Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
The founding principles of the World Swimming Association (WSA), officially adopted in Cleveland [USA] last week as the organization that will take over the governance of the sport, were backed by a unanimous vote of approval from more than 650 coaches Saturday.
The WSCA Board, backed by its American counterpart, ASCA, intends the WSA to serve as the governing body for Swimming across the world. The organization will replace FINA, the crisis-torn international federation.
Asked from the podium of the 2015 ASCA World Clinic by Australian coach Bill Sweetenham to stand if they supported a “drug-free, clean, risk-free, transparent, sport” served by “athlete-focused professional management”, coaches left no seat occupied in the main ballroom at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.
WSA was formed in the wake of FINA’s failure to respond to the call of coaching unions, including those from the world’s leading Swimming nations, the United States and Australia, representing more than 20,000 members worldwide for the federation to submit to a review and audit of its management and financial structures.
In Cleveland this week, the Professional Athletes’ Association was also founded. The body will represent the interests of athletes at the start of a new era in which issues such as image rights and the marketing of swimmers will no longer be controlled by FINA.
This week in Cleveland both WSCA and ASCA ended their commitment to engage with FINA, while Sweetenham confirmed today that he too now believes the time is over for repairing the federation. “The olive branch was offered,” he said. “Replacement is the only option if Swimming is to set a new course.”
While FINA’s leadership stands accused of ignoring its rules, failing to protect athletes, failing to pay swimmers their fair share and distribute prizes fairly, and of failing to enforce the World Anti-Doping Agency Code, tolerating covering-up and even honoring athletes who have tested positive; the founding principles of the WSA speak to everything FINA has abandoned:
-honesty
-transparency
-governance in the interests of the sport not individuals
-financial targets aimed at benefitting athletes
-leadership by those who know swimming and how to grow the sport
-opposition to corruption in all its formed, including doping
-governance under the Rule of Law
-genuine development of the sport worldwide.
A WSA convention will be arranged in the coming months, beyond which a Constitution and rule book will be published.
WSCA President George Block said: “At this stage, the timing of events and the fine detail of WSA’s development is to be determined but what we are all very clear on is that the WSA is the organization that will steer Swimming in a bright, new direction that leaves the swimmer in control of their own earning power and right to play.”
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