FINA reinstates Vourna in Rio list after all

Butterfly champion Kristel Vourna, who was told she had qualified to next month’s Olympics before she was denied participation, is now told she will go to the Rio Games after all.

On Wednesday the Executive Director of swimming’s world governing body (FINA), Marculescu contacted the Greek swimming federation president, Dimitris Diathesopoulos and informed him that FINA had reinstated the Greek 100-meter-butterfly champion in the list of athletes who have qualified to this summer’s Olympics, following consultations with the International Olympic Committee.

On July 6 Vourna had received a formal invitation by FINA to take part in the Games, but this was retracted eight days later, with FINA saying her original invitation was down to “an administrative error”.

Now it appears a joint decision by FINA and the IOC will spare the blushes of the international federation and allow Vourna to swim in her second Olympics after London 2012.

Diathesopoulos, also a member of the FINA Bureau, stated: “This time, personally as the head of the Greek federation, I would like to thank both FINA and Cornel Marculescu for their extraordinary action in favor of Vourna.”