, backstroke since the latter implies an action of the arms). Had this style been adopted it would have opened the possibility for interesting relays, but I am afraid it is too late.
The blog
Reconstructing the archives has been a long a tedious job. They were photographed long ago and I gave away the originals. In what follows you will find the pdfs of the World and European championships as well as those of the World Games. Some results will be missing (in particular the 1972 Europeans). Also the quality is what it is and cannot be improved. Do not forget that the "originals" were photocopies of other photocopies and thus already of bad quality.
You can download freely the archives but it is understood that if you use them, you must give proper credit. To make things clearer, any use of the documents originating from this blog should give explicitly a link to this site.