Jurisdiction International President Julio Maglione | Headquarters Lausanne, Switzerland | |
 | ||
Sport Swimming
diving
synchronized swimming
water polo
open water swimming
high diving Founded 19 July 1908; 108 years ago (1908-07-19) Affiliation Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) | ||
FINA or Fédération internationale de natation (English: International Swimming Federation) is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competition in water sports. It is one of several international federations which administer a given sport/discipline for the IOC and/or international community. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Contents
- History
- Members
- Organization
- Presidents
- Events
- World Aquatics Championships
- Discipline championships
- Other events
- References
FINA currently oversees competition in five aquatics sports: swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open water swimming. Beginning in 2013, high diving emerged as a discipline within FINA. FINA also oversees "Masters" competition (for adults) in its disciplines.
On 24 July 2009, Julio Maglione of Uruguay was elected FINA President.
History
FINA was founded on 19 July 1908 in the Manchester Hotel in London, UK at the end of the 1908 Summer Olympics by the Belgian, British, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian and Swedish Swimming Federations.
Number of national federations by year:
Members
At the February 2015, FINA Bureau meeting, Kosovo became the 208th national federation of FINA. Members are grouped by continent, and there are 5 continental associations of which they can choose to be a member:
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.
Organization
The FINA membership meets every four years, usually coinciding with the 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" Congress 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., 2013-2017 is the current term).
Events
FINA organizes one championship involving each of the five disciplines it oversees (the "World Championships"), as well 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
Other events
In addition to the championships events listed above, FINA also organizes the following annual events, and sub-championships: