Ghanaian swimmer Ivan Christopher Snowden will depart Accra for Bahrain on Sunday to begin a World Aquatics (WA) scholarship programme combining high-performance swimming with university education.
Snowden was officially handed over to the World Aquatics programme by the Ghana Swimming Association (GSA) at the Ghana Olympic Committee headquarters in Accra on Thursday. The 20-year-old will train at the World Aquatics Bahrain Centre of Excellence while pursuing a fully funded three-year programme at the University of Technology Bahrain (UTB).
At the handover, GSA President Delphina Quaye, supported by Vice-President Farida Iddriss and his coach and GSA board member Obedeka Adjei, urged Snowden to make maximum use of the opportunity, improve his performances and set a standard that could open the door for more Ghanaian swimmers to benefit from similar opportunities.
Snowden, who was accompanied by his father, mother, brother and grandmother, expressed gratitude for the scholarship, describing it as recognition of years of hard work and an important step in his career. He said the combination of elite training and education would be fundamental to his development.
“Training at the high-performance centre will allow me to swim with some of the best and compete at the highest level, and studying at the University of Technology in Bahrain is very important to me because I’ll be able to further my studies while also continuing my swimming,” he said.
Ghanaian swimmers have previously benefited from World Aquatics scholarships, including national captain Abeku Jackson, who trained in Russia, and Christian Nii Nortey Duah, who received a one-year scholarship to train in Thailand in 2023.
Snowden’s opportunity, however, is distinctive because he is the first Ghanaian athlete to receive both World Aquatics’ training and educational scholarships concurrently.
The breaststroke specialist represented Ghana at the 2023 African Games and recently competed at the Africa Aquatics Championships in Algeria, recording personal best performances. He was also part of Ghana’s swimming team at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, competing in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.
His next major target will be the World Aquatics Championships in December, where he is set to make his debut on the global stage.
