FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee

Today, the FINA Bureau announced its Committees, Commissions and Panels for the 2009-2013 quadrennial. Benefitting from the tremendous work of FINA's past Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, which guided the sport to the Olympics and helped launch a new era of growth, the new Committee has plenty of momentum and numerous issues to address.

The new FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee Chairman is Ronnie Wong Man Chui of Hong Kong (shown above in yellow shirt), the Vice Chairman is Jorge Delgado Panchana of Ecuador (shown in red shirt), the Honorary Secretary is Flavio Bomio of Switzerland and the FINA Bureau Liaison is Dennis Miller of Fiji.

Committee members include Zouhier El Moufti of Morocco, Tomas Haces German of Cuba, Steven Munatones of the USA, Professor Khwaja Aziz of Bangladesh, Valerijus Belovas of Lithuania, Samuel Greetham of Great Britain, Andrea Prayer of Italy, Noam Zvi of Israel, John West of New Zealand, Hatem Seifallah Ibrahim of Egypt, Beltran Washington of Uruguay and Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia with Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria as the Athlete's Representative.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Deciding the Future of Elite Open Water Swimming

The FINA’s Technical Open Water Swimming Committee members are gathering in Kuwait this week to discuss and decide a variety of critical issues to better govern, judge, administer and promote the sport of open water swimming.

Their discussions and decisions will have a significant impact on FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit, the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix and the FINA World Swimming Championship events. The proposed rules changes were previously submitted by various national swimming federations and are now being considered by the Committee through careful deliberation and discussion.

The members include Chairman Sid Cassidy of the USA, Vice Chairman Ronnie Wong Man Chui of Hong Kong, Honorable Secretary Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia, Valerijus Belovas of Lithuania, Flavio Bomio of Switzerland, Alan Clarkson of Great Britain, Jorge Delgado Panchana of Ecuador, Dr. Mohie Wahid Farid of Egypt, Paulo Frischknecht of Portugal, Tomas Haces German of Cuba, Dennis Miller of Fiji and Vladimir Srb of the Czech Republic. The FINA Bureau Liaison is Nory Kruchten of Luxembourg. The Coaches' Commission Liaison is Osvaldo Arsenio of Argentina and the Athletes' Commission Liaison Daniel Kowalski of Australia.

Photo taken by Giorgio Scalia of Valerio Cleri at the 2008 European Open Water Swimming Championships in Croatia.

Leading Open Water Swimming in the Americas

The official English-language website of the Union Americana de Natacion (Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas) is here. The Spanish-language page is here, is here.

The Union Americana de Natacion (U.A.N.A.) is a FINA-recognized sports organization with responsibilities in pool swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming, masters swimming and open water swimming in the Western Hemisphere.

There is an esteemed group of individuals who are on the Open Water Swimming Committee. These 10 individuals are passionate, knowledgeable and collectively have over 200 years of open water swimming experience:

Tomás Haces (CUB), President
Chantal Van Keekin Frederiik (SUR), Secretary
Rick Walker (USA), member
Pierre Lafontaine (CAN), member
Fernando Madrigal (CRC), member
Milton Toral (ECU), member
Mario Rodriguez (PUR), member
Dennis Ryther (USA), member
Victor Tapia (ECU), member
Jose Ismael Gonzalez (GUA), member

Photo of Pierre Lafontaine from the Team Aquatic Supplies website.