Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon (21) alongside Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak (22) received the world’s first-ever NFT prizes alongside a whopping $50k for their efforts in the most recent 2022 World Swimming Championships held in Budapest, Hungary which were held on the 21st June.
The championships were hosted by FINA for their 19th Championship. They decided that they would mint custom-made NFTs for the winners alongside a physical print of the NFT to compliment the prize money.
The digital artwork was created by the artist named Krizbo, a Budapest local, who is not solely an NFT artist but had his artwork minted by FINA for the Championships. He also has a small but growing collection recently added to Opensea.
The NFTs
Ceccon and Milak’s NFT are both set in the backdrop of the colors of the Hungarian flag (red, white, and green). Two iconic buildings of the city accompany each swimmer’s winning moment in the pool alongside the Hungarian colors, and these are the Hungarian Parliament building and the Fisherman’s Bastion. Where the NFTs differ is that each of the winning athletes are featured in their own NFT. In Ceccon’s edition, he is pointing to the crowd in the pool, while Milak is sitting on the edge of the pool gazing up at the crowds.
FINA Quick To Publicise World’s First Ever NFT Mint For Swimming Championships
FINAs official Twitter page was quick to publicise the victories and the NFTs:
The Records
Ceccon achieved his World Record in the 100-metre backstroke event. His 51.60-time beating former record holder Ryan Murphy’s time of 51.85 by a quarter of a second. Local boy Milak swam the 200 meter backstroke in just 1:50.34 which beat his own former world record which sat (or swam) at 1:50.73 which he set in the 2019 championships.
The State of Crypto and NFTs
The world’s crypto market has been in free fall since November losing about two-thirds of its worth from its absolute peak. The market’s absolute peak saw a total market value of around $3 trillion Dollars and since that point, it has lost about two-thirds of its value as the market currently sits at around $1 trillion at the time of writing.
One thing that has stuck out through all of this though is the continued adoption of NFTs as more and more huge tech giants integrate NFT services into their platforms, from the brainchildren of Meta: Facebook and Instagram, to eBay, to Moonpay just to name a few. Even huge automotive giants such as Bentley Motors and McLaren are taking a slice of the NFT pie. And the NFT reach goes even further afield as legendary music festival Exit launches NTF collaborations with music stars. Literally, NFTs are everywhere you look right now and celebrities everywhere, including stars like Snopp Dogg and Justin Bieber, are coming out to endorse them also.
Oh, and now we even have World Swimming Championships!
