Watch the World Swimming Championship with a VPN

FINA World Swimming ChampionshipSince 1993, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) has held the World Swimming Championship. Last year the tournament was held in Qatar. This time around the Championship will be hosted in the newly constructed WFCU Centre in Windsor, Canada. This year, the tournament will  begin on December 6th and end on December 11th. You can watch all the action from anywhere in the world with a VPN.

Even though the World Swimming Championship is relatively new, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) was created in 1908. The organization is officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee and is also part of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). They are responsible for making sure the proper rules are followed for certain events.

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That includes the 22 male and female events in this year’s competition. Though the number of variations in the events has increased, they are still the same basic events. Those are the Freestyle, Butterfly, Breaststroke, and Medley events. Of course, relays are also included in this list, but they are the same strokes. It is likely that more variations will be added in the future.

Every two years, the number of countries and athletes competing in the FINA World Swimming Championship have increased steadily. When the championships started in 1993, only 313 athletes from 46 countries competed. The most recent count in 2015 saw 2400 athletes compete from 190 countries. Those numbers really show how important the championships have become. You can bet that the 2016 event will be even larger than the last.

The Swimming World Championships are sometimes referred to as the “Short Course Worlds”. That is because the competition is held in a 25m pool. The Aquatics World Championship, which features events from 5 water disciplines, is referred to as the long course, because it uses a 50m pool instead. Though many viewers do not understand the differences between the two lengths, think about it like a foot race. Distance certainly makes a difference then.

Short course races tend to be faster than their longer counterparts, even if the race is the same length. That happens because of the number of turns in a race. The more turns you have, the more breaks muscles get between lengths. Stroke control is more consistent in 25m pools. The 50m pool’s length causes energy and stroke control to degrade faster, so racing is more measured.

Just like runners in running events, long course athletes tend to pace themselves more than the short course athletes. You would not expect a short distance runner to run a marathon without significantly changing the way they run. Assuming the two athletes are close in ability, you would not expect a long distance runner to be able to beat a sprinter in a short race. Of course, real competitors can excel in either condition no matter which course they normally train on.

That is why you will enjoy watching the FINA World Swimming Championships in the 25m pool. The events’ speeds will be fast, and there is sure to be some stiff competition. Countries that have not competed in the championship before, will finally get the chance to show their skills.

How to Use a VPN to Watch the FINA Championships

I’ll use IPVanish for the example of how to use a VPN service to watch your favorite swimmers compete.  First you’ll want to download the VPN client.  IPVanish offers free client software for Windows, Mac and Linux.  In addition to free apps for iOS and Android.

Now that you’ve had a chance to download and install the software it’s time to connect.  Launch the IPVanish client and select a server location.  We’ll walk you through step by step using their Windows client.

IPVanish client

  • Select a server location.  We chose London but IPVanish has a large network of servers located around the world.
  • We recommend you select OpenVPN (TCP) or (UDP).  For streaming football games or videos from sites like Netflix we use OpenVPN (UDP).  They also support PPTP and L2TP.  We still recommend OpenVPN for the best privacy protection.
  • Click connect.  After a few seconds you’ll see the button at the top right turn green.  That means you now have an IP address from the UK  You’ll also notice the server location and IP address show up at the top of the client.
  • We’re now located in London as far as anyone can tell online.  As such we can reach any site as if sitting in London.  The same would be true if we connected to a server in the US or anywhere else in the world.

That’s all there is to it.  Now that you have an IP address from the IPVanish server in the UK you can browse the Internet as if you were actually there.  The same is true from any country.  Connect to a US server to watch the US coverage.

Catch all the action by watching the BBC coverage of this year’s FINA World Swimming Championship.  Please share this post with your friends so they can enjoy the events as well.  Follow us @VPNFan for the latest deals.

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