World Aquatics

World Aquatics,[2] formerly known as FINA (French: Fédération internationale de natation; English: International Swimming Federation),[lower-alpha 1] is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)[3] 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" redirects here. For other uses, see FINA (disambiguation).

World Aquatics
Sport
JurisdictionInternational
AbbreviationWA (World Aquatics)
Founded19 July 1908 (1908-07-19)
AffiliationAssociation of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF)
HeadquartersLausanne, Switzerland
PresidentHusain Al-Musallam[1]
ReplacedInternational Swimming Federation
Official website
www.worldaquatics.com

Founded as FINA (Fédération internationale de natation; International Swimming Federation) in 1908, the federation was officially renamed World Aquatics in January 2023.[2]

World Aquatics currently oversees competition in six aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, artistic swimming,[4][5] water polo, and open water swimming.[6] World Aquatics also oversees "Masters" competition (for adults) in its disciplines.[6]

History
Flag of FINA (2008–2023)

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.[7]

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[8]
  • 2016: 207
  • 2017: 209

Members
Further information: List of World Aquatics member federations

In June 2017, Bhutan became the 208th national member federation of FINA (now World Aquatics);[9] and on 30 November 2017, Anguilla became the 209th national member federation.[10] 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 World Aquatics members which fall into the given geographical area. It is not necessarily the number of members in the continental association.

Organisation

World Aquatics' membership meets in General Congress every two years, usually coinciding with the biennial World Aquatics Championships. General Congress is World Aquatics' highest authority. Each General Congress has two voting members from each Member Federation, plus the following non-voting members: the 22 members of the World Aquatics Bureau, the Honorary Life President, and all Honorary Members. Technical issues concerning World Aquatics' six aquatic disciplines are decided by a Technical Congress which meets every four years. The Technical Congress has the following additional non-voting members: all members from the respective Technical Committees. Additional "Extraordinary Congresses" may also be called at other times, to deal with a specific topic or area of concern that arises. Congress meetings are chaired by the president of World Aquatics.[11]

Between Congress meetings of the entire membership, a smaller 22-member representative board, called the World Aquatics 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 World Aquatics' Executive Officers.[12]

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 World Aquatics Doping Panel).[13]

Presidents

Each presidential term is four years, beginning and concluding with the year following the Summer Olympics.

World Aquatics Presidents
NameCountryTerm
George Hearn Great Britain1908–1924
Erik Bergvall Sweden1924–1928
Émile-Georges Drigny France1928–1932
Walther Binner Germany1932–1936
Harold Fern Great Britain1936–1948 (*)
Rene de Raeve Belgium1948–1952
M.L. Negri Argentina1952–1956
Jan de Vries Netherlands1956–1960
Max Ritter Germany1960–1964
William Berge Phillips Australia1964–1968
Javier Ostos Mora[14] Mexico1968–1972
Dr. Harold Henning United States1972–1976
Javier Ostos Mora (2nd term)[14] Mexico1976–1980
Ante Lambaša Yugoslavia1980–1984
Robert Helmick United States1984–1988
Mustapha Larfaoui Algeria1988–2009
Dr. Julio Maglione Uruguay2009–2021
Husain Al-Musallam Kuwait2021–present

Events
2008 FINA World Cup swimming at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre

World Aquatics Championships
Main article: World Aquatics Championships

World Aquatics' biggest event is the biennial World Aquatics Championships, held every odd year, where all of the six aquatic disciplines are contested. A 50m length pool is used for swimming races.

The World Open Water Swimming Championships (a.k.a. "Open Water Worlds") is part of the World Aquatics Championships. Additional standalone editions of the Open Water Championships were also held in the even years from 2000 to 2010.

The World Masters Championships (a.k.a. "Masters Worlds") – open to athletes 25 years and above in each aquatics discipline (30+ years in water polo)[15] – has been held as part of the World Aquatics Championships since 2015. Prior to this, the Masters Championship was held separately, biennially in even years.

