PR 111 - FINA commits to a clean sport and transparent governance

At the end of a challenging year for Sport, FINA would like to reaffirm its strong and unequivocal stance on the practice of doping and its zero-tolerance policy towards anti-doping. Our International Federation is 100% committed to doing everything necessary to become the world’s cleanest sport.

FINA has never hesitated to punish those who are found guilty of breaking the rules, not respecting fair play and ultimately jeopardising the integrity of our sport – the first versions of the WADA code were greatly inspired from the existing FINA Anti-Doping rules. Since then, FINA has conducted a ruthless fight against cheating in the Sport and guards the best interests of the honest, clean athletes, in close cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Based on the allegations which have since been confirmed by the WADA Independent Commission report, FINA reaffirmed its policy on doping control for aquatics athletes worldwide in order to continue optimising the efficacy of our anti-doping strategies; to preserve the validity and integrity of FINA competitions; and to protect the clean athletes.

Moreover, we welcome the opportunity to engage in dialogue with our key stakeholders across the world as we look to develop more robust and rigorous anti-doping strategies. It is important the entire Aquatics world unites together in a collaborative effort to eradicate to doping from our sport.

On good governance issues, FINA upholds the highest levels of transparency and accountability and is committed to demonstrating best practice in those areas and financial probity. FINA has re-appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as its external auditors, meeting the legal requirements on licensing according to the Auditor Oversight Act (AOA) and independency. Moreover, FINA’s Financial Report is audited in accordance with the Swiss Audit Standards and the FINA Constitution. The FINA Executive have also proposed to the FINA Bureau that a Chief Internal Audit Officer should be nominated. These processes will ensure we deliver a meticulous and accurate account of our entire finances and maintain the highest levels of transparency and accountability.