Rubes Levada
Founder · Head coach · Sport project manager
Staff
The people behind FinSwim.World
Athletes, coaches and project managers who have spent their lives in finswimming, and now share that experience with clubs and federations worldwide.
Our team
Staff
Coaches, athletes and project managers working with FinSwim.World. Click Read more to see each profile.
Rubes Levada
Founder · Head coach · Sport project manager · Full career →
Athlete
Former Italian national team finswimmer (1994–1999): 4×200 m relay silver at the 1998 World Championships in Cali, Colombia, and at the 1997 and 1999 European Championships, plus two relay bronze medals at the 1997 World Games. Awarded the Italian Gold Medal for Athletic Valour (Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Atletico, no. 2230) for the 1998 World Championships in Cali, where Italy won the team world title (source). Still racing as a masters swimmer.
Full results
- 1994 European Juniors, Hungary: silver, 4×100 m relay
- 1995 World Juniors, Slovakia: 4th 4×200 m relay, 7th 50 m surface, 8th 100 m surface
- 1997 European Championships, France: silver, 4×200 m relay
- 1997 World Games, Finland: bronze, 4×100 m and 4×200 m relays
- 1998 World Championships, Cali, Colombia: team world champion with Italy; silver, 4×200 m relay
- 1999 European Championships, Greece: silver 4×200 m relay, 7th 200 m, 6th 400 m
- 2015 Masters World Cup, Ravenna: 1st 100 m surface (43.70), 2nd 50 m surface (20.12)
- 2020 European Masters, Lignano: silver, 100 m surface M3 (53.10)
- 2021 European Masters, Lignano: 4th, 50 m apnoea M40+ (19.56)
Coach
Coaching since 2001: Record Team Bologna (2001–2006), Geronimo Zagreb and the Zagreb Diving Federation (2007–2022, professional coach from 2009), Croatian senior and junior national team coach (2008–2009), then Komet and Novi Jelkovec. FIPSAS Level 2 Master Coach (2012), qualified to teach coach courses. Athletes include world champion Filip Strikinac (2022, 50 m surface), world silver medallist Kristijan Tomić (2016) and European silver medallist Dora Bassi (2019).
Sport leader
Founder of Finswimming Team Komet (2011) and Novi Jelkovec (2017). Since 2018 he has written and managed 16 EU-funded projects (Erasmus+ Sport and ESF+) worth over €1 million: 14 for the two clubs, as coordinator or partner, and 2 as project manager for Female Football Club Međimurje. Co-founded finswimming organisations in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Romania. Master's degree in Business Economics (University of Bologna); speaks Italian, Croatian, English and French.
Our vision
A world where everyone can swim like a dolphin
We see finswimming recognised as a major aquatic sport and open to everyone: in every country, in every pool, for people of every age, ability and background. Strong, self-sustaining clubs and federations make the sport grow wherever there is water.
Our mission
We bring finswimming to new people and new places, and help the organisations behind it become strong enough to last.
We share the knowledge of a lifetime in finswimming, as athlete, coach and sport leader, with athletes, coaches, clubs and federations worldwide. We:
- teach the sport through open articles and tutorials, bootcamps, clinics and remote coaching;
- open the water to people with disabilities and from vulnerable groups, at any age, with free inclusive programmes and an equipment library;
- help clubs and federations become independent, through EU projects, fundraising and good management;
- reinvest everything we earn into the sport and the people it serves.
Looking for our clubs and partners? Komet, Novi Jelkovec and the clubs and federations we work with are on the Network page.
Work with us
Coaching, bootcamps and expert support for clubs and federations: tell us what you need.