The world’s aquatic governing body, FINA, has just announced the approval of six new proposals under review at the organization’s Extraordinary Congress held in Kazan, Russia before the start of the 2015 World Championships. The new amendments can be read in full here, but there are a few controversial proposals that will no doubt draw further fire from some in the swimming community.
In addition to those changes, they also approved the addition of the First Vice President position, and appointed Husain Al Mussallam of Kuwait as the First Vice President. Al Mussallam is from Kuwait and is the Director General of the Olympic Council of Asia.
Al Mussallam’s home country of Kuwait hasn’t had as much success in the pool, however. At the 2012 Olympics, they didn’t have anybody finish higher than 36th at the 2012 Olympics, and the athlete who placed 36th was trained in the United States. Additionally, 2012 was the first time Kuwait sent a female swimmer to represent their country at the Olympics.
The comments are not a personal reflection upon Hussain they are however a reflection upon his countries previous actions and the fact that FINA is avoiding the reality of their actions. Kuwait was suspended from the IOC due to government interference and the attitude toward female athletes. The same year and just prior to FINA acting upon the suspension he was appointed to the bureau. When i say just prior i mean the actual meeting agenda appointed him and later in the same meeting suspended the Kuwaiti membership.
I think the action will be the straw that finally breaks the back as we have seen the WSCA say it too many times that change is needed and i for… Read more »
Oh cry me a river .
Has Kuwait been bad? Well not bad enough that we sent tens of thousands of our military to fight for their’sovereignity’ . The U.S. & allies never ,ever , ever demanded – even asked – that they do things like give women the vote let alone let them compete in the Olympics .
The fact is that the US & the west supports all actions of Kuwait – no matter what they are .in fact the US so loves them they have 8 bases there with an estimated. 13,500 troops .
Surely you can’t condemn the man because he is a Kuwaiti . Isn’t that some form of racism / ethnic ism/ sexism/ x -ism?
May he really just wants to see the Alps .
All in all , very unfair . Give the person a chance .
If it is an economic formula to award these events to the highest bidder, that isn’t spurious to me on face. What is an issue is the middleware of FINA Bureau members being consultants to the bidders (and in the case of TSE Consulting being a consultant to FINA itself) wherein we all have no clue if the remuneration paid is $20mm, $40mm or another number. David Berkoff is in a much more informed position based on experience than the rest of us to put a guess to it, but therein lies the problem. If FINA put out a request for proposal, and got back responses to the RFP with bid amounts and facility plans that is all this sport… Read more »
The middle eastern countries want the meets because its a status symbol in those countries and they have the 20-40 million bucks Cornel demands to just host those meets. That’s why the US has not hosted a world championships meets. USA swimming.cannot afford the price tag and US companies dont fork over tens of millions unless its golf or football.
Why does that region even want meets? I do not get it.
That region of the world is really powerful at FINA. 😆
They obtain a lot of world championships and world cups.
They obtain high level positions in FINA.
But all of that is really deserved. We all know the great swimming tradition in all these countries like Kuwait, Qatar or United Arab Emirates. What they have brought in swimming history is immeasurable. So many champions. And stands never empty when they hold a meet.
Really deserved.
It seems the 2 organizations, FINA and FIFA, are very corrupt.
how many women swim over there??? ( or getting out of the house alone)
Those countries are no more powerful than Coca-Cola who bought the Atlanta Games or NBC who bought every single Olympics and forced swimmers to swim to fit their scheduling.