The World Aquatics Championship has been held biennially since 2001. Between 1978 and 1998, the World Aquatics Championship was held every 4 years, in the even year between Summer Olympic Games.

Stand-alone discipline competitions

World Aquatics also organizes separate tournaments and series for individual disciplines, including competitions for juniors.[16]

Discipline world tournaments

Discipline world series

Junior championships

World-level championships restricted to a younger age, with the age limit varying by discipline and gender:

Sport name changes

In 2017, FINA (now World Aquatics) officially renamed 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.[4][20]

Bans

Retired athletes

In relation to anti-doping rule violations, World Aquatics 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).[21][22]

Russia and Belarus bans

Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials were banned from every FINA (World Aquatics) event through the end of 2022.[23] FINA also cancelled FINA events in Russia, and banned Russian and Belarusian teams through to the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26]

Controversies

Soul Cap

In 2021, FINA (World Aquatics) 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.[27] 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."[27] After receiving criticism about racism, FINA announced that they would review their decision. Later in 2022, FINA decided to approve the Soul Caps for future FINA events (effective immediately)

Zhou Jihong: alleged unethical behavior by World Aquatics Vice President at Tokyo 2020

In May 2022, New Zealand diving judge Lisa Wright revealed that during the 2020 Summer Olympics, FINA Vice President, Zhou Jihong, allegedly launched a verbal tirade at Wright at the conclusion of the men's 10m platform final. Wright alleged that Zhou verbally abused her for underscoring Chinese divers[28]. Diving New Zealand subsequently complained about the incident to FINA's Ethics Panel. As a result, Zhou was ordered by in a FINA Ethics Panel decision[29] to write a letter of apology to Wright[30]. A recommendation was also made by the Ethics Panel to disestablish Zhou's position as Diving Bureau Liaison for FINA. The FINA Ethics Panel stated that the incident during the men's platform final was "unfortunate" and led to a "misunderstanding mixed with misjudgement" between Wright and Zhou[31].

In May 2022, former international diver, Olympic judge and previous member of FINA's Technical Diving Committee from New Zealand Simon Latimer revealed he had sent a whistleblower complaint[32] to FINA's Executive Director Brent Nowicki in December 2021 detailing Zhou's alleged "unethical behavior" which also contained allegations that Zhou has routinely coached Chinese divers during major events such as the Olympics and World Championships and she had manipulated judging panels in order to benefit Chinese athletes. Latimer claimed that Zhou's behavior was tarnishing the reputation of international diving and that she was acting in the interests of China rather than international diving as a whole.

Subsequent to Latimer's complaint, video evidence emerged online showing Zhou coaching Chinese divers during competition sessions at the 2020 Summer Olympics, a behavior considered unethical given her supposedly neutral role as a FINA Vice President and Diving Bureau Liaison[33].

In July 2022, Latimer was not re-elected to FINA's Technical Diving Committee, and Zhou was one of the FINA Bureau Member's who had input in the selection process[34].

In 2022 FINA's By Laws[35] were updated to state that the Bureau Liasion position that Zhou holds should not interfere on the field of play during competitions and that individuals holding that position shall not act as a Team Leader or coach at international events including the Olympic Games.

Transgender athlete restrictions

On 19 June 2022, FINA (World Aquatics) "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.[36][37][38] 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".[39][40] The decision was criticized as "discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles" by LGBT advocacy group Athlete Ally.[41]

See also

Notes
  1. The official and original name prior to 2023 was in French.

