Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) is the International Federation (IF) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competition in the aquatic sports (its name translated from French is "International Swimming Federation"). 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.

History

FINA was founded on July 19, 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.

Number of national federations by year:

• 1908: 8
• 1928: 38
• 1958: 75
• 1978: 106
• 1988: 109
• 2000: 174
• 2008: 197

Members

As of the March 14, 2009, there are 201 FINA Member Federations, with Djibouti and Chad being the most recently approved members. Members are grouped by continent, and there are 5 continental associations of which they can choose to be a member:

• Asia (43): Asian Amateur Swimming Federation (AASF)
• Africa (45): African Swimming Confederation (CANA)
• Americas (40): Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA)
• Europe (50): European Swimming League (LEN)
• Oceania (13): Oceania Swimming Association (OSA)

Note: The number following each continental name is the number of FINA members which fall into the given geographical area. It is not necessarily the number of members in the continental association.

Organization

The FINA membership meets roughly every 2 years in regularly schedule Congress; typically coinciding with the World Championships. Congresses are held to determine the direction the body would like to take. There are two types of normal or "ordinary" Congress: General and Technical; and these are normally alternated. "Extraordinary" Congress are also called-up from time to time, and deal with a specific topic or area of concern (e.g. an Extraordinary Congress will be held with the 2009 World Championships to review the Masters swimming rules; there will also be a General Congress at the 2009 Worlds).

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. The Bureau then elects the FINA Executive Officers.