FINA High Diving World Cup
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
(IOC) for administering international competitions in water sports. It is one of several international federations which administer a given sport or discipline for both the IOC and the international community. It is based in
Lausanne, Switzerland Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...
. FINA currently oversees competition in six aquatics sports:
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
, diving, high diving,
artistic swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming) or artistic swimming is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by FINA (the ''Fédératio ...
,
water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with th ...
, and
open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swa ...
. from the FINA website (www.fina.org); retrieved 2013-06-05. FINA also oversees " Masters" competition (for adults) in its disciplines.


History

FINA was founded on 19 July 1908 in the Manchester Hotel in
London, UK London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
at the end of the
1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were o ...
by the Belgian, British, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian and Swedish Swimming Federations. Number of national federations by year: *1908: 8 *1928: 38 *1958: 75 *1978: 106 *1988: 109 *2000: 174 *2008: 197 *2010: 202 *2012: 203 *2015: 208 *2016: 207 *2017: 209


Members

At the June 2017, FINA Bureau meeting,
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
became the 208th national federation of FINA. and on 30 November 2017,
Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The terr ...
became the 209th national federation of FINA. Members are grouped by continent, and there are 5 continental associations of which they can choose to be a member: *Africa (52): African Swimming Confederation (CANA) *Americas (45): Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA) *Asia (45): Asia Swimming Federation (AASF) *Europe (52): European Swimming League (LEN) *Oceania (15): Oceania Swimming Association (OSA) Note: The number following each continental name is the number of FINA members which fall into the given geographical area. It is not necessarily the number of members in the continental association.


Organisation

The FINA membership meets every four years, usually coinciding with the
World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
. There are two types of normal or "ordinary" congress: General and Technical. FINA's highest authority is the General Congress. Any technical issues concerning FINA's five aquatic disciplines are decided by the Technical Congress. Each Congress has two voting members from each Member federation, plus the following non-voting members: the 22 members of the Bureau, the Honorary Life President, and all Honorary Members. The Technical Congress has the following additional non-voting members: all members from the respective Technical Committees. "Extraordinary" Congresses are also called from time to time, to deal with a specific topic or area of concern (e.g. an Extraordinary Congress was held with the 2009 World Championships to review the Masters swimming rules; there was a General Congress at the 2009 Worlds). All Congress meetings are chaired by FINA's president. Between Congress meetings of the entire membership, a smaller 22-member representative board, called the FINA Bureau, meets to act in a timely manner on items which cannot wait until the entire body can meet. It is the Bureau that elects the FINA Executive Officers. Various committees and commission also help with the oversight of individual disciplines (e.g. the Technical Open Water Swimming Committee helps with open water), or topic-related issues (e.g. the FINA Doping Panel).


Presidents

Each presidential term is four years, beginning and concluding with the year following the Summer Olympics (i.e., 2018-2021 is the current term). 1954 Honorary President
Ing. Ladislav Hauptmann Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...
- Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) - President LEN (1948 - 1950) and FINA official.


Events

FINA organizes one championship involving each of the five disciplines it oversees (the "World Championships"), as well as championships and circuits in each of the disciplines.


World Aquatics Championships

The biggest FINA event is the biennial World Aquatics Championships, currently held every odd year. It features competitions in all five aquatic disciplines. Prior to 2000, the event was held every 4 years, in the even year between (Summer) Olympic Games.


Discipline championships

*Swimming: World Swimming Championships (25m), (a.k.a. "Short Course Worlds"). Biennial event (in even years); swum in 25-meter length pool (Olympic and World Championships are in a 50m pool). *Water Polo: Water Polo World Leagues (men's and women's). *Diving: Diving World Series. *High Diving:
High Diving World Series High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...
. *Open Water: World Open Water Swimming Championships (a.k.a. "Open Water Worlds"). Even years from 2000 to 2010. *Artistic swimming: Synchro World Trophy. *Masters: World Masters Championships (a.k.a. "Masters Worlds"). Bi-annual, in even years. "Masters" competition is for adults (20 years old and up). This championships features all 5 disciplines.


Discipline world cups

In addition to the championships events listed above, FINA also organizes the following events: *Swimming:
Swimming World Cup The FINA Swimming World Cup is an international series of short course () swimming meets organized by FINA, the International Federation for swimming. Launched in 1988, the FINA Swimming World Cup gathers world-class swimmers in a series of two-d ...
. *Water Polo: Men's and Women's Water Polo World Cup. Every 4 years. *Diving: Diving World Cup. *High Diving: High Diving World Cup. *Open Water: Marathon Swim World Series. *Artistic Swimming: Synchro World Cup. Every 4 years.


