World Aquatics,[3] formerly known as FINA (French: Fédération internationale de natation; English: International Swimming Federation),[a] is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)[4] 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.
Founded as FINA (Fédération internationale de natation; International Swimming Federation) in 1908, the federation was officially renamed World Aquatics in January 2023.[3]
FINA was founded on 19 July 1908 in the Manchester Hotel in London, at the end of the 1908 Summer Olympics. Eight national federations were responsible for the formation of FINA: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary and Sweden.[8]
In 1973 the first World Aquatics Championships were staged in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, with competitions held in swimming, water polo, diving and synchronized swimming.[9] Dr. Hal Henning, who had formerly served as Chair of the U.S. Olympic Swim Committee, was FINA's first American president from 1972 through 1976 where he was highly instrumental in starting the first World Aquatics Championships in Belgrade, and in retaining the number of swimming events in the Olympics which favored countries with larger, more balanced swim teams.[10]
In 1986 the first permanent FINA office was opened in Lausanne, Switzerland.[11]
In 1991 open water swimming was added to the program of the World Aquatics Championships.[12]
In 2010 FINA convened the first edition of the FINA World Aquatics Convention in Punta del Este, Uruguay.[14]
In 2013 high diving was added to the program of the World Aquatics Championships.[15]
In 2015 FINA staged the first dual World Aquatics Championships and FINA World Masters Championships (later known World Aquatics Masters Championships) in Kazan Russia, run consecutively in the one city for the first time.[16]
In 2018 FINA celebrated 110 years by inaugurating a new headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. [17]
On 12 December 2022, during the Extraordinary General Congress held in Melbourne, Australia, the Congress approved a new Constitution and voted to adopt a new name for the organisation, World Aquatics.[18]
In July 2023, the World Aquatics General Congress approved the headquarters would be moving to Budapest, Hungary (host city of the 2017, 2022 and 2027 championships) was in the ‘final stage’ of negotiations to move.[19] The center is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2026, but the organization intends to move some of it to the Hungarian capital in the second half of next year.[20] In November 2024, they opened their interim office before a full, complete transfer by 2027.[21]
In June 2017, Bhutan became the 208th national member federation of FINA (now World Aquatics);[24] and on 30 November 2017, Anguilla became the 209th national member federation.[25] In 2023 the Philippines were removed from the list of member federations on the World Aquatics website.[26] At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka in July 2023 athletes from the Philippines were still competing as 'Suspended Member Federation', however by the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in September 2023, athletes from the Philippines were required to compete as 'Neutral Independent Athletes'.[27][28] Athletes from Kenya currently compete as 'Suspended Member Federation',[29] while athletes from Russia and Belarus are currently banned from competing, but the nation's are still listed as member federations.[30] World Aquatics also permits athletes not affiliated with a member federation to compete at events under the 'Athlete Refugee Team' banner.[31]
Members are grouped by continent, and there are 5 continental associations of which they can choose to be a member:[32]
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 & Structure
Under the new World Aquatics Constitution, ratified in December 2022, under clause 12, the following bodies are established to govern and administer World Aquatics:[33]
The Congress
The Bureau
The Executive
The Aquatics Integrity Unit
The Athletes Committee
The Technical Committees
The Specialised Committees
The World Aquatics Congress is the highest authority of World Aquatics and shall have the power to decide upon any matters arising within World Aquatics. A Congress is held either as an Ordinary Congress or as an Extraordinary Congress. A Congress may be held in person, by teleconference, by video conference or by another means of communication. Voting by correspondence (including email) and/or online is permitted. An Ordinary Congress shall be held every two (2) years, in principle at the site and on the occasion of the World Championships or of another major World Aquatics event.[34] An Extraordinary Congress shall be convened either by a decision of the Bureau or following a request in writing submitted to the Bureau by email by at least one fifth (1/5) of the Members.[35] Each Member shall be represented by up to two (2) duly appointed delegates with voting rights. Each of the twenty (20) elected members of the Athletes Committee shall have one (1) vote at a Congress. The Honorary President is chair with no voting power. Continental Organisations can appoint up to two (2) representatives who may attend the Congress as observers, without any voting power.[35]
The World Aquatics Bureau consists of the President and thirty-nine (39) Bureau Members:
President: The President is elected by the Congress.
