FINA has governed the sport of swimming for the International Olympic Committee and for global events for more than 100 years, but the organization has adopted a new name, World Aquatics, along with a revamped schedule, logo and mission for its athletes. The changes were approved by its 209 member federations ahead of the 16th annual World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia this week, where swimmers are competing for $2.1 million in prize money.
FINA was based on a French acronym of Fédération Internationale de Natation, created when the organization was born following the 1908 Olympics. “People really didn’t know what FINA stood for,” Brent Nowicki, World Aquatics executive director, said in an interview over Zoom. “The name needed to reflect who we are and what we do today.”
The firm has moved beyond just its swimming roots and oversees six aquatic sports: swimming, artistic swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming and water polo. “The identity of our organization now focuses on our shared vision: a world united by water, for health, life and sport,” Husain Al-Musallam, World Aquatics president, said in a statement.
But it will require more than a new name and logo to raise awareness of international water events. “This is all great, but you can put lipstick on a pig, and it is still a pig,” Nowicki said.
Swimming is traditionally one of the most popular disciplines at every Summer Olympics, but it is largely off the radar for general sports fans in between that surge every four years. “We haven’t helped ourselves as a federation over recent years,” James Moy, World Aquatics marketing director, said. “We’ve had an event orgy, a complete clutter of events across the disciplines with different names, world cups, grand prix, series. There’s no logic.”
Moy says there is an avid and engaged core fan base and the potential to attract a wider audience. “It is a sport that transcends the globe, and if we are trying to better engage the casual fan in such a saturated media landscape, we need to do a better job of having a brand that fans and the general public can identify with.”
The moves include a revamped schedule where events “ladder up” towards the world championships and then on to the Olympics. It will simplify matters for the athletes and fans. World Aquatics surveyed athletes and coaches about the best calendar of events to fit in with their training schedules. “We need to meet the needs of our elite athletes to ensure that we can build the sport as best we can within the cycles,” Nowicki said.
While revamping the organization, World Aquatics has dealt with the macro global issues that have challenged sports where participants crisscross the world. COVID-19 and cancelled events tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have created a bottleneck of backed up events that likely won’t be cleared until after the Paris Olympics in 2024.
World Aquatics also wants to help build the brands of their swimmers and introduce them to new audiences, so this year’s event in Indianapolis included activations at games for the Pacers and Colts. When the circuit moved to Toronto, it meant connecting with the national curling team.
“The mentality at FINA for years has been athletes are going to ride our coattails, and that is the wrong way to look at it,” Nowicki said. “We want to put the athletes first.”