According to Brazilian news site O Globo, the Federação Aquática do Rio de Janeiro is in a R $ 1.4 million debt and will be charging swimmers in order to raise money.
All FARJ clubs will be forced to pay R $65 per athlete every month, which would accumulate a projected outcome of roughly R $136,500 every month for the governing body in order to slowly chip away at the debt. The fee is mandatory even if the athlete doesn’t enter any competitions during the month.
FARJ will also be charging athletes and clubs depending on the events they enter in certain competitions. The charge will be R $25 per event and they will also have to pay a R $15 flat rate fee of in order to gain use of the pool.
To put that amount into perspective, at the State Championships Fluminense (a local swim team) entered 97 athletes which would cost them roughly US $9000
At the State Championship recently athletes complained about the quality of the medals given out, saying that they gave old reused medals. While the organization is in debt, athletes don’t feel as though they should be required to make up for it.
An athlete who chose to remain anonymous told O Globo that they already spent more than R $1000 with FARJ this year.
To read the original post by O Globo in Portuguese, click here.