10 Facts About FINA

FINA is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee for administering international competitions in water sports.

FINA currently oversees competition in six aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, artistic swimming, water polo, and open water swimming.

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

At the June 2017, FINA Bureau meeting, Bhutan became the 208th national federation of FINA.

FINA membership meets every four years, usually coinciding with the World Championships.

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Between Congress meetings of the entire membership, a smaller 22-member representative board, called the FINA Bureau, meets to act in a timely manner on items which cannot wait until the entire body can meet.

Biggest FINA event is the biennial World Aquatics Championships, currently held every odd year.

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 from being held in Russia.

In 2021, FINA 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.

FINA 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".