United States Aquatic Sports (USAS) is the national federation for aquatic sports which represents the United States in
FINA
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 (IOC) for administer ...
(Fédération Internationale de Natation). Since by U.S. law and FINA regulations, the United States must have only one national federation for itself to FINA, United States Aquatic Sports has served as the unifying body for the sports since 1980. Five separate national governing bodies (NGBs) make up USAS:
USA Swimming
USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams that officially represent the United States, as well as the overal ...
,
USA Diving
USA Diving, Inc. is the national governing body of diving in the United States as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and is a member of United States Aquatic Sports Inc., the United States' member of FINA (the International Swimmin ...
,
United States Synchronized Swimming,
USA Water Polo
USA Water Polo is the governing body of the sport of water polo in the United States and is a member of the United States Aquatic Sports. USA Water Polo is responsible for fielding national teams and hosts 20 annual tournaments. The Organization h ...
, and
U.S. Masters Swimming. Of the five, only U.S. Masters Swimming (USMS) is not a member of the
United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...
(USMS's main aim is adult swimming, exclusive of Olympic-swimming which is the domain of USA Swimming).
United States Aquatic Sports plays a very minor role in representation, and while USAS is the titular member federation, the NGBs play ''de facto'' roles in making decisions about participation in international competition and hosting. Ostensibly, USAS will "sign off" on the selections of an NGB's delegation to an international competition (whether hosted by the
IOC
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 Swiss ...
, FINA, or
ASUA).
USAS hosts an annual convention where the five NGBs meet, as well; currently this meeting also includes the annual conventions for all but water polo--who is in-season at the time, and instead holds its annual convention at another time of the year. The reasoning behind this is to allow the NGBs to save money on their national conventions and to allow collaboration between the NGBs on common issues of interest. USAS meetings are also held at the time.
United States Aquatic Sports Convention locations
*1979: Washington DC
*1980: Snow Bird, UT
*1981: Snow Bird, UT
*1982: Memphis, TN
*1983: Cincinnati, OH
*1984: Indianapolis, IN
*1985: Phoenix, AZ
*1986: Fort Worth, TX
*1987: Atlanta, GA
*1988: St. Louis, MO
*1989: Portland, OR
*1990: Pittsburgh, PA
*1991: Louisville, KY
*1992: Minneapolis, MN
*1993: Los Angeles, CA
*1994: Kansas City, MO
*1995: Houston, TX
*1996: Orlando, FL
*1997: San Diego, CA
*1998: Cincinnati, OH
*1999: San Diego, CA
*2000: Kissimmee, FL
*2001:
[The 2001 USAS Convention was to fully begin on Wednesday, September 12, 2001; however, due to the ]September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
and subsequent plane groundings, only about a quarter of all registered delegates arrived in Dearborn for the convention. The Masters group re-scheduled their meetings and held it in Louisville, Kentucky, a few weeks later; however, the other NGBs simply postponed most items until the next year. Dearborn, MI
*2002: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
*2003: San Diego, CA
*2004: Orlando, FL
*2005: Greensboro, NC
*2006: Dearborn, MI
*2007: Anaheim, CA
*2008: Atlanta, GA
*2009: Rosemont, IL
*2010: Dallas, TX
*2011: Jacksonville, FL
*2012: Greensboro, NC
*2013: Garden Grove, CA
*2014: Jacksonville, FL
*2015: Kansas City, KS
*2016: Atlanta, GA
*2017: Dallas, TX
*2018: Jacksonville, FL
*2019: Saint Louis, MO
*2020: Jacksonville, FL
*2021: Atlanta, GA
See also
*
United States women's national water polo team
The United States women's national water polo team represents the United States in international women's water polo competitions and friendly matches. It is one of the leading teams in the world since the late 1990s.
On March 27, 2009, USA Water ...
*
Swimming (sport) #Swimwear
Notes
External links
United States Aquatic Sportsofficial website
USA Water Poloofficial website
{{Sports governing bodies of the United States
National members of ASUA
Aquatic sports
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
Aquatic