International Swimming Federation

Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) is the International Federation (IF) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competition in the aquatic sports (its name translated from French is "International Swimming Federation"). 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 currently oversees competition in five aquatic sports: swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open water swimming. The current President of FINA is Mustapha Larfaoui of Algeria.

History

FINA was founded on July 19 1908 in the Manchester Hotel in London at the end of the 1908 Summer Olympics by the Belgian, British, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian and Swedish Swimming Federations. [The [http://www.fina.org/project/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=40&Itemid=118 National Federation page] on the FINA website.]

Number of national federations by year:
*1908: 8
*1928: 38
*1958: 75
*1978: 106
*1988: 109
*2000: 174
*2008: 196

List of presidents

Events

FINA currently organizes several events in all the disciplines it oversees.

FINA World Championships

The biggest FINA event is the now biennial World Championships, currently held every odd year. It features events in all five aquatic disciplines, and was most recently 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.

FINA World Swimming Championships (25m)

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 a make-shift pool built in the M.E.N arena, Manchester, United Kingdom in April 2008

Other

Other championship events sponsored by FINA include:
*Youth World Swimming Championships (bi-annual, first held in August 2006; 2008 is in Mexico)
*Junior Diving World Championships
*Open Water World Championships (annual)
*FINA World Masters Championships (bi-annual in even years--last held April 2008 in Perth, AUS)
*Synchronized Swimming Cup

FINA also sponsors several annual series of events, typically one in each discipline. These include:
*FINA Swimming World Cup, for 2007, features seven meets.
*Diving Grand Prix (2006 features 8 meets and a Super Final, from February-September)
*Water Polo World League
*FINA Water Polo World Cup
*Marathon World Cup (Up through 2006, this was races 10 kilometers and longer. Beginning in 2007, the series was split with the "Open Water Grand Prix" for races over 10km, and the original name going to a series of 10km swims.)

ee also

* World records in swimming
* Ligue Européenne de Natation (the European Swimming League).
* USA Swimming (USA's swimming federation).

External links

* [http://www.fina.org/ fina.org - Official FINA website]
* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/if/index_uk.asp IOC's page on IFs]