FINA’s committees – Hungary and Spain own the most seats among the European countries

FINA published a list presenting the members of its different committees on 29 July, during the 17th FINA World Championship in Budapest and Balatonfüred. The names on this list changed in the recent days, according to the official site of FINA 2017.

The 17th FINA World Championship was a huge success from the Hungarian point of view. The local athletes were in top form: the male team’s bronze medal on 4×100 meters, László Cseh’s eighth medal, Katinka Hosszú’s third gold on 200 meters, Kristóf Milák’s or the water polo team’s silver medal were all well deserved.

Fortunately, Hungary also succeeded outside the pools.

FINA has a committee dealing with rules, organization, developing new systems and many more. It was revealed that Hungary will host the FINA European Championship in 2020 and the Short Course Swimming World Championship in 2024. It is a great honor.

LEN’s chairman Paolo Barelli argued that LEN (Ligue Européenne de Natation) member countries do not receive seats in FINA’s committees according to their results and reputation in sports. This is the reason why he called back five representatives nominated by Italy. Others did not follow his example.

Due to Barelli’s decision, Europe will be represented by 59 members in FINA committees instead of 64. America has 63, Asia has 53, Africa has 38 and Oceania has 27 representatives in the decision-making embodiments.

Hungary and Spain own the most seats among the European countries.

Moreover, Tamás Gyárfás is a member of FINA’s executive committee.

The numbers of representatives from each country are the following: The Netherlands: 6; Russia: 5; Great Britain, Germany: 4-4; Croatia, France, Switzerland: 3-3; Portugal, Romania, Turkey, Belarus: 2-2; the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Israel, Montenegro, Sweden, Ukraine and Italy after the change: 1-1. The rest of the countries do no represent themselves in the committees.

Besides his duties in the executive embodiment, Tamás Gyárfás also took the responsibility of the FINA liaison.

The United States has 23 representatives, while Hungary and Japan has 8 each.

The Hungarian sport diplomats:

• Dénes Kemény, vice-chairman of the Trainer Committee
• Gergely Csurka – Media Committee
• Dr. Béla Merkely – Medical Committee
• Tamás Molnár – Waterpolo Committee
• Iván Petrov – Trainer Committee
• Dr. Ferenc Salamon – Masters Committee
• Natalia Tarasova – Artistic Swimming Committee

Getting 8 members into the FINA committees is a huge success for Hungary’s sport diplomacy. The 17th FINA World Championship became a role model among these kind of water sports events. As the president of FINA, Dr. Julio C. Maglione stated:

“This was the best world championships of all time.” 

Ce: bm

Source: fina-budapest2017.com