The series will bring together leading voices from across the aquatics community and beyond, including Olympic Artistic Swimming medallist Ona Carbonell, Artistic Swimming World Champion Giorgio Minisini and sleep specialist Dr Kirstie Anderson.

The first session, Understanding Sleep and Circadian Rhythm, will take place on Monday 23 March, with two live sessions at 08:00 CET and 14:00 CET on Zoom, to accommodate a global audience.

Supporting performance through better sleep

Designed for athletes, coaches and the wider aquatics community, the opening webinar will explore the science behind sleep and circadian rhythms, and how they influence performance, recovery and overall wellbeing.

Participants will gain a clearer understanding of sleep biology, the role circadian rhythms play in optimising performance and practical strategies to better align sleep with training and competition schedules - particularly when travelling across time zones.

The initiative builds on growing engagement across athlete wellbeing topics within World Aquatics.

Why this matters

With international competition schedules, athletes are regularly adapting to new time zones, environments and competition timings. Sleep disruption is often one of the first and most significant challenges they face.

This webinar aims to bring greater awareness to those challenges while offering accessible, evidence-based strategies that can be applied immediately - whether preparing for a major championship or managing the demands of daily training.

Leading voices from across the global aquatics community

Image Source: Tsutomu Kishimoto/World Aquatics

Speaking ahead of the session, Ona Carbonell highlighted how her understanding of recovery evolved over the course of her career:

“Earlier in my career, I focused almost entirely on training volume and intensity. Over time, I realised that recovery, especially sleep – was just as important. When you start to respect your body’s rhythms, you not only perform better, you feel more balanced as an athlete and therefore able to perform better.”

For Giorgio Minisini, the conversation around sleep is crucial in elite sport:

“Artistic swimming demands precision and endurance all at once. Sleep is one of the key foundations that allows all of that to come together. I think many athletes still underestimate how much it affects focus, coordination and even confidence in competition and so I am pleased that World Aquatics is helping to drive conversation and awareness about it.”

Image Source: Tsutomu Kishimoto/World Aquatics

Offering a scientific perspective, Dr Kirstie Anderson emphasised the practical impact of understanding sleep:

“Sleep is not only about duration - it’s about timing, consistency and quality. When athletes understand their sleep and circadian rhythms, they can make small but meaningful adjustments that have a measurable impact on performance and recovery. 

"Hopefully these webinars can help provide some practical tools that athletes can use to improve their sleep cycles and approach to sleep"
By Dr Kirstie Anderson

Looking ahead

A second webinar, on Sleep Challenges in Elite Athletes - Risks, Solutions, and Tracking, will follow on Monday 1 June 2026.

Who should attend?

This webinar series is open to:

  • Athletes preparing for competitions involving significant time zone changes, or those looking to optimise sleep for peak performance
  • Coaches, parents and support personnel seeking to better support athletes
  • Member Federations and club staff
  • Judges, referees and technical officials

Participants can register for the first session at 08:00 CET on Monday 23 March here.

Registration for the second session at 14:00 CET on Monday 23 March is available here.