FINA has voted to adopt a new name and a new constitution. The world’s governing body for aquatic sports has voted to change its name to World Aquatics at the FINA Extraordinary General Congress in Melbourne, Australia, just ahead of the 2022 World Short Course Championships that begin this week.
The decision was made to show the organization is the world governing body for all aquatics, not just swimming. The previous FINA stood for Federation International de Natacion, which in French, translates to the international federation of swimming. According to the organization, FINA has been the official name since 1908.
“The word Natacion 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 across these disciplines,” FINA President Husain Al-Musallam said. “Our athletes must come first and I would never make a big decision like this without consulting (them). We surveyed more than 70 athletes and many of them could not tell us what the letters FINA stand for.
“Alongside our new name we need an updated constitution that will follow the Olympic Charter.”
The new constitution and name were voted upon with 175 in favor, four against and one abstaining.
During the meeting, Al-Musallam made it a point to discuss the role of the athletes involved in decision making for the organization, which the group voted to increase representation as well.
“I want to thank Alia Atkinson, the chair and the member of the FINA Athletes Committee. Alia, you are making sure that the voice of our athletes are heard,” he said. “We have come a long way since I have become your president … The new bureau will be roughly 38% female, this is a very big and significant step. There is much more that we can do, our goal must be 50 – 50 gender representation.”
In another order of business, Executive Director Brent Nowicki announced that due to the resignation of one member of the AQUI (Adjudicatory Board), it was proposed that Alexandre Miguel Mestre of Portugal become the new member, and was approved by a unanimous vote.
Strip Qatar/Doha of the Worlds in 23, otherwise it’s just talk from the old “gang” of sports politicians.
The FIFA World Cup have shown that Qatar is not worthy of such high profile sporting events.
Let’s hope Dressel, Ledecky and the rest of the top stars will go one step further than the footballers and boycott the event, make a statement to FINA or what else they are called at that time.