Federation Internationale de la Natation

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 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.

FINA currently oversees competition in six aquatics sports:
swimming,
diving,
high diving,
Synchronised swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming. from the FINA website (www.fina.org); retrieved 2013-06-05. FINA also oversees "Masters swimming, Masters" competition (for adults) in its disciplines.

History

FINA was founded on 19 July 1908 in the Manchester Hotel in London, London, UK at the end of the 1908 Summer Olympics by the Belgian, British Swimming, British, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian and Swedish Swimming Federation, 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 became the 208th List of FINA Member Federations, national federation of FINA. and on 30 November 2017, Anguilla became the 209th List of FINA Member Federations, 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, African Swimming Confederation (CANA)
*Americas (45): Swimming Union of the Americas, Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA)
*Asia (45): Asia Swimming Federation, Asia Swimming Federation (AASF)
*Europe (52): Ligue européenne de natation, European Swimming League (LEN)
*Oceania (15): Oceania Swimming Association, 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 FINA World Aquatics Championships, World Championships. 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 - 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: FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m), 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: FINA Water Polo World League, Water Polo World Leagues (men's and women's).
*Diving: FINA Diving World Series, Diving World Series.
*High Diving: High Diving World Series.
*Open Water: FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, World Open Water Swimming Championships (a.k.a. "Open Water Worlds"). Even years from 2000 to 2010.
*Artistic swimming: FINA Synchronized Swimming World Trophy, Synchro World Trophy.
*Masters: FINA World Masters Championships, 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: FINA Swimming World Cup, Swimming World Cup.
*Water Polo: FINA Water Polo World Cup, Men's and FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup, Women's Water Polo World Cup. Every 4 years.
*Diving: FINA Diving World Cup, Diving World Cup.
*High Diving: FINA High Diving World Cup, High Diving World Cup.
*Open Water: FINA Marathon Swim World Series, Marathon Swim World Series.
*Artistic Swimming: FINA Synchronized Swimming World Cup, 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: FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, World Junior Swimming Championships.
*Water Polo: FINA Junior Water Polo World Championships, Junior and FINA Youth Water Polo World Championships, Youth Water Polo World Championships.
*Diving: Junior Diving World Cup.
*Open Water: Junior Open Water Swimming World Championships.
*Artistic Swimming: FINA World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championships, 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 (2019–2021) and Russians Artem Lobuzov (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, FINA banned all Russians and Belarusians from competing at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships and withdrew the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) 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#FINA rule changes, History of competitive swimwear
*FINA Athletes of the Year
*World Aquatics Day
*International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF)
*List of swimming competitions
*List of international sport federations
*Major achievements in swimming by nation

Notes

References

External links

Official website
*

{{Authority control

FINA,
Swimming organizations
Water polo governing bodies, *
International sports organizations
Sports organizations established in 1908
1908 establishments in England
Aquatics
IOC-recognised international federations
Organisations based in Lausanne