World Aquatics

The Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) was founded on 19 July 1908 in London, Great Britain, at the end of the Olympics, with eight founding members: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, and Sweden. Over 100 years later, during the Extraordinary General Congress held in Melbourne, Australia, on 12 December 2022, the Congress approved a new Constitution and voted the new name to be officially changed to World Aquatics.

The organization governs the Olympic disciplines of swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming, and open water Swimming, and also the non-Olympic discipline of high diving. Since June 2021 under the presidency of Kuwait’s Husain Al-Musallam, World Aquatics comprises 210 National Member Federations as of January 2026, with its headquarters located in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Swimming débuted at the Olympics in its first edition, at Athinai 1896, for men swimmers, with the two first women swimming events coming at Stockholm 1912. Water polo’s first Olympic appearance happened at Paris 1900, with the first official women’s tournament coming only 100 years later, at Sydney 2000 (after an exhibition match at Antwerp 1920). St. Louis 1904 would bring the first Olympic diving event for men, and women divers would join the Olympics at Antwerp 1920. Synchronized swimming (now artistic swimming) débuted at Los Angeles 1984 as an only-women Olympic discipline (although that changed at Paris 2024, when the artistic swimming team event became a mixed competition, allowing up to two men per 8-person team). All these disciples have been part of the Olympic Programme since their respective débuts, and they were also part of the 1st FINA World Championships in 1973, in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia.

Open water swimming, also known as marathon swimming, the last aquatics discipline added to the Olympic Programme, had its Olympic début for men and women only at Beijing 2008, despite taking part in the World Championships since their 1991 edition in Perth, Australia.

Swimming and diving have also been part of the Summer Youth Olympics since its first edition, at Singapore 2010. The non-Olympic discipline of high diving has been featured at the World Championships since Barcelona 2013.