World Aquatics
- See the disambiguation page for other meanings of FINA.
FINA, Fédération Internationale de Natation--the International Swimming Federation--is the International Federation (IF) recognized by the International Olympic Committe (IOC) with administering international competition in the aquatic sports. It is one of several IFs which administers a given sport/discipline for the IOC and/or international community. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
FINA oversees competition currently in five main areas: swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open water swimming championships.
The current President of FINA is Mustapha Larfaoui, of Algeria.
List of presidents
| FINA Presidents | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Country | Term |
| G.W. Hearn | Great Britain | 1908–1924 |
| Erik Bergvall | Sweden | 1924–1928 |
| Émile-Georges Drigny | France | 1928–1932 |
| W. Binner | Great Britain | 1932–1936 |
| H.E. Fern | Great Britain | 1936–1948 (*) |
| Rene de Raeve | Belgium | 1948–1952 |
| M.L. Negri | Argentina | 1952–1956 |
| Jan de Vries | Netherlands | 1956–1960 |
| R.M. Ritter | USA | 1960–1964 |
| W. Berge Phillips | Australia | 1964–1968 |
| Javier Ostos | Mexico | 1968–1972 |
| Dr. Harold Henning | USA | 1972–1976 |
| Javier Ostos (2) | Mexico | 1976–1980 |
| Ante Lambasa | Yugoslavia | 1980–1984 |
| Robert Helmick | USA | 1984–1988 |
| Mustapha Larfaoui | Algeria | 1988–2009 |
Events
FINA currently organizes several events in all the disciplines it oversees.
The biggest FINA event is the now bi-annual World Championships, currently held every odd year. It features events in all 5 aquatic disciplines, and will next be held in Melbourne, Australia, in March 2007. Prior to 2000, the event was held every 4 years, in the even year between Olympic (Summer) Games.
The World Swimming Championship (25m), (aka "Short Course Worlds"), is a swimming-only meet, swum in 25-meter long pool. It is held bi-annually, in even-numbered years, and was most recently held in Shanghai, China, in April 2006.
Other championship events sponsored by FINA include:
-Youth World Swimming Championships (bi-annual, to be first held in August 2006) -Junior Diving World Championships -Open Water World Championships -Masters World Championships (bi-annual, with the next event in August 2006 in Stanford, California)
Other than championships events, FINA also sponsors several annual series of events, typically one in each disciple. These include:
-the swimming World Cup (currently on hiatus for 2006-07) -the diving Grand Prix (2006 features 8 meets and a Super Final, from February-September) -the water polo World League -the Marathon World Cup (2006's Cup features 19 races around the globe, from February through October, with races 10-kilometers and over)
See also
- Ligue Européenne de Natation (the European Swimming Federation).
- USA Swimming (USA's swimming federation).
External links
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