Friends of Open Water

Several individuals with strong open water swimming ties populate the recently announced FINA Committees, Commissions and Panels:

• Paulo Frischknecht of Portugal (shown on left), Dennis Miller of Fiji and Coaracy Nunes Filho of Brazil are members of the 22-member FINA Bureau
• Coaracy Nunes Filho is also the Vice Chairman of the Legal Commission

• Dr. Jim Miller is a member of the Sports Medicine Committee.
• Pierre Lafontaine of Canada is a member of the Coaches Commission while Paulo Frischknecht of Portugal is its FINA Bureau Liaison.
• Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria is on the Athletes Committee along with a host of other Olympic pool swimming heroes.

Also, the FINA list of open water swimming officials commissioned until 2012 are posted here. The FINA list of open water swimming officials commissioned until 2010 are posted here.

Photo of Paulo Frischknecht by Aqualoja.

Open Water Friends In High Places

On July 24, FINA held its General Congress in Rome during the 2009 World Swimming Championships. A global election was held among its 201 member federations and Dr. Julio Maglione of Uruguay was elected president. Paola Barelli of Italy was elected as Honorary Secretary and Pipat Paniangvait of Thailand was elected as Honorary Treasurer.

The five FINA Vice Presidents include Sam Ramsamy of South Africa, Dale Neuburger of the USA, Hironoshin Furuhashi of Japan, Nory Kruchten of Luxembourg and Bill Matson of New Zealand.

Among the 14 FINA Bureau members, we know of three members who are very knowledgeable and strong supporters of open water swimming: Coaracy Nunes Filho of Brazil, Paulo Frischknecht of Portugal and Dennis Miller of Fiji (shown above). Like the rest of their FINA colleagues, these gentlemen have spent decades in the sport working, leading and volunteering in a variety of roles with a multitude of responsibilities.

Thank You For Your Vision And Hard Work

Yesterday, Nory Kruchten of Luxembourg (on right), the FINA Bureau liaison of the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, chaired an opening meeting among the 41 countries that have sent their best open water swimmers to Italy for the 2009 World Swimming Championships.

Nory shared some of his thoughts over the last eight years, a period of remarkable growth in the sport:

"It has been a fantastic time, together with my fellow committee members. We reached the Olympics and we will continue making great steps in the future. We can still move forward."

"From the first FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Honolulu to the Olympic 10KM Marathon Swim, the sport has really developed."

To Nory and all the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee members, including Chairman Sid Cassidy (USA) (on left above), Vice Chairman Ronnie Wong Man Chui (Hong Kong), Honorable Secretary Shelley Taylor-Smith (Australia), Valerijus Belovas (Lithuania), Flavio Bomio (Switzerland), Alan Clarkson (Great Britain), Jorge Delgado Panchana (Ecuador), Dr. Mohie Wahid Farid (Egypt), Paulo Frischknecht (Portugal), Tomas Haces German (Cuba), Dennis Miller (Fiji) and Vladimir Srb (Czech Republic), we extend our sincerest gratitude to your vision and hard work over the years.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association