FINA has voted to adopt a new name and a new constitution. The world governing body for aquatics sports has voted to change its name to aquatics of the world at the FINA Extraordinary General Congress in Melbourne, Australia, just before the 2022 World Short Course Championships which begins this week.
The decision was made to show that the organization is the world governing body for all water sports, not just swimming. The previous FINA stood for International Swimming Federation, which in French translates as the international swimming federation. According to the organization, FINA has been the official name since 1908.
“The word Natación means swimming and while swimming is one of the most important disciplines, we need a name that reflects all of our disciplines, including artistic swimming, diving and high diving, water polo and masters competition in all these disciplines”, said the president of FINA. Husayn Al Musallam said. “Our athletes must come first and I would never make a big decision like this without consulting them. We surveyed over 70 athletes and many of them couldn’t tell us what the letters FINA stand for.
“In addition to our new name, we need an updated constitution that follows the Olympic Charter.”
The new constitution and the name were voted with 175 in favor, four against and one abstention.
During the meeting, Al-Musallam set out to discuss the role of athletes involved in the organization’s decision-making, which the group voted to increase representation as well.
“I want to thank Alia Atkinson, the president and member of the FINA Athletes Committee. Alia, you are making sure that the voice of our athletes is heard,” he said. “We have come a long way since I became your president… Approximately 38% of the new office will be made up of women, this is a very big and significant step. There is so much more we can do, our goal should be 50 to 50 gender representation.”
On another agenda, Executive Director Brent Nowicki announced that due to the resignation of a member of the AQUI (Adjudicatory Board), it was proposed that Alexander Miguel Mestre from Portugal became the new member, and was unanimously approved.
