Creation of FINA
Renamed World Aquatics in 2022, FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) was founded during the Olympic Games London 1908.
The world governing body for all six aquatic sports (swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving), World Aquatics comprises 209 national member federations in the five continents. The organisation governs all matters relating to the rules and planning of international aquatic competitions, including Olympic events and world championships.
World Aquatics’ most recent general survey, conducted in 2019, found that there are 35 million registered athletes across the six sports, some 106,000 of them elite swimmers and 35,000 of them elite water polo players. The survey also revealed the existence of 92,000 lap pools in the world, nearly 290,000 aquatic sport coaches, 36,000 swim clubs, and 160,000 officials, referees and judges.
Aquatic disciplines have been a core feature of the Olympic Games since Athens 1896, when swimming was on the programme. Water polo became the first Olympic team sport at Paris 1900, and diving made its debut in St Louis four years later. Synchronised swimming (later renamed artistic swimming) was added to the Olympic programme at Los Angeles 1984, women’s water polo and synchronised diving at Sydney 2000, and marathon swimming at Beijing 2008. At Tokyo 2020, a total of 49 medal events were held across five aquatic sports, compared with nine at London 1908.
World Aquatics’ forerunner, FINA, was founded in London on 19 July 1908 by eight national federations: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary and Sweden. Their objectives in doing so were to establish unified rules for swimming, diving and water polo, and to apply them at the Olympic Games and other international competitions; to verify world records and establish an official updated world records list; and to manage swimming competitions at the Olympic Games.