The annual Bosphorus Cross Continental Swimming Race (Turkish: Boğaziçi Kıtalararası Yüzme Yarışı), always held in July, was postponed until August 23rd. The Turkish Olympic Committee – Bosphorus Committee managed to obtain all the necessary permissions from the Turkish government and included many new regulations in order to do our race. We held our qualification swims in Ankara, İzmir, Adana and İstanbul and accepted only 10 swimmers at the same time into the swimming pool in order to keep the social distance. Body temperatures were measured and we did not allow the swimmers to use the showers as well as other measures. Once they finished the swim, they had to leave the building. The swims were held safely.

Our main changes for this year’s race are as follows:
* There will be no route tours with the boat
* There will be no show-swim
* There will be no spaghetti party
* There will be no visitors on Sunday during the race
* There will be 3 large ships for the swimmers to start in order to keep the social distance
* Accreditation will be done over 4 days instead of 3 days
* Finish certificates will delivered via the Internet
* Masks are a must for everyone everywhere in the park including on the ships
* Body temperatures will be measured at the entrance of the park and before boarding the ships

We only will focus on the swim race and make sure the race is safe for everybody as much as we can possibly do for the 2,310 swimmers who will swim from Asia to Europe on August 23rd, the first swimming event in Turkey in 2020.