The first European Aquatics Media Webinar for Athletes took place on the EA Academy’s site yesterday (February 5), offering the 192 attendees advice and expertise in every aspect of communication.

Introduced by the EA President Antonio Silva, the 90-minute session covered media interactions in all sectors, including interviews with TV and radio, press conferences before and after competition, speaking to website and written press journalists and optimising social media posts.

The webinar also addressed the long-term benefits to athletes of forming good relationships with those in the media, and the challenge of finding the best new direction after retiring from competition.

This broad introduction, expertly hosted by TV interviewer and reporter Nick Hope, will be followed by others addressing key areas of interest in greater detail.  

“For us this webinar is very important,” European Aquatics President Antonio Silva told attendees in his opening address.

“As you may know we have just launched our European Aquatics Academy and our Educational Platform, which is this platform that we are linking in.

“Our Academy has four main targets, four main groups of interest. The first one is the athletes – they are the ones who are most important. Then the officials, then the coaches and lastly the national federation managers.

“And duly aligned with our Strategic Action Plan we have started to develop some actions for the education of the athletes – and this is the kick-off for this programme for 2025.

“I think you will all enjoy it. This is for you, for the athletes, mostly. And you can be sure that step by step we will progress in this way and we will promote some additional initiatives in order to provide some more education for the athletes in order that they can move forward.

“We are also working right now in the Erasmus + programme which is dedicated to mental health and career transition, and we will be aware of this. But the main topic of this webinar is how to deal with media and social media.”

He thanked those offering their testimonies from different sectors of media operation – Hope, EA Communications Director Nick Davies, EA Social Media Manager Andreas Georgiou and TV commentator Andy Jameson, all of whom provided detailed and valuable advice.

He also thanked the three athletes or former athletes offering their own inputs – Germany’s current double European women’s open water swimming champion Leonie Beck, EA Bureau member Pernille Blume, who retired in 2022 having won Olympic 50m freestyle gold for Denmark in 2016, and Spain’s Emma Garcia, who won European mixed duet free and technical gold last year in artistic swimming and who is a member of the EA athletes’ committee.

In his address, Davies emphasised the key virtue of authenticity for any athlete interacting with media, stressing that their story need not always be one of success and winning, but could also reflect challenges they faced in their career.

He added: “Media coverage is a key way to build your own individual brand and commercial value. It will also help you to promote the sport you love.”

Hope underlined this message as he offered clips of rewarding and less rewarding sporting interviews he had undertaken.

Georgiou offered a contrast in social media effectiveness via posts from a fictional athlete, emphasising some key elements to maximise impact. AAthletes were encouraged to post regularly without overburdening themselves with the task, to offer video content where possible as research shows it is the most effective means of enlarging reach, and to collaborate with team-mates and their federation.

Jameson, who won 1987 European gold and 1988 Olympic bronze in the 100m butterfly, detailed how he had moved into TV commentary after retiring and offered a detailed insight into what is required for successful commentary in TV, radio or poolside settings.

The three ambassador athletes offered their own personal testimonies of how they have dealt with media and social media, and the challenges and opportunities such interactions can present.

The full webinar can now be viewed at https://www.eaacademy.eu/lms/lesson/49