With the presence of delegates from 176 National Federations, the FINA General Congress took place today in Budapest (HUN). The national bodies’ representatives voted the new FINA Bureau for the period 2017-2021, as follows:
President
Dr Julio C. Maglione (URU)
Honorary Treasurer
Pipat Paniangvait (THA)
First Vice-President
Husain Al Musallam (KUW)
Second Vice-President
Sam Ramsamy (RSA)
Vice-Presidents
Dale Neuburger (USA)
Paolo Barelli (ITA)
Dennis Miller (FIJ)
Members
Dr Mohamed Diop (SEN)
Mario Fernandes (ANG)
Dr Donald Rukare (UGA)
Dr Margo Mountjoy (CAN)
Algernon Cargill (BAH)
Daichi Suzuki (JPN)
Andrey Kryukov (KAZ)
David Sparkes (GBR)
Dimitris Diathesopoulos (GRE)
Tamas Gyarfas (HUN)
Zouheir El Moufti (MAR)
Matthew Dunn (AUS)
Errol Clarke (BAR)
Juan Carlos Orihuela Garcete (PAR)
Jihong Zhou (CHN)
Taha Al Kishry (OMA)
Vladimir Salnikov (RUS)
Erik van Heijningen (NED)
Moreover, the FINA General Congress approved the following main changes in the FINA rules:
Constitution
- Change of the name of "synchronised swimming" to "artistic swimming";
- Creation of a FINA Second Vice-President and definition of respective duties;
- Transfer of former Honorary Secretary’s duties to the Executive Director;
- Change of the timing for the General Congress, now to be organised every two years (instead of four) on the occasion of the FINA World Championships. However, election Congress continues to take place every four years;
- Election of Ethics Panel and Audit Committee (a new body) by the General Congress;
- The FINA Bureau will consist of 25 voting members (instead of 23);
- Enlargement in the number of Bureau members elected at large from Africa (7 to 8) and from Asia (1 to 2);
- New composition and duties of the FINA Executive, composed by the President, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Honorary Treasurer, three Vice-Presidents and one member to be nominated by the President to ensure continental representation;
- Bureau members can be elected for a maximum of three full terms. This rule also applies to the President, irrespective of terms served before as member;
- Redefinition of the Bureau duties;
- New composition of the FINA Coaches Committee, consisting of up to 24 members, which will form six sub-committees for each of the aquatic disciplines;
- Update on the Finance Committee and Ethics Panel duties;
- Creation of a Chief Internal Audit Officer.
General Rules
- Update on the sport nationality rules;
- Besides tobacco and alcohol, advertising for sports-related betting is now also prohibited;
- Redefinition of the FINA events' programme at the Olympic Games.
Updates on technical aspects of the Facilities Rules were also approved and relate with swimming, diving, water polo pools, and sound equipment standards.
Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA)
The Fédération Internationale de Natation, founded in 1908, is the governing body for aquatics worldwide. FINA's five discipline Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Synchronised Swimming - are all included in the Olympic programme. High Diving made its first appearance in FINA events at the 2013 FINA World Championships. FINA counts 208 affiliated National Federations on the five continents and has its headquarters in Lausanne (SUI).
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