Continental Representatives: Twenty-two (22) Bureau Members are elected by the Congress as continental representatives distributed geographically and per gender as follows: Africa: five (5), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; America: five (5), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; Asia: five (5), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; Europe: five (5), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; and Oceania: two (2), with one (1) of each gender. From these roles elected are five (5) Vice Presidents, one from each of the five Continents, including the First Vice President and the Second Vice President; and the Treasurer.
World-at-Large Bureau Members: Sixteen (16) additional Bureau Members are elected by the Congress as World-at-Large Bureau Members, distributed geographically and per gender as follows: Africa: three (3), with no more than two (2) representatives of a single gender; America: four (4), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; Asia: four (4), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; Europe: four (4), with no more than three (3) representatives of a single gender; and Oceania: one (1), female or male.
Athletes Committee: The Chair of the Athletes Committee is ex officio a Bureau Member.[35]
Various committees and commissions 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).[36] The organization signed an agreement with the Hungarian government in May 2023, planning to relocate its headquarters from Switzerland to Budapest, Hungary. However, the World Aquatics Congress needs to approve unanimously in order for the relocation to be finalized.[37]
World Aquatics' largest event is the biennial World Aquatics Championships, traditionally 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 (also known as '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 (also known as 'Masters Worlds) is open to athletes 25 years and above (30+ years in water polo) in each aquatics discipline excluding high diving and has been held as part of the World Aquatics Championships since 2015.[40] Prior to this, the Masters Championship was held separately, biennially in even years.
Prior to the 9th World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka in 2001, the championships had been staged at various intervals of two to four years. From 2001 to 2019 the championships were held biennially in odd years. Due to interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions, and host venues withdrawing from hosting championships and World Aquatics withdrawing the rights to host championships, from 2022 to 2025 the championships will be staged in every year until resuming to biennial from 2025 onwards.
Stand-alone discipline competitions
World Aquatics also organizes separate tournaments and series for individual disciplines, including competitions for juniors.[41]
Discipline world tournaments
Swimming: World Swimming Championships (25m), (also known as 'Short Course Worlds', an even-years biennial event held in 25m length pool)
Open water swimming: World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships (biennial)[45]
Sport name changes
In 2017, FINA 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.[5][46]
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).[47][48]
Russia and Belarus bans
Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials were banned from every FINA (World Aquatics) event through the end of 2022.[49] FINA also cancelled FINA events in Russia, and banned Russian and Belarusian teams through to the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022.[49] 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.[50] 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.[51] 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.[52] On the 4 September 2023, World Aquatics announced the capacity and criteria for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at competitions as 'Neutral Independent Athletes'.[53]
Controversies
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.[54][55][56] 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". Athletes who previously took masculinizing hormone therapy (namely testosterone) may also compete in the women's category as long any testosterone use was post-puberty and less than a year in total, and the person's testosterone levels are back to pre-treatment levels. Transgender men remained fully eligible to compete in the men's category. 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".[57][58][59] The decision was criticized as "discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles" by LGBT advocacy group Athlete Ally.[60]
Though swimmer Lia Thomas formally challenged the new rule that disqualified her from competition, in June 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that she lacked standing to do so and would remain ineligible to compete.[61]
Vice President Zhou Jihong
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.[62] 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[63] to write a letter of apology to Wright.[63] 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.[64]
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[65] 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.[66]
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.[67] In 2022 FINA's By Laws[68] were updated to state that the Bureau Liaison 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.
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.[69] 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."[69] 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).
In 2024, a member of the World Aquatics' anti-doping advisory body said that it was "inexplicably and forcibly shut out of the review" concerning positive tests from 23 Chinese swimmers in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.[70] As a result of the doping scandal, in June 2024, a former deputy director of the World Anti-Doping Agency said that athletes had "zero confidence" in World Aquatics.[71][72] In July 2024, World Aquatics confirmed that its executive director was subpoenaed to testify to U.S. authorities as part of a criminal investigation into the Chinese swimmers' doping tests.[73]
