FINA


FINA is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee for administering international competition in water sports. It is one of several international federations which administer a given sport or discipline for the IOC and international community. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
FINA currently oversees competition in six aquatics sports:
swimming,
diving,
high diving,
artistic swimming,
water polo,
and open water swimming. FINA also oversees "Masters" competition 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:
At the June 2017, FINA Bureau meeting, Bhutan became the 208th national federation of FINA. and on November 30, 2017, Anguilla 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:
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. 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. 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 forthgather. It is the Bureau that elects the FINA Executive Officers.
Various committees and commission also help with the oversight of individual disciplines, or topic-related issues.

Presidents

Each presidential term is four years, beginning and concluding with the year following the Summer Olympics.
1954 Honorary President Ing. Ladislav Hauptmann - Czech Republic - President LEN and FINA official.

Events

FINA organizes one championship involving each of the five disciplines it oversees, 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 Olympic Games.

Discipline championships

In addition to the championships events listed above, FINA also organizes the following events:
A world-level championships restricted to a younger age, vary by discipline and gender: