FINA World Junior Diving Championships

The FINA World Junior Diving Championships are held every two years bringing together young participants from different countries to compete at the world level. For this championship, parents start training their children in swimming from a very young age. The eligible age groups for this competition are Group A: 17,18, and 19 years old, and Group B: 15 and 16 years old. FINA is also a pillar of the Olympic movement and plays an important role and decisive contribution to the result of the games. So, let us have a look at more details about FINA World Junior Diving Championship.

History

The Federation Internationale De Natation (FINA) was founded in London on July 19th, 1908 during the Olympic games in London (GBR). 8 National Federations were responsible for the foundation of FINA. These Federations include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, and Sweden.

Milestones

Here are some of the Milestones that are achieved by FINA till now.

• 1908: In this year on July 19th, FINA was established by a Federation of 8 countries.
• 1912: For the first time Women contest in the Aquatic events at the Stockholm Olympic Games.
• 1922: Johnny Weissmuller from the USA becomes the first contestant to swim 100-meter freestyle within one minute (58.6 seconds).
• 1926: Gertrude Ederle from the USA is the first woman to swim the English Channel two hours faster than the previous man’s record.
• 1948: Water Polo enters the global Olympics in London. 18 teams from 5 continents had participated in the sports.
• 1956: Butterfly swimming event makes its entry at the Melbourne (AUS) Olympic games.
• 1957: World records are only valid in metric measurement.
• 1964: Dawn Frasher from Australia completes her hattrick (third consecutive win) in Olympics for the 100-meter freestyle.
• 1968: Electronic timing was used for the first time in Mexico City Olympics.
• 1972: Mark spitz from the USA is the first-ever athlete to win 7 gold medals followed by World records in the Olympics games held at Munich (GER).
• 1973: First FINA World Championship in Belgrade Swimming, Water polo, diving, and Synchronized swimming are represented.
• 1980: Vladimir Salnikov is the first swimmer to break the 15-minute limit in the 1500 meter free race.
• 1984: Entry of Synchronized swimming in Olympics for Los Angeles games.
• 1986: Opening of FINA permanent office in Lausanne (SUI).
• 1988: Greg Louganis from the USA won his fifth Olympic medal in his superb diving career. He had also reached the FINA world championship podium five consecutive times.
• 1991: Recognition of world records in 25m-pools.
• 1992: The great swimming champion Matt Biondi retired this year at Barcelona Olympics. He had won 11 medals at the Olympic games and 11 awards at the FINA world championships.
• 1993: First edition of the FINA World championship (25m) at Palma de-Mallorca (ESP).
• 1996: Manuel Estiarte (ESP), the best Water Polo player in world history, wins the gold medal at the Atlanta games.
• 2000: Women’s Water Polo and Synchronized Diving enter the Olympic program in Australia.
• 2004: Alexandra Popov retires following a successful career that includes nine Olympic medals and 11 awards at FINA world championships.
• 2005: The IOC confirms the inclusion of Marathon swimming (10km) in the Olympic program from 2008 in Beijing.
• 2008: Michael Phelps from the USA surpasses Mike Spitz’s record and becomes the only athlete to win 8 gold medals in Beijing China.
• 2010: FINA organizes the first edition of the FINA World Aquatics Convention on Punta del Este.
• 2011: Guo Jingling from China, closes her brilliant diving career after six Olympic and eleven world medals.
• 2012: The Convention in conjunction with the FINA world championship for 25-meter swimming was held in 2014 after the second edition was held in Moscow as a stand-alone event.
• 2013: High diving is included for the first time in the program of FINA world championships in Barcelona.
• 2014: The 12th edition of the FINA world championship is held in Doha.
• 2015: From July 24th to August 16th, Kazan (RUS) staged for the first time in FINA’s history, the FINA world championship, immediately followed by the FINA world master’s championship. At the elite competition, mixed events were first time held for swimming diving and synchronized swimming.
• 2018 FINA celebrated its 110th birthday, inaugurating the new headquarters at Lausanne (SUI).
• 2021: Captain Husain Al Musallam is elected FINA president in Doha during the FINA general congress.

Events involved under FINA

Today, FINA is involved in the development of the following aquatic events.

Swimming: Freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, medley, relay, mixed relay.

Water Polo: Men and Women

Diving: Springboard (1m, 3m), platform (10m), synchronized diving (3m and 10m), mixed and team events.

Artistic swimming: Solo duet, mixed duet, team, and free combination.

High diving: Men 27m and Women 20 m

Open water swimming: 5km, 10km, 25km, team event.

Objectives of FINA

• The main objective of FINA is to promote and encourage the development of aquatics and swimming throughout the world.
• Provide fair and drug-free sports.
• Encourage the development of international relations through swimming.
• To encourage participation in the aquatic discipline at all levels throughout the world irrespective of age, gender, or race.
• To promote and organize different world championships and other FINA competitions.
• To adopt uniform rules and regulations and to hold and sanction various swimming competitions. 
• Encourage the increase of facilities for aquatic discipline and swimming fraternity throughout the world.
• To carry out activities to promote the sport.

Membership

There are certain rules and regulations for gaining membership in FINA. Here are those criteria

• The national body governing swimming, open water swimming, water polo, or any other kind of water sport in a country can become a member of FINA.
• Only one governing body from a country can become a member of FINA.
• The constitution of members shall be approved by FINA on their affiliation. If the constitution is in conflict with the rules and regulations of FINA, then the rules of FINA prevails.
• Members must seek approval of the bureau if there is any change of their name or constitution before it comes into effect.
• Each member shall acknowledge in its national rules that FINA is the only recognized body in the world that governs aquatics internationally.
• The member federation may choose to have other separate organizations responsible for different aspects of swimming, pertaining that they inform FINA about the identity of those separate organizations.

Application of membership

• Application of membership shall be submitted to the bureau with a statement of the name of the national body, which must reflect the territorial extent, jurisdiction, and sports tradition of that country.
• The application should also have the national body’s official address, a copy of its current constitution, and its rules and regulations.
• It should also have a list of its main officers.
• A list of active members (i.e. number of clubs, athletes, coaches, officials).
• A formal undertaking to observe and abide by the FINA rules, the anti-doping code, as well as the jurisdiction and decisions of CAS.
• The appropriate membership fee.
• The Bureau shall have the power to approve the membership of the application board. If such membership is not accepted, the applicant is allowed to appeal this decision to the next general congress.

Membership Fee and other financial obligations

Each member should pay an annual membership fee decided by the Bureau as part of the budget. Default in the payment may lead to suspension, or finally expulsion.

Suspension or Termination of Membership

• Membership in FINA might end if the member no longer exists, the member withdraws his application, or if the member is expelled.
• Any member who wants to withdraw its membership can submit a written notice to the executive director of FINA. The member may withdraw his application effective immediately, but, no refund of fees will be made.
• The Bureau shall have the right to expel or suspend the member on significant violations of FINA rules. The respective member is allowed to appeal the Bureau’s decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

To read in detail about the FINA rules and regulations please follow the following site.

So, this is everything that we wanted to share with you regarding FINA World Junior Diving Championship. If you know of something else, do let us know in the comments section below.