References
  1. "FINA Executive". FINA - Fédération Internationale De Natation.
  2. "International Swimming Federation to be renamed World Aquatics". www.insidethegames.biz. 12 December 2022.
  3. "FINA". Olympic.org. The International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 24 October 2004. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  4. "Synchronized swimming to be called artistic swimming". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  5. "FINA artistic swimming rules 2017-2021" (PDF). FINA. 13 September 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  6. "FINA Sports History". 15 June 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. from the FINA website (www.fina.org); retrieved 2013-06-05.
  7. "About FINA". FINA.org. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022.
  8. "Kosovo is the 208th FINA member". FINA. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  9. FINA (8 June 2017). "Bhutan Swimming Federation joins FINA as 208th National Member Federation". FINA. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  10. FINA (30 November 2017). "PR 93 - FINA BUREAU MEETING - 30 November 2017". FINA. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  11. "FINA Constitution 2017" (PDF). FINA.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2018.
  12. "FINA Bureau". FINA.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021.
  13. "FINA Committee list". Archived from the original on 2 August 2012.
  14. "Swimming World Presents "Remembering the 1st World Championships: Belgrade 1973"". 5 June 2019.
  15. "Masters". World Aquatics. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  16. "FINA Media Kit for the 2010 FINA World Aquatics Convention" (PDF). 22 February 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2010. . (The listing and structure of the "Events" section is based on the event listing in this packet.)
  17. "Montpellier to host FINA Artistic Swimming World Cup leg". LEN: European Aquatics. 10 December 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  18. "FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2022". World Aquatics. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  19. "FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships 2022". World Aquatics. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  20. "What is the difference between synchronized swimming and artistic swimming?". Diario AS. 1 August 2021. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
  21. "FINA Doping Panel Decision - Ruta Meilutyte (LTU)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 April 2021.
  22. "FINA Doping Panel Bans Three Retired Russians, Including Olympian Artem Lobuzov". Swimming World News. 28 March 2022. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  23. "PRESS RELEASE | FINA Bureau meets, acknowledges decision to suspend Russian swimmer Evgeny Rylov". FINA - Fédération Internationale De Natation.
  24. "FINA Bureau meets, makes further decisions on Russian and Belarusian athletes and event hosting". FINA.org (Press release). FINA. 23 March 2022. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  25. "FINA Order award withdrawn". FINA.org (Press release). FINA. 1 March 2022. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  26. Keith, Braden (23 April 2022). "Russia Confirms that Suspended Rylov Will Be Allowed at Russian Championships". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 24 April 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  27. Priya Elan (2 July 2021). "Swimming caps for natural black hair ruled out of Olympic Games". The Guardian.
  28. Ramsay, George (12 May 2022). "She apologized for verbally abusing an Olympic judge, but questions over the conduct of China's 'Iron Lady' of diving remain". CNN. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  29. https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/04/06/151cc7a0-5b84-45d2-820e-72943af4cce6/2021-FINA-Ethics-Panel-Ms-jihong-Zhou-.pdf
  30. https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/04/06/151cc7a0-5b84-45d2-820e-72943af4cce6/2021-FINA-Ethics-Panel-Ms-jihong-Zhou-.pdf
  31. "Whistleblower files complaint over conduct of FINA vice-president Zhou". www.insidethegames.biz. 9 March 2022. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  32. "Simon Latimer letter to Brent Nowicki.docx - AnonFiles". anonfiles.com. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  33. Sutherland, James (18 April 2022). "Video Shows FINA VP Zhou Jihong Coaching Chinese Diver At Tokyo Olympic Games". SwimSwam. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  34. Johannsen, Dana (12 July 2022). "Kiwi diving official replaced on FINA committee after blowing the whistle on one of the sport's most powerful figures". Stuff. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  35. https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/09/13/66dec1e1-676e-4c87-89de-b726562af479/25_FINA-By-Laws_09_09_2022_mark-up_compared_to_08_08_2022.pdf
  36. FINA Communication Department. "Press Release: FINA announces new policy on gender inclusion". FINA. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  37. FINA (19 June 2022). "Policy on Eligibility For The Men's And Women's Competiton [sic] Categories" (PDF). FINA. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  38. FINA (19 June 2022). "INA Extraordinary General Congress, 19th FINA World Championships, Budapest". FINA. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  39. "Transgender swimmers barred from women's events". Al Jazeera. 19 June 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  40. Ingle, Sean (19 June 2022). "Transgender women swimmers barred from female competitions by Fina". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  41. Melnick, Kyle; Carpenter, Les (19 June 2022). "FINA vote restricts transgender athletes in women's competitions". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.