International Swimming Federation

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See the disambiguation page for other meanings of FINA.

Fédération Internationale de Natation

Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) – International Swimming Federation – is the International Federation (IF) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for 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 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.

1 History
2 List of presidents
3 Events
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

FINA was founded in July 19, 1908 on Manchester Hotel in London in the end of the 1908 Summer Olympics by the Belgian, British, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Swedish Swimming Federations.

[edit] List of presidents

FINA Presidents
Name	Country	Term
George Hearn	Great Britain	1908–1924
Erik Bergvall	Sweden	1924–1928
Émile-Georges Drigny	France	1928–1932
Walther Binner	Germany	1932–1936
Harold Fern	Great Britain	1936–1948 (*)
Rene de Raeve	Belgium	1948–1952
M.L. Negri	Argentina	1952–1956
Jan de Vries	Netherlands	1956–1960
Max Ritter	USA/Germany	1960–1964
William 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

[edit] Events

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

[edit] FINA World Aquatics Championships

Main article: FINA World Aquatics 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 is currently being held in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to 2000, the event was held every 4 years, in the even year between Olympic (Summer) Games.

[edit] FINA World Swimming Championships

Main article: FINA World Championships - Short Course

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.

[edit] 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 (2008 event is in Barcelona, Spain, and serves as the main qualifier for the 2008 Olympic 10K race)
Masters World Championships (bi-annual in even years--next is April 2008 in Perth, AUS)
Synchronized Swimming Cup

Other than championships events, 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
Marathon World Cup (Up through 2006, this comprised of races of 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.)