With the mission to elevate aquatics globally by providing the framework for increased participation, enhanced promotion and global competitiveness in sport, FINA has published the FINA Development Annual Report 2021. This publication highlights the activities and outcomes of FINA’s development-related programmes and initiatives.
In a year where we saw the world – and our sport – persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic, aquatics sport took place again around the globe. With a clear purpose to see our sports organised safely, teams from around the world have adapted and acted decisively to ensure the sport’s development activities continued while putting health first.
Through this collaborative work, FINA was able to fully reach our annual aims to support athletes, enhance coaching instruction, assist our National Member Federations and ensure our aquatics academies were fully supported in 2021.
The top-line outcomes from these efforts are worth highlighting. This includes FINA’s direct financial support reaching 181 National Member Federations and all 5 Continental Associations with USD 6,600,000 in committed annual funding.
As an athlete-centric focused organisation, FINA supported 87 swimmers and divers from 61 countries through the FINA Athlete Scholarship programme in 2021. The FINA Certification Schools certified 350 coaches and 132 technical officials and an all-time high of 43,000 participants took courses through FINA’s educational portal last year.
Reflecting on FINA’s development efforts, FINA President Husain Al-Musallam remarked, “We will build on the strength, resolve and sense of purpose we demonstrated in 2021 to give hope and opportunities to people around the world through aquatics sport.”
From grassroots to elite, for all ages and genders, from the governance, management and administration of aquatics sport, both FINA and the greater aquatics community is building more development pathways in aquatics sport. While there are certainly more ways for our sports to grow into fully realising its mission, it’s also worthwhile to look back on our recent past to build on what we have collectively been able to achieve.