Junior championships

World-level championships restricted to a younger age, with the age limit varying by discipline and gender: *Swimming: World Junior Swimming Championships. *Water Polo: Junior and Youth Water Polo World Championships. *Diving:
Junior Diving World Cup Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...
. *Open Water:
Junior Open Water Swimming World Championships Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...
. *Artistic Swimming: World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championships.


Sport name changes

In 2017, FINA officially re-named the sport of synchronised swimming as artistic swimming for its competitions to reflect the expansion in evaluation criteria in the sport to include not only synchronization but other elements such as choreography and artistic expression as well.


Bans


Retired athletes

In relation to anti-doping rule violations, FINA does enact suspensions on athletes who are retired from their respective sport at the time of ban implementation, with examples including Lithuanian
Rūta Meilutytė Rūta Meilutytė (; born 19 March 1997) is a Lithuanian swimmer. An Olympic gold medalist, she is a world record holder in the short course 50 metre breaststroke and 100 metre breaststroke. She is a former world record holder in the long course ...
(2019–2021) and Russians
Artem Lobuzov Artem Yuryevich Lobuzov (Russian: Артём Юрьевич Лобузов, born 24 January 1991) is a Russian swimmer who competes in freestyle events. He represented the Russian Federation at the Olympic Games. Lobuzov's lifetime best in the 20 ...
(2021–2025), Alexandra Sokolova (2021–2025), and Artem Podyakov (2021–2025).


Russia and Belarus bans

Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials are banned from every FINA event through the end of 2022. FINA also cancelled FINA events in Russia, and banned Russian and Belarusian teams through to the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022. In March 2022, after the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. A ...
, FINA banned all Russians and Belarusians from competing at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships and withdrew the
2022 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) The 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) took place from 13 to 18 December 2022 in Melbourne, Australia at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.
from being held in Russia. This came after indefinitely banning athletes and officials of both countries from wearing the colours of their country, swimming representing their country with their country's name, and the playing of their country's national anthem in case an athlete from either country won an event. Additionally, times swum by Russians at non-FINA competitions for the April to December 2022 time frame did not count for world rankings nor world records.


Controversies


Soul Cap

In 2021, FINA came under criticism for not approving the use at the Olympics of the Soul Cap, a brand of swimming caps designed for natural Black hair. FINA said the caps did not fit "the natural form of the head" and to their "best knowledge the athletes competing at the international events never used, neither require … caps of such size and configuration." After receiving criticism about racism, FINA announced that they would review their decision. Later in 2022, FINA (World Aquatics) decided to approve the Soul Caps for future FINA events (effective immediately)


Transgender athlete restrictions

On 19 June 2022, FINA "committed to the separation of Aquatics sports into men's and women's categories according to sex" by a 71% vote, adopting a new policy on eligibility for the men's and women's competition categories. This policy effectively bars all transgender women from competing in professional women's swimming, with the exception of athletes who "can establish to FINA's comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 (of puberty) or before age 12, whichever is later". FINA also announced the development of a separate "open" category for some events, to be determined by a working group over the next six months, so that "everybody has the opportunity to compete at an elite level". The decision was criticized as "discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles" by LGBT advocacy group Athlete Ally.


See also

*
History of competitive swimwear The history of competitive swimwear has been dominated by concerns over public nudity in the first half of the 20th century and by efforts to reduce water drag in the second half. Those efforts initially led swimmers to reduce the early sagging one ...
* FINA Athletes of the Year *
World Aquatics Day World Aquatics Day is an international day which recognises, and celebrates physical activity in aquatic sports. It was established by the organisation FINA, and takes place on the first weekend of July. This comes just before 19 July, which comme ...
*
International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...
(ISHOF) * List of swimming competitions *
List of international sport federations This is a list of international sports federations, each of which serves as a non-governmental governing body for a given sport and administers its sport at a world level, most often crafting rules, promoting the sport to prospective specta ...
*
Major achievements in swimming by nation This is a list of the best results achieved by athletes from different nations at four major competitions where swimming events are (or were) competed. Results are based on major competitions according to FINA's historical records: the swimming an ...


Notes


References


External links


Official website
* {{Authority control Swimming organizations * International sports organizations Sports organizations established in 1908 1908 establishments in England Aquatics IOC-recognised international federations Organisations based in Lausanne