International_Swimming_Federation

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.

Number of national federations by year:

1908: 8
1928: 38
1958: 75
1978: 106
1988: 109
2000: 174
2008: 196

List of presidents

FINA Presidents
Name	Country	Term
George Hearn		1908–1924
Erik Bergvall		1924–1928
Émile-Georges Drigny		1928–1932
Walther Binner		1932–1936
Harold Fern		1936–1948 (*)
Rene de Raeve		1948–1952
M.L. Negri		1952–1956
Jan de Vries		1956–1960
Max Ritter		1960–1964
William Berge Phillips		1964–1968
Javier Ostos		1968–1972
Dr. Harold Henning		1972–1976
Javier Ostos (2)		1976–1980
Ante Lambasa		1980–1984
Robert Helmick		1984–1988
Mustapha Larfaoui		1988–present